I have a small rant and I want to share it to you: I don't like the Samsung S4 parts list. It’s a good phone, but finding the right part tends to be a chore. Take the i337 and the i9505 phone models, you can interchange the AMOLED screen, but not the USB flex connector.

One thing that the iPhones did right was keeping the parts and models simple. To me, the thing Samsung is struggling is efficiency. I see too many parts that are not interchangeable.

Anyway, that was my tiny rant, lets fix some phones.

So today, I will talk about how to replace the i337 board with the i9505 circuit board. The only reason I am changing the circuit board is that I want to install a custom ROM and AT&T's i337 is not a good model for custom ROMs and rooting. Don't get me wrong, it’s possible to install a custom ROM on the SGH-I337, but the sim card reader tray tends to have a bad connection with the sim card or with the main board.

First, you need the right hardware. The parts you need for a conversion are the i337 (or i9505 model) screen, a i9505 motherboard AND flex cable. Don't forget a 1.2mm Phillips screwdriver. You cannot use any other models, because the parts have different dimensions and specifications. For example, the i337 flex cable does not work with the i9505 circuit board. Also, the L720 flex cable is a tad bigger and does not connect well with circuit board.

If you look above, the flex cable looks exactly the same, but they are not! Thankfully, one flex cable have small printed words describing what model it belongs.

Installing these parts are simple, if you want to know how to repair your S4 phone, then click on this link:

Samsung Galaxy S4 repair

After 30 minutes of taking out the old board and implementing the new hardware, I got a working phone that I can install my favorite ROM. My next post will be how to install a custom ROM on a S4.

See you.

Special thanks to this web site:

Difference between Samsung Galaxy S4 i9500 i9505 i337 M919 L720 i545 LCD Screen

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