Tablet Repair

Take it to the shop and pay to have it put right, properly.

Your lacal glass shop does not carry this glass, trust me.

Yes, it is expensive I bought a new laptop when I dropped mine, because the machine was already a year old.

I just bought a new laptop for a 13 YO boy. I also bought full coverage insurance for it. You might consider that.

Take it to the man.

Thanx for your reply. Mine is the 10 inch next-to-newest iteration. Your links were informative. I have no qualms about attempting the repair myself once I locate the correct part.

Don't know what model you have, but generally you can buy replacement glass very cheaply. Here is one example. Many come with all the tools you need.

There are web videos that tell you how to do it. I have successfully replaced glass in two iPhones for the family and it doesn't take much effort.

All good advice here.

Your phone may well be uneconomic to repair so waiting till you are sick of it or it totally fails and then replacing the whole thing may be the best option which means something better than cling wrap is called for until that day comes.

Have you tried using cellotape yet? That will sit flat stuck on the glass.

The Samsung Galaxy display is not repairable by a glass shop. We use this style of display in our products. The display is a capacitive touch laminated unit that is only about 1/4" thick total and uses a gorilla glass that is scratch resistant. The display is glued with a PSA adhesive to the chassis and some what difficult to remove. Once removed, if you do not break something, it is relatively easy to plug the new display in. Your are next faced with how to adhere the display back into the chassis. Using the wrong adhesive will make it impossible to get in the unit next time or the display will loosen and crack again in the future. My advise.... Bite the bullet and send it in for repair or purchase a new unit. I do not feel this is something that will be easily accomplished by someone without expertise even if you are lucky enough to find a display. There is a utube video out the of someone getting into the unit and showing what is inside.

or just tape it up, use it for a another year and replace it. When the tape starts to peel it will give it a nice grunge patina with swag.

Nothing is stopping you at all from doing that, though make sure it's thick, much thicker than the piece that you're replacing.

I can't be sure (you didn't specify the exact model) but Samsung partners with Corning which makes Gorilla glass, which is high quality glass that has been put through a bath of molten potassium salt which replaces the sodium in normal glass, this effectively case hardens the glass, which makes it scratch resistance, resistant to some impact and small scratches tend to self heal instead of spreading due to the extremely high tension of the thin surface layer, when they break though they spider web bad!

Replacing it with normal glass will force you be exceptionally careful with the device, especially since you've already broken the original Gorilla glass.

By basic thought is that if you can't care for the original Gorilla glass you're mostly wasting your time, you need to improve your conscious handling of devices of that nature or you'll just break new glass.

If you hunt around enough you may be able to find stock replacement glass, but it won't be easy, due to the stresses involved in the surface layer I doubt attempting to trim Gorilla glass would go very well.

The digitizer can't be replaced on its own. It cannot be removed from the broken glass without breaking. Even if he could, it's impossible to reapply the digitizer to a new piece of glass without it looking horrible. Even if that was possible, getting an exact fit of replacement glass would be a) more expensive and b) less reliable (which you stated).

Of course I guess this would be fine if the OP doesn't mind his tablet having a thick piece of glass protruding vertically from the bezel, and not responding to touch.

Depends, Gorilla glass is always the last layer, it is never the only layer, and it's never to my knowledge the substrate for a display. There can be less fragile glass bellow, or even plastic for the display substrate. I severely doubt the digitizer layer is bound directly to the outer layer of glass. If the digitizer substrate glass or the LCD glass itself is cracked there is no hope of repair, outside of getting an OEM replacement for the entire display module (not gonna happen)

If you're still getting a display the LCD itself was not cracked, if you're still getting touch feedback neither was the digitizer level, only the protection layer was faulted critically.

"Depends, Gorilla glass is always the last layer, it is never the only layer, and it's never to my knowledge the substrate for a display. There can be less fragile glass bellow, or even plastic for the display substrate. I severely doubt the digitizer layer is bound directly to the outer layer of glass." - You can't replace individual layers of the screen. Whether it's the hardened part, the unhardened part, plastic, digitizer, whatever. If it is fused together from the factory, you cannot replace that individual layer and keep the other layers yourself.

"If the digitizer substrate glass or the LCD glass itself is cracked there is no hope of repair, outside of getting an OEM replacement for the entire display module (not gonna happen)" - ? http://www.amazon.com/Original-Touchscreen-Digitizer-Replacement-Samsung/dp/B005J2MNXQ/ref=sr_1_8?ie=UTF8&qid=1345730398&sr=8-8&keywords=samsung+galaxy+tab+10.1+digitizer+lcd

Good luck with the replacement itself. Honestly with the price of modern devices after the labor required to replace it you're still at best looking to break even over buying a new device. You could probably do better by selling the broken device for spare parts to offset the cost of a new one.