Black fascia / Casing - anyone done it yet?

[sp00k]

I can't vouch for how well they'll fit but both the casing and the front cover look to be well-manufactured, certainly worth the money to my mind.

Those alone would be good value, without all the extra bits and pieces that you get.

[marlbororman]

well looking at your pics, they certainly look top notch quality. and reading the sellers feedback,theres a lot of happy customers,so thats good enough for me alone.....Too late now,i ordered

[pfrog]

Originally Posted by spyda

Any more pics pfrog? Any comments on the way it fits?

Cheers.

One more pic with black faceplate for you.

http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1137/...76f2c7.jpg?v=0

[pseudofinn]

Apparently the front casing of the OEM faceplate is actually a die-cast alloy. Quite surprising.

(sp00k ---->)

[phoneguru]

I haev the black metal diecast front plate one. They are almost the same as OEM front plates. Highly recommended

[sp00k]

Well Folks... The black casing kit that I described here has now been fitted...

EDIT:
!! I can no longer recommend this item !! ... The black coating of the face-plate is so poorly applied that it can easily be scratched off by a fingernail.

The front-face cover fitted perfectly... but it was a very delicate task to swap the 'furniture' over from the OEM case... Particularly the camera-housing.

The top of the back-casing is a nice tight fit, unfortunately, at least in my case, not so the bottom part of it, It's not too bad and easily bearable, even to a fussy B such as myself... But it's not ideal.

Pic.1 N95 Closed (The specks are dust, not blemishes on the casing!)
Pic.2 N95 Open
Pic.3 Good fit of top of Back-Casing
Pic.4 Not so good fit of bottom of Back-Casing!
Pic.5 Three-Tone-Phone Anyone? ;)
Pic.6 I find the the screen is more pleasant and relaxing to view without a bright silver surround and strangely enough, the phone, when held, looks slightly smaller... In this pic you can clearly see what I mean about the poor fit of the Back-Casing.

Whilst I'm not exactly over the moon with my purchase, I shall leave the phone in it's third-party case as I like the look of it and I'd far sooner carry it partially-protected within a cheap, replaceable housing, rather than a bulk-adding additional external case. Many of these external cases don't offer total protection anyway, going on some I've seen so far.

I'd be interested to hear your comments on a black housing, I like it more than I expected to but if Nokia ever bring out a black N95, I'll be fitting the OEM parts next time!

[Nokia N95]

Looks pretty good.

Would be even better if the keypad could be black too... a bit of silver in an all-black phone is a little odd but nevertheless, good going sp00k, ANYTHING in black looks awesome!

[marlbororman]

I agree, looks awesome, i cant wait for mine to come now, Hopefully today or tomorrow.... What size torxs driver did you use???

You said the one supplied didnt fit.

[sp00k]

Nokia N95... I agree, the silver keypad is out of place, it'd look even better if both keypads were black, along with the end-caps and the lower slider assembly... A truly all-black N95 would be the dog's you-know-whats! ;)

Marlboroman... Here's where some confusion arises... The torx driver I used is labelled: T 0.5x40, which I take to be Torx size 5. The set of Torx drivers I have is only a cheap one though and I know of someone else who used a 'proper' engineers high-quality set of drivers and who assures me that he had to use a Torx 6 driver. The one supplied with the case is, I believe, a size 6 (un-labelled though) and is definitely too large.

The Nokia service manual (Google... N95_RM-159_RM-245_sm_level_1_2.pdf ...to obtain it), lists both sizes, apparently Torx 5 for the upper slider mechanism screws and Torx 6 for the lower block screws. I would advise you to get both sizes, or as I did, a set of drivers... It was only 3GBP for a case of seven torx sizes.

I intend to write some notes today, detailing how to swap the case, using this particular case-set as a basis... Swapping the back case is simple of course but changing over the front face is not quite as easy and there are a few tips that I can pass on... I can let you have a copy of this when it's drafted-out if you're interested?

[pfrog]

does it mean that if I need replacement screws for the slider, torx 5 screws will fit?