Shenzhen is a magical place for buying electronic components. Its market offers everything and more, and although it can be extremely difficult for a foreigner to navigate, with a little help you can do incredible things—including building an iPhone 6S from new, recycled, or refurbished parts. This documentary shows the entire process, from the most relevant technical challenges to the chaos of dealing with local merchants. And yes, the smartphone works.
The phrase “For parts or repair” is one of the many expressions used by millions of users worldwide when they try to sell their damaged devices online. But that is not necessary in Shenzhen. Just as you see street food or clothing stalls in other cities, there you’ll find makeshift booths packed with internal components, cases, accessories, and essentially everything your smartphone might need to work again. Now, what happens when the plan is not to repair a phone, but to build one from scratch? Scotty Allen from the Strange Parts YouTube channel decided to explore that possibility and created a short documentary that tells the story of his new... homemade iPhone 6S.
Why an iPhone 6S?
First, Allen already owns an iPhone 6S, so if he got stuck during assembly, he could use it as a reference, although that ultimately wasn’t necessary. Second, there simply aren’t enough iPhone 7 parts available yet, confirming the recycled origin of most of the stock. Allen started with the exterior, buying a recovered case and a generic one that required additional laser marks. The most complex part was undoubtedly the screen, because the glass-digitizer-LCD-backlight combo needs heat and vacuum to install without errors or trapped bubbles. He initially tried to solder components onto the motherboard, but it proved so difficult that he decided to obtain an already repaired board (16 GB) with its own Touch ID sensor—both share a cryptographic signature, and if they don’t match, it can cause issues like the infamous Error 53.
The Rest of the Build
The battery was straightforward, with an average price of five dollars (there are many online tutorials explaining how to replace it), and the rest came down to the smaller but no less important elements: buttons, internal brackets, antenna, audio and Lightning connectors, flex cables, speaker, microphone, the two cameras, and the nightmare of screws, since they aren’t all the same size—a screw in the wrong hole can damage everything. To finish, he bought an intact box that matches the color of his case (Rose Gold), complete with charger, manual, earphones, and cable. Total price? Due to errors and other unexpected pauses, the experiment cost Allen about a thousand dollars, but if you limit it to just the phone parts... $300. Apple sells the 32 GB 6S in Spain for 659 euros.
