My Huawei Mate likes to fly; or there are paranormal activities in my house in Yangon. Either one, I had to find for a solution to replace my Huawei mate 8 screen. My phone was not even 1 years old when this incident happened. I just wanted to put my phone on the bed; throw it on the mattress but instead my Huawei Mate just jumped over the wood structure or between and landed on the cement floor, almost 3 meters below.
To be honest I did not hoped to see my phone in piece when I went to pick up the pieces. But it seams Huawei does makes resistant phones and I took the right decision to switch from HTC to Huawei. I have chosen Huawei Mate 8 instead of P9 last year because the battery was much better and the price a bit lower.
Let’s get back to the damaged Huawei mate 8 screen. Luckily my phone remained 100% intact. Only the right side of the screen as less than 5% was broken. I glued it with scotch and was happy I was able to use it and not to buy a new one. I was not about to change my Huawei Mate 8 phone after only one year. I will probably still continue with the next generation of P10 or Huawei P11.
After 4 days the inevitable happened. My screen was starting to turn black inch by inch. After 1 week almost half of my phone was black and it was time to search online for a new Huawei Mate 8 Screen.
First I had two option; either to buy it from Romania and then to be delivered to Myanmar; cost was around 50$ but I had to wait more than one month for the Huawei Mate 8 Screen. That was not an option because I needed my Huawei Mate faster.
Second option was to find a supplier in Yangon. And since Mate 8 was not such a popular device in Myanmar, the chances to find one were low. And I have been to the official Huawei Service center in Yangon.
Surprise, suprise; yes it is possible to have the Huawei Mate 8 Screen change and the total cost would be 2,3 lks. In translation to $ is about 180-190$. I said? WTF? I can buy a new phone from Huawei from that amount of money and we charge me that much? They said it was original but still.
Last resort was to buy it online. But shipping to Myanmar is not that easy and not to many countries do ship due to many internal and external affairs.
I knew about the AlieExpress since 5-7 years ago but I was never interested to buy something from the no 1 shopping platform. I was more about the trust and the quality of the products. I bought a few times from Amazon with no problem. I wasn’t sure if I would trust AlieExpress but I remembered some friends of mine bought it and goods were delivered to Romania. But it was the same problem – time delivery. More than 21 days and even one month to get the goods shipped from China to the destination country.
Why I choose this seller –
- This store has been open since Mar 14, 2014 – had at least 3 years of activity
- Had good reviews – more than 96%
- Price was the best
I was a bit desperate and I decided to buy it. Found the Huawei Mate 8 Screen available to a few supplier and picked the one with highest numbers or review – I was just reading an article about these theme – people choose an product based on the numbers of reviews not on the quality or how many 5* it has. I did the same!
Being my first order on Aliexpress I got a 5$ Aliexpress voucher code. I added the product in the basket but I tried to finalise the booking. But it was a payment error. First I thought my bank had an issue with paying to a Chinese supplier. Then I realised that I had no money on my Visa Card.
Aliexpress Bying Process
Having 2 buttons it’s a bit strange – for me buy now and add to cart means the same things: I want to buy the product.
As I said before I was a bit consider of not getting my Huawei Mate 8 screen to Myanmar but when you see Full Refund if you don’t receive your order and order is less than 30$ you don’t have another doubt.
Then I selected the colour. I have picked white because with black I was not being able to find my phone on the dark place I was putting it.
Shipping was free but no tracking but in the end I was able to see my order online.
I liked the one page shopping cart and that we could have left I message to the supplier and I asked him when the huawei mate 8 screen comes to Myanmar a phone call to be made to me. It did not happened but I got the product straight on my door.
The next morning before completing the order I got an internal message from the supplier:
Dear friend, we appreciated your purchase from us. However, we noticed you that haven’t made the payment yet. Since they are very popular, the product has a high risk of selling out soon, please place your order asap. If there is anything I can help you, such as price, size, color etc. Please feel free to contact me. Thanks.
Next time I put some money and I finalised the transaction. Estimated delivery time was from 21 days to 43 days even if China and Myanmar are neighbours.
It took them only 2 days to ship the product (one day was for them to verify the payment). Every day I logged in my Aliexpress account to track the product.
4 days it took in total to arrive to the airline company. Then the tracking kinds of stopped because even if it was loaded in the airline and plane took off did not landed the next day and arrive 4 days later.
Remember that I told you that I informed them to call me when the product arrives in Myanmar at the Myanmar Post; they might have told them but I got no phone and I was waiting nervously to see how the Myanmar Post would handle the delivery.
On 29th September – exactly 2 weeks after I made the purchase of my new Huawei Mate 8 Screen I got the packed at my door! WOW I said – I did not expected that when I placed my order in the first place.
Aliexpress Shipping
The Package
Then it was a paper, in case of returning back the product and with the steps I have to do in case of not working.
Again the Huawei Mate 8 Screen was wrapped in a plastic in order to protect it more.
The instruments were put in a separate plastic bag and where entirely of plastic and did not help to much.
The Replacement of Huawei Mate 8 Screen
My first option for a phone screen replacement in Yangon was the Huawei Official Centre. I went to their office downtown Yangon, close to Sule Pagoda and asked them how much it would cost me to chance it there. The surprise came when they said they only do the replacement with their original Huawei Mate 8 Screen which would have cost me more than 200$. I said no again and went to find another shop.
Unfortunately went to the first shop I have seen and it did not end well for my phone. The guy did not know a clue about chancing the screen and continue to do it in the Myanmar Style: even if I don’t know how to do a thing I am still continuing to do it either wise I look bad. After 45min I decided to end the nightmare for him and for me and told him to stop. He has one problem with one last screw. The tools from the online shop did not help as well (but he did not tried it) or even watch a Youtube Video on how to replace a Huawei Mate 8 Screen! Paid him almost 10$ for trying and almost ruined my phone and left the shop.
A bit sad I left the phone and on the way back home in the taxi back home I was looking for a repair phone for phones. Luckily I have seen one close to my house and I decided to give it one more try. Name of the shop of Apple City Yangon. Left my phone with them and told me to come next day.
First unpleasant news was next day when they informed that the screen is not working! OK..since I had now phone for almost 3 weeks and had no other solution except their screen – so it was possible to find in Yangon a Huawei Mate 8 Screen in the end – with the cost of 40$ + 20$ the repair. Told them to go ahead.
Next day when I went to pick up my phone, another surprise – it seems that the LCD screen bought from Aliexpress was working after all. The only problem was that the damage made by the previous guy was quite high and now it seems that I need to buy a frame as well. On Aliexpress is around 4$ so I might buy it soon and see if it’s arrived.
The good part is that the Huawei Mate 8 Screen LCD is working. It’s a bit more sensitive then the original and the volume button and even more sensible. I do hope that it would work for at least 2 more years till it’s time to buy a new Huawei Phone. And to be more careful not to drop it again!
