Re-House Your Xperia Play : Things to Know

This is going to be basically a review, not a tutorial, of what I experienced after I re housed my R800x in white and the steps I went through to get it done, I have no prior knowledge on the process, I simple "went for it" and had success.

~~ Please Note: Performing this can seriously damage your phone and if done wrong will possibly permanently destroy your device, please read everything and do everything slowly, Please understand you may attempt this at your own risk, you have been warned! ~~

For a good understanding on how to tear your Play apart and not break anything check this video out, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-3n5ZfkqhzE

You can find the White Housing I purchased in these 2 links

The outside of the screen (digitizer) as seen in First photo
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Touch-Scree...&otn=2&po=LVI&ps=63&clkid=7007674525043897251

The White Housing Top , Middle plate, Control pad plate and Back as seen in the Second and Third photos
(I have seen a cheaper one since I bought mine, but this is the one I bought)
http://www.ebay.com/itm/FULL-Housin...500747?pt=PDA_Accessories&hash=item27bf9d978b

This link is another R800x thats branded Verizon but I doubt it having the service ribbon sticker (for lack of better words which comes into play later) because they dont show a back view of the Middle plate
http://cnn.cn/shop/sony-ericsson-xperia-play-cdma-black-housing-verizon-branded-p-12588.html

After getting your parts and watching the video you should be where I was at in Photo Four, my phone torn down and the new pieces ready to make this r800x look great.

Photos Five and Six -are close ups reviewing it all.

Photo Seven - is where I started, the touch joy stick pcb ribbon. It was kinda scary thinking if i rip this thing or pull to much that the touch pads wouldnt work anymore, and thanks to ShadowGun I was able to verify they still did. I used the blue tool for prying the phone , to help peal back the ribbon as you see it, you can give it a decent pull with your fingers as you get enough pealed up, try to pull as close to the glued end as possible so you dont risk tearing or something.

Photos Eight and Nine - I had finished moving the touch pad ribbon to the new white control pad plate and started removing the Menu, Start and Select buttons and transferring them to the white plate. Using the blue tool again sorta scrap up the backing to each of the; Menu and Start and Select buttons, it helps to push from the other side on the button a little. You need to try and not to deform the sticker/glue piece that holds the buttons in place or it might Not stick to good on the new plate, a sweat gripping moment that I first thought would just never work but patience does pay off in this step.

Photo Ten - it was all done, that piece at least.

From there I moved onto the the Middle Plate, which required a few steps if you decide you want to swap these out. One in particular that left me clueless for a few days without service, bare with me on this part..

There is a black Antenna sticker on the Bottom half of the Middle plate on your R800X, which has a gold ribbon on its opposite side that finishes a circuit, without this circuit completed your phone will Not have service and dialing *228 will not work your phone will tell you, in a mans voice "The code you have entered is in-correct please check you code and try again" - The first time I heard that I was thinking hmm thats probably not good and Verizon told me "thats not programmed in our system, you should Never get a msg like that or a mans voice" So I had them send me a replacement ( Of course I didnt mention this was all my fault and I re housed it, and thats the real reason I wouldnt go to the store to have it checked out, but that shouldnt matter right )
Upon getting the replacement phone I, for somehow the first time, Noticed the black sticker antenna on the back of the Middle plate. I grabbed my original housing and noticed the sticker antenna on it as well, so I pealed that off and revealed, to me which was previously unseen, this gold ribbon connects a circuit with two terminals on the phones mother board. The gold ribbons two ends slide into a slot on the Middle plate, underneath it to make the connection. I replaced this black sticker onto the new White Middle plate because the back of the L1 and R1 triggers are White and they are Black on the original Vz housing.

Photo Eleven-Shows the back of the New white trigger Middle plate, no black sticker antenna
Photo Twelve-The Middle plate from the Verizon replacement

Photos Antenna 2 and Antenna 3-These are the other 2 antennas also needed for service, be sure to pull those off and place them onto the new middle housing of your new phone.

For the r800i and r800a they have another antenna on the middle plate (I just dont have a photo :crying: I have an r800x) I can tell you at least that if your holding the middle housing and the Antenna 2 is on your right, the r800i/r800a other antenna will be on the left side of the housing.

Photo Thirteen- I wanted the White triggers so I super glued the black sticker antenna back on, worked out pretty good if you ask me, minus my thumb print of course. .

Photo Fourteen- I circled the inside area of the Middle plate where the you can see the opposite side of the gold ribbon that makes the connection with the mother board of the phone in the top half and you can see its not on the New Middle plate in the bottom half of the photo.

If you decide to go ahead and swap the Middle plate, you will need to remove the speakers as well and I cracked my original plate removing the left speaker, they are in there pretty tight, I basically pryed up on them in anyway that I wasn't destroying any part of them. As seen in Photo Fourteen

In Photo Fifteen I was now ready to replace the Top half of the phone and put the new Digitizer on. You wont need any extra glue here, the New White Half of the housing comes with a clear plastic film on it (sorry I had already removed before I took the photo) that was protecting some glue, thats seems to be holding up pretty good a week later and I dont think it will ever come off. Once you have replace you new Digitizer on the new Top half of the White housing, you are ready to reverse the steps seen in the Video linked at the beginning , once you have completed that you will be enjoying your newly housed in luxurious White and Silver Xperia Play as I am in the Final Photos.

I hope this helps, this was the first time I tore a phone apart physically and might have my "names of pieces" wrong but I tried to explain it in a way that makes sense and simple to look at. I do wanna make a video or something because I think anyone looking to do this would benefit more from a better "visual tutorial" but I dont have much time as id like to and this should serve good.

I hope in anyone who decides to go through with this, and enjoys having a white Xperia Play like I have

I would like to fill everyone in on more details of this because I went ahead and begged my mom to buy me the white one since my old one was ruined by my dog.

I found out that there are more antennas to replace than he is showing you

The Xperia play actually has 3 antennas

The largest one he shows in his picture here.


This is the antenna for the CDMA / GSM service.

without it you will see weird errors like roaming (because you can't get a signal)

You can make a new / stronger one out of aluminum foil but I'll explain how to do that later.

The second antenna is a piece of brass wire that is sitting above the rocker buttons I'll show you it here.



My theory is that this is the WiFi antenna because without the rod and the 3rd antenna I wasn't picking up ANY wireless signals at ALL. NONE.
not even my house router that is 20 feet away.

Now onto the last antenna that he never even saw I guess.


This one might be the Bluetooth OR another component to the CDMA / GSM antenna array. either way you need this in there

It peels up very easily just remove it and replace into the new shell.

Hope this information helps you guys.

---------- Post added at 06:50 AM ---------- Previous post was at 06:40 AM ----------

Oh and here is the end result

jhonecide said:

hey dude could you tell me how to reassemble the touch digitizer?? do we need adhesive??

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The digitizer I purchased came with adhesive on the back already , it was protected by a non stick label (like a stamp) and it holds up very well. You will not need any adhesive if you buy from the same vendor I chose.

wweeguy said:

Thanks for this.

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Your most welcome

Blizzard89 said:

can someone make a complete Video from rehousing the xperia play? i'm really interestet in the Process. My case has some little damages and the Digitizer a splitt

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I may very well do that, I need to build my nephew an xperia play (for gaming only of course, hes way to young for using a phone) and I need to re house it for him. When I sit down to do the re house I will record it.

Are there multiple colors of housings available? I'd love to have a purple play ;D

mocool05 said:

whew just whet through 14 pages of this thead! paranoid me strikes again. it looks kinda easy but im still slightly worried. gonna try rehousing my play this summer. i know you're probably tired of people posting on a dead thread, but i just wanted to thank you for the detailed break down. i bought an orange housing, if anyone's interested, here is the link. will post screetshots this summer hopefully. thanks again.


http://www.ebay.com/itm/New-Replacement-Orange-Housing-Cover-Case-for-Sony-Ericsson-Xperia-Play-R800-Z1i/290910801016?_trksid=p2045573.m2042&_trkparms=aid%3D111000%26algo%3DREC.CURRENT%26ao%3D1%26asc%3D27%26meid%3D7445912472441885120%26pid%3D100033%26prg%3D1011%26rk%3D1%26sd%3D290910801016%26 (only 13 days left)

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Not at all ! I love to this that this is still helping people, If you attempt it and have any questions please feel free to post here or pm me! I just rehoused mine and built an Orange one for a co-worker (he is a first time Play owner!) .. I have so many pieces for this phone..

Again, your welcome!