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[HELP] Opening a WHITE Nexus 5

Dear all,
I can't for the sake of me, remove the back cover of my white N5; I know there is glue at the bottom, but my issue is the middle clips on both sides (at the level of the U of NexUs), they just won't move! I tried gentle / shaky movements, then harder and harder to the point that I damaged the cover by deforming the border;
I use classic blue plastic pry openers and I even broke one! At this point if I try harder I will just tear the cover or break something!
I've seen like 5 videos on youtube and for each the clips on the side aren't any more difficult than the others; however I could only find videos of black N5s, could it be that the white is different?
Can someone share his experience with a white one?
This just drives me crazy, attached is a picture showing the problem and the damage as well

asim0 said:
Dear all,
I can't for the sake of me, remove the back cover of my white N5; I know there is glue at the bottom, but my issue is the middle clips on both sides (at the level of the U of NexUs), they just won't move! I tried gentle / shaky movements, then harder and harder to the point that I damaged the cover by deforming the border;
I use classic blue plastic pry openers and I even broke one! At this point if I try harder I will just tear the cover or break something!
I've seen like 5 videos on youtube and for each the clips on the side aren't any more difficult than the others; however I could only find videos of black N5s, could it be that the white is different?
Can someone share his experience with a white one?
This just drives me crazy, attached is a picture showing the problem and the damage as well
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have the same issue with my White Nexus 5. Hmmmm.

Why the hell are people trying to pop the back cover off these devices? They are not supposed to be removed
sent from my hammerhead

Damn homie dat pix ob yer fone luk messed up son
Sent from my Nexus 5

dicecuber said:
Damn homie dat pix ob yer fone luk messed up son
Sent from my Nexus 5
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Damn, I always wondered what would happen if I turned my language to English Canadian lol

Yeah why are you trying to remove it? Just to prove you can? Looks like you just ruined your devece from what i can see. Hope it was worth it.

thats what u get for trying to open it

∆∆∆∆this. Can I have some of the money that y'all apparently just have lying around for these stunts?
sent from my hammerhead

You can order a new battery cover on ebay
Sent from this crappy Nexus 5

My white one came off fine, I used a butter knife. Just be careful with it, and use some force. Also the factory cover has the IMEI on the inside.

I will try harder I guess...
For those unhelpful posts that wonder why I do this, I ordered a spare speaker to try this mod, I would ever have needed to open it if it was not featuring the crappiest phone speaker I ever heard on a mobile or smartphone.
And the back case is just plastic which is quite flexible, the only damage is the border not the fact that it appears bended on the picture, and I don't care much of its aspect when I have a case for it... I am just afraid to break something inside the phone...

Its just a cover, worst case you break the cover. Everything else is pretty much protected behind a cover in there aside from the battery.
Sent from my Nexus 5 using xda app-developers app

Finally got in,
my mistake was to attempt to 'pry open' it, i.e. to put a lifting pressure on the cover;
The two clips in the middle are definitely stiffer, and the way to open it is to actually push really hard directly on the clips with lateral pressure towards the inside of the phone (towards the nexus logo).
The glue is piece of cake

[Q] Should I remove the plastic thing on the camera?

Should I remove the protecting thing on the camera of the nexus 5 or will the camera get scrached?

The glass underneath the plastic is recessed so should be OK. That said, you can buy screen protectors with camera covers too.
Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

The lens is also fairly durable and does not scratch nearly as easily as the screen.
Last, a lens needs to be very scratched up for it to have a significant impact on your pictures.
http://www.digital-photo-secrets.com/tip/1095/does-a-lens-scratch-really-impact-your-photos/

if you have no need to use the camera, you dont need to take it off. but if you do want to use the camera, take the darn thing off! it wont get scratched very easy, believe me. i probably take more photos here than anyone else, on a daily level, and not a scratch on mine. been using since new years. and those screen savers with camera covers, they reduce image quality. personally, im very anal about the quality of the images, and anytrhing that covers or "protects" the camera lens cover will reduce image quality, no matter if it says it doesnt or someone says they dont notice.

raptir said:
The lens is also fairly durable and does not scratch nearly as easily as the screen.
Last, a lens needs to be very scratched up for it to have a significant impact on your pictures.
http://www.digital-photo-secrets.com/tip/1095/does-a-lens-scratch-really-impact-your-photos/
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I imagine the lens scratches really easily but luckily its actually underneath a layer of glass.
As a keen photographer myself, I only partially agree with the link. Probably wouldn't matter on a device like this but as a general rule it would.
Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

I decided to remove it guys and it turned out that the plastic thing accualy doesn't cover the lense anyway it covers the HUGE camera becide it :laugh:

Mazen Amr said:
I decided to remove it guys and it turned out that the plastic thing accualy doesn't cover the lense anyway it covers the HUGE camera becide it :laugh:
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Good job. It would just fall off eventually.
Also please remove the IMEI sticker from the back. Some people think it has a purpose or isn't removable for some odd reason.

bblzd said:
Good job. It would just fall off eventually.
Also please remove the IMEI sticker from the back. Some people think it has a purpose or isn't removable for some odd reason.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Removed it long time ago

simms22 said:
if you have no need to use the camera, you dont need to take it off. but if you do want to use the camera, take the darn thing off! it wont get scratched very easy, believe me. i probably take more photos here than anyone else, on a daily level, and not a scratch on mine. been using since new years. and those screen savers with camera covers, they reduce image quality. personally, im very anal about the quality of the images, and anytrhing that covers or "protects" the camera lens cover will reduce image quality, no matter if it says it doesnt or someone says they dont notice.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't see how taking photos would scratch the lens =P I think it's more of being in your pocket or leaving it on the table with no case on. Also, as OP found out, the plastic has a center opening for the actual camera and only covers everything around it.
@ OP After I RMA'd my phone I kept the plastic on there. However, after getting a dbrand skin that came with a lens covering, I used it to replace the plastic. A lot of skins now come with them, and as @rootSU said you can order transparent ones that probably will stay on the phone better.

Lens material - Glass or GG or sapphire

OK, so I have this beautiful new phone and enjoying all of it's deliciousness.
I'm wondering what the lens material is , I'm pretty sure it's not Sapphire since it just doesn't seem to have that look, Sapphire tends to have less transparent look about it but I could be wrong. I believe it has a higer reflectivity(??) index than glass and it's actually not ideal 4 lenses and screens for this reason. Having said that maybe you wouldn't use it on a Hasselblad but its perfect for a phone.
I've had a fair bit of a look around and I can't find any mention of it. it's definitely glass but what kind?
And further to this I wonder if anyone's going to make some protection for it?
Sent from my MHA-L29 using Tapatalk

Leica will use optical glass that is designed for cameras.
Any sort of protective cover will have inferior optical qualities and reduce the picture quality.

I do agree in principal, but once you have a scratch or just the micro scratches from a year or more of use, i submit that a replacable protective cover / film will in the long term yield benefits. Two phones ago i got a sctratch on my lense and that was that! Looked like crap from then on. I always had one on my Xperia Z3 I even did some back to back comparisons on my top of the line 4K TV, I could not for the life of me tell any difference between the two. Nor could the Missus. So I left it on and replaced it a couple of times, happy days! And I'm a rough bugger so my phone's get abused

It probly has what Huawei has uses in their phones this year. I'd say the same as the p9 and honor 8

[SOLVED] Rear main camera : something weird under glass ?

I was worried about possible dust inside top corner left main camera sensor (as you can see here https://youtu.be/2KfBsb_qEeE)
Seems to be fixed by nice redpoint73 answer, and after checking again, this isn't a piece of dust (maybe part of OIS mecanism).
Thanks again.

I'm a photography enthusiast (DSLRs, and now moved to a full frame mirrorless camera), and what I can tell you is NOT to be concerned about a single speck (or even several) of dust, if that is even what it is. A single speck of dust (or a few) will never show up on photos or video.
Here are a couple interesting articles from a popular website for renting camera lenses (Lensrentals.com):
First article is about the effect of dusk or scratches on a lens. When you look at the example photos taken with a "fairly bad" lens, they do seem pretty soft/blurry. Then you scroll down to see a picture of what the lens actually looks like, and it's pretty funny. I won't give it a away, it's better viewed yourself. But the point is that a lens can be in really rough shape, and still take decent photos. And even the lens in question, they had to try very hard (very specific circumstances) to get the "scratches" to show up in the photos:
https://www.lensrentals.com/blog/2008/10/front-element-scratches/
Another article, they found an entire house fly inside a lens, and it didn't even affect the photos except when stopped down to f13 (which isn't common to stop down that far) and even then, it was just a shadow, barely visible.
https://www.lensrentals.com/blog/2019/04/removing-fly-from-weather-sealed-canon-70-200mm/
Now, this is a big DSLR lens. And something as big as a house fly would have a much larger effect on a tiny phone lens. But the point being, a speck of dust is not even going to be visible under any conditions on your phone's camera.
Another good example, you can actually take photos through a chain link fence; or fabric mesh such as at a baseball field or other sports. If you get the lens up close to the fence or mesh, and take a photo of a subject far away, you will see that the mesh practically disappears. This also works taking photographs through some very dirty or scratched glass, such as exhibits at a zoo. If you can get the lens close up to the glass, even really dirty/scratched glass becomes nearly invisible. Same exact principle for dust on the lens. Since it is so "close" to the lens, it is not going to be visible. And anything on the lens has to get pretty bad, before it has any effect on the pictures. Really dirty/greasy glass on the camera phone's lens does make a difference - but you practically have to have a layer of dirt or grease.
I do have an old HTC One (M8) that has quite a few specks of dust on the inside of the back camera lens. Don't know if dust was getting inside somehow (that seemed to be the case). It looked pretty bad (looking at the lens) after using the phone a couple years - usually carrying it in my pocket. Maybe dozens of specks of dust on the inside of the lens - not just one or a few. But I can still not see any affect on the pictures.

Thanks for your long answer.
I'm not worried about it anymore, thanks to your thoughts, but also after that I'm pratically sure that it's not a small piece of dust.
Thanks again

basongwe said:
Thanks for your long answer.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You're welcome. Although there is a button for that (thanks).
Also, please don't change the thread title like you did to "Solved" and delete the original content. This is really bad forum etiquette. It may be "solved" for you. But others may have a similar question or issue. A thread is never truly "solved" or "closed" (for everyone) in my opinion, as others may have additional information, questions, opinions, etc. And having a descriptive title (and keeping the original post) helps others find the info, know what the thread is about, etc.
If everyone did this, the forum would be full of empty threads, and the whole forum would be useless.
Please change the thread title and top post back to what you originally posted (as best you can remember, doesn't need to be perfect).

^agree, keep original title intact! Cheers

@basongwe I hope you don't mind as suggested by @redpoint73 and @galaxys but I've re-established the title of this thread as it was provided by you the last time.

I've done it too but thanks

redpoint73 said:
I'm a photography enthusiast (DSLRs, and now moved to a full frame mirrorless camera), and what I can tell you is NOT to be concerned about a single speck (or even several) of dust, if that is even what it is. A single speck of dust (or a few) will never show up on photos or video.
Here are a couple interesting articles from a popular website for renting camera lenses (Lensrentals.com):
First article is about the effect of dusk or scratches on a lens. When you look at the example photos taken with a "fairly bad" lens, they do seem pretty soft/blurry. Then you scroll down to see a picture of what the lens actually looks like, and it's pretty funny. I won't give it a away, it's better viewed yourself. But the point is that a lens can be in really rough shape, and still take decent photos. And even the lens in question, they had to try very hard (very specific circumstances) to get the "scratches" to show up in the photos:
https://www.lensrentals.com/blog/2008/10/front-element-scratches/
Another article, they found an entire house fly inside a lens, and it didn't even affect the photos except when stopped down to f13 (which isn't common to stop down that far) and even then, it was just a shadow, barely visible.
https://www.lensrentals.com/blog/2019/04/removing-fly-from-weather-sealed-canon-70-200mm/
Now, this is a big DSLR lens. And something as big as a house fly would have a much larger effect on a tiny phone lens. But the point being, a speck of dust is not even going to be visible under any conditions on your phone's camera.
Another good example, you can actually take photos through a chain link fence; or fabric mesh such as at a baseball field or other sports. If you get the lens up close to the fence or mesh, and take a photo of a subject far away, you will see that the mesh practically disappears. This also works taking photographs through some very dirty or scratched glass, such as exhibits at a zoo. If you can get the lens close up to the glass, even really dirty/scratched glass becomes nearly invisible. Same exact principle for dust on the lens. Since it is so "close" to the lens, it is not going to be visible. And anything on the lens has to get pretty bad, before it has any effect on the pictures. Really dirty/greasy glass on the camera phone's lens does make a difference - but you practically have to have a layer of dirt or grease.
I do have an old HTC One (M8) that has quite a few specks of dust on the inside of the back camera lens. Don't know if dust was getting inside somehow (that seemed to be the case). It looked pretty bad (looking at the lens) after using the phone a couple years - usually carrying it in my pocket. Maybe dozens of specks of dust on the inside of the lens - not just one or a few. But I can still not see any affect on the pictures.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Interesting but I clearly had a speck of dirt that showed up in photos on my OP6. I could see it in the lens and was very visible in photos.

**CAMERA** strange streek through photos with black spot

These are the image taken with the main lens, but it doesn't happen with macro or wide angle, this better not be a hardware issue. The same black spot keeps appearing in the glares or streeks.
Only at certain angles I get this but still!
The camera lens has no marks on it at all

kevinireland11 said:
These are the image taken with the main lens, but it doesn't happen with macro or wide angle, this better not be a hardware issue. The same black spot keeps appearing in the glares or streeks.
Only at certain angles I get this but still!
The camera lens has no marks on it at all
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's a plastic lense, so it could be a lense issue.

GermanPunisher said:
It's a plastic lense, so it could be a lense issue.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Source?, Almost certain the lens isn't plastic from the JerryRigEverything durability test

TheInfiniteAndroid said:
Source?, Almost certain the lens isn't plastic from the JerryRigEverything durability test
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah a plastic lens on a £1200 phone , or even on any phone these days I don't think so, quality wouldn't be good, IV seen other people with this same issue as mines, making me think it's a defect somewhere in the lens itself rather than software.

TheInfiniteAndroid said:
Source?, Almost certain the lens isn't plastic from the JerryRigEverything durability test
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It was another breakdown video from someone who just doesn't destroy everything and made it professionally. Also quality hasn't to do something with the price of a resource. A plastic lense is way more durable than a glass lense, so a glass lense in reality is more crap than a plastic one. It's like the used case: aluminium destroys everything because the power of the force won't get really stopped - displays will break and the inlife... glass will get destroyed and soaks more force before the force gets to to chips etc. and plastic soaks the force the most and is more durable than glass.

GermanPunisher said:
It was another breakdown video from someone who just doesn't destroy everything and made it professionally.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
JerryRigEverything is a very reputable phone durability channel, the camera lens is glass not plastic, please do further research before spreading misinformation, thank you.

TheInfiniteAndroid said:
JerryRigEverything is a very reputable phone durability channel, the camera lens is glass not plastic, please do further research before spreading misinformation, thank you.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So you are relying on someone and a video who's not even saying in a single sentence (minute 3:38+), that the camera lense is made of glass, so you are lying and I'm relying on another video where someone 'really' said it's made of plastic, but you want to lecture me? It seems you are just a narcisst that thinks he's right, even if all you tell is a lie and don't even know it yourself. So I lecture you now to go to a psychologist and please hold yourself away from social people.
Even when I would search this one video of thousands wouldn't make it real or an unbearable fact, because we only could know if we test it for ourselves, but that wouldn't make any sense to me, because why should I show you the video if you already stated that you depend on your lie. It wouldn't change the reality, that the camera is really good, but it would make the fact that some people have black dots, corona shining etc. more explainable. The lense could have even made of transparent aluminium and it wouldn't make sense to argue about it or defend someone who said in a video it's made of plastic, glass or whatever. The fact is that some people have problems with it and it's a quality failure, if it came out of the box and discussing prematurely about who is right or wrong doesn't fix the problem for someone with a problem.
Good bye

GermanPunisher said:
So you are relying on someone and a video who's not even saying in a single sentence (minute 3:38+), that the camera lense is made of glass, so you are lying and I'm relying on another video where someone 'really' said it's made of plastic, but you want to lecture me? It seems you are just a narcisst that thinks he's right, even if all you tell is a lie and don't even know it yourself. So I lecture you now to go to a psychologist and please hold yourself away from social people.
Even when I would search this one video of thousands wouldn't make it real or an unbearable fact, because we only could know if we test it for ourselves, but that wouldn't make any sense to me, because why should I show you the video if you already stated that you depend on your lie. It wouldn't change the reality, that the camera is really good, but it would make the fact that some people have black dots, corona shining etc. more explainable. The lense could have even made of transparent aluminium and it wouldn't make sense to argue about it or defend someone who said in a video it's made of plastic, glass or whatever. The fact is that some people have problems with it and it's a quality failure, if it came out of the box and discussing prematurely about who is right or wrong doesn't fix the problem for someone with a problem.
Good bye
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
less words, more proof

GermanPunisher said:
So you are relying on someone and a video who's not even saying in a single sentence (minute 3:38+), that the camera lense is made of glass, so you are lying and I'm relying on another video where someone 'really' said it's made of plastic, but you want to lecture me?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Last reply as I don't usual entertain people like you, here's 2 images, 1 of the plastic lens on the Priv, the other 1 of the glass lens on the Find X2 Pro, there's no shame in admitting you're incorrect, cheers.