Uh, from USA.

USA?

Yeah.

Very good.

I am trying to make my own iPhone.

Very good.

I was in a dimly lit barbecue joint, here in China.

I was with people like me - geeks who are fascinated by the electronics manufacturing scene.

And someone said, you know, you see all these cellphone parts in the markets.

I wonder if you can build your own phone?

I kept coming and going from China over the past 9 months,

and I couldn't get rid of this burning question:

Could I make my own cellphone?

Would people even sell parts to a western guy like me who hardly speaks any Chinese?

Ni hao.

Ni hao.

Um, iPhone 6S?

4S?

6S.

So, I did what any geek would do, and I dove in with both feet.

Coming to shenzhen is like visiting to the future,

but it's this crazy, dystopian, Bladerunner-esque future.

So to make an phone I think I need 4 pieces. I need the metal back - the shell the phone sits in.

I need a screen;

I need a battery;

And then I need the logic board, which is the circuit board that has the processor and the memory and things like that on it.

So, we're in a back alley behind the Xiamen(?) market

I'm gonna take a look at what available here.

Sometimes there are phone backs that are available for sale.

So, that was interesting.

I just went back to one of the booths and tried to buy one of the recycled backs, and I was successful,

but it's pretty dinged up.

Now let's head inside the main market, see if I can get a back that looks new.

I am not gonna be able to film with a big camera inside, but I'll be able to use my iPhone.

Oh, those are nice.

This, uh, iPhone 7 - Plus.

Yeah, those are nice - they don't have a logo.

She can maybe get it for tomorrow.

Just one?

I want this one for 6S.

This one?

Correct.

This one is 6S?

Yes, 6S.

How much?

Do you want the whole frame, or the whole set?

What I'm saying is,

Do you want this and this and this? Do you want the buttons?

Correct, correct.

How many do you want?

Only one.

Ah, one.

Only one?

This much.

OK.

You'll take it?

Yeah, I'll take it.

So that was a big success.

Pretty quickly, I was able to find a back that looks pretty new and pristine to me.

It doesn't have any of the laser markings inside it like the used one does,

and I need those for aligning some cables, and there's a patch where the antenna sticks.

But I think there might be a place that has a laser that can add those for me.

So I'm gonna go and see if I can find that.

I also found a bunch of really cool designs of different colours that don't look like anything Apple makes.

I looked around for a bit,

and I finally found this laser engraving booth tucked in a little cubby hole underneath the stairs.

Same, like a[n] original. Like whatever they normally do.

Yeah. So, Apple, the standard thing for USA?

Yeah, USA markings here?

I'm outside McDonald's and I'm waiting for Frank.

So, Frank, Frank's a buyer, [he] buys a bunch of different Apple parts in the markets

He's gonna help me buy the parts to build a screen.

So, what I wanna build, I'm building an iPhone 6S, right.

And I want to make the screen...

As much from scratch as we can, as much from parts.

So, if we put together a screen, what pieces do we need?

We need the glass;

The digitiser; the LCD; the backlight;

The OCA;

Yeah, that's the optically clear adhesive.

Yeah.

Isn't there like a touch sensor, for the force touch?

In the LCD.

Okay, so it's a part of the LCD.

This process needs to be made ... Without ... dusty? Or ...

Without dust?

Without dust.

Yeah. So it has to be very clean.

Yeah.

But they can do this here in the market, right, there are people who can do this?

We can go to the repair shop.

So, should we buy the parts ourselves first and bring it to the repair shop? Or should we have the repair shop ... provide it?

First, look at whether they're willing to do this for us

Yeah, can we buy all of the parts? We buy [the] phone glass, we buy the digitiser