PS Vita restoration—from black to red

I bought a secondhand Vita not too long ago but its condition was significantly worse than described.
Some of the scratches on the screen were even visible while the device was powered which kept grating on me, so I decided to look for a replacement.

Original: the lower left scratch was especially nasty

View attachment 199140


Opened up. It definitely was well used

View attachment 199141


New vs. old screen. New one is red which was a Japan-exclusive color
together with a blue version. It looks very nice and even better in person

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Disassembled. The Vita is very repair-friendly

View attachment 199143

And back together.The buttons were pretty dusty so I gave them a clean.
Cleaning them seems to have fixed a sticky O button as well, win-win

View attachment 199144


Reassembled completely. Unfortunately the left stick had drift issues after the
transplant which didn't seem fixable, so I ended up ordering a new stick.
Screen is nice though and completely flawless

View attachment 199145


And open it went again. New stick at the top; cost quite a bit but seems
exactly the same as the originals

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And finally it's on and functioning again! Transplanted the serial # stickers
from the original shell as well but the corners were a bit peeled

View attachment 199147


I didn't replace the back so it still looks like it lost a 15 round cage fight
against a cactus. But hey, that's what a grip covers pretty nicely.
Wish people would take better care of their stuff though.

View attachment 199148
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Comments

C
Where did you get the replacement screen from? Has it worked ok since you replaced it? (read a couple of comments of some of the replacement screens on offer having issues)
 
slaphappygamer
Very nice. I’m on the fence about doing this as well. The framing on my vita is a bit jagged from picking at it with fingernails?
Just a few questions, though......
Is your new screen lcd? Or oled?
Do you like it?
Is that red metallic?

looks great!
 
Weyu
@Cuthbert32 I got mine from aliexpress, but you can get them from eBay too. I haven't had any problems with it and it still works fine.

@slaphappygamer all replacement screens are OLED for the fat Vita; there are no fakes/knockoffs to speak of.
And yeah, I like it. The front basically looks like new now, which is a major upgrade from the initial pic. :)
The red is kinda glittery, esp. if you hold it under a light.
 
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Weyu
You should look for one with the frame, like the one in my pictures.
Make sure you get the right version (fat or slim) since they obviously aren't interchangeable.
 
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DinohScene
Heh, I recently got a replacement screen from Aliexpress for me Vita.
I'm still waiting for it to come in.
 
C
My new screens have just arrived! First time I've ordered something from AliExpress and I was impressed by the speed of delivery, 13 days from order to arrival, and nearly half of that was clearing UK customs
 
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C
New screens fitted, one red one blue, really nice looking and as you said Weyu, the Vita is really repair friendly. Thanks for the original blog entry, it was the nudge I needed to give it a go and really glad I did!
 
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    They probably said "Hey, why not we combine the two together and make a 'new' DS to sell".
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