So …a few months ago I managed to break the back panel on my iPhone 4S. As there was no way of getting original spare parts at a decent price and the chinese copies I found were pretty lame – meaning that you could tell they are not original – I though that I might as well get one that is clearly not original (does not imitate the original one) but is unique and build well. I went for the foolish “if it’s expensive it must be good” and so I got a $49 wooden (real wood!) iPhone 4S back panel replacement part from sunbear.biz.

The first thing I noticed – there was no flash diffuser – one of the main reasons I bought this panel in the first place – as the cheap imitations had none and it proves that I was right – the picture quality are not the problem – but the fact that through that hole a lot of dust comes in, dust that sets on the interior of the camera lens, making the camera unusable (see pic in the gallery). I did not want to return it only for that so I applied some transparent tape on the inside over the flash hole. Of course dust got on the tape but not inside.

While cleaning the camera lens with a cotton stick I noticed that it was not glued properly and it easily came off – so I replaced it with the lens from the broken original back panel.

A few weeks passed and I noticed that the camera lens was getting full of dust. Where did the dust come in? Well – the panel was crooked because 2 of its hooks were broken. Check the pictures to see what I mean.

To recap, I replaced the lens, improvised a flash diffuser, glued the wooden part to the plastic frame – but I cannot do anything to fix the broken hooks and the panel is crooked – letting stuff inside my phone :(.

So – if you are thinking of getting a really good looking back panel for your phone and spend $49 + $3 (s&h) for it, think again. Or maybe I was unlucky to get one when their manufacturing process was not very well put together. Anyway – only positive thoughts for 2013 – so therefore I ask the people behind sunbear.biz – what should I do?