OT: touch screen digitizer

Actually, this one was dropped, and then run over by about 5 minutes worth of traffic before it was retrieved. I replaced the digitizer, but it took about 4 hrs and was not my idea of fun.

The common method of breaking the display is by hitting the edge of the glass on the hard pavement. Like this: The science behind the lottery of a shattered screen: Amazing slow-mo video shows why it cracks sometimes . . . and not others":

I've noticed that some tablets break when the hit the ground flat on their backs. My guess(tm) is that the middle of the digitizer is not well supported in the middle and that the inertia of the impact is causing the glass to bend, and then break. This is only a guess(tm).

It's odd that Samsung improves their product by making them easy to fix, while Apple goes the other direction by making them difficult or impossible to fix. Before buying anything, I suggest you look at the iFixit repair ratings: I failed to do this when a friend called me to announce that she was in front of the Verizon store cash register buying an HTC One M7 smartphone and what did I think of the phone. I was nowhere near a computer to check the repairability rating, so I stupidly told her to buy it, but make sure she could return it: Note the 1/10 repairabilty rating, which means that it's almost impossible to fix. Two days after the last day to return the phone, she drops it, cracks the screen, and demands that I fix it since I "recommended" the phone. Lesson learned. No more advice without checking the iFixit ratings.

Here's a yt video that shows just how easy the tab 4 digitizer replacement is:

Samsung Galaxy TAB 4 - SM T230 Reparar pantalla t?:

Well, I'm not sure how easy one should consider a repair that requires a heat gun to disassemble the case. For someone that has done it before, it's easy. For a first time amateur repair person, all I hear about are cracked components from too much leverage with the spudger, melted plastic, and burnt fingers from the hot glass. However, given enough patience, practice, and profanity, I'm sure it can be done. The good news is that it's possible to remove the digitizer from the LCD display without first removing both from the phone. That's unusual and certainly makes things easier.