Transparent aesthetics have really taken off in the last few years. From phones and earbuds to handheld consoles and even laptops, everyone seems to want to follow the trends — except Apple, of course. Industrial design and everything. Go figure!
But that hasn’t stopped some enthusiasts with the right tools and enough courage from prying open expensive new iPhones and applying transparent modifications. The latest in Apple’s series of bold adventures comes from Phone Repair Guru, who put a transparent spin on the iPhone 16 Pro’s frosted glass back.
Before we dig into how ridiculous the iPhone 16 looks with its see-through shell, let’s first drop a disclaimer. The whole process is surprisingly tedious, from disassembling the phone to putting the transparent shell back on the bare chassis without breaking any core components.
While this may seem like a standard barter and slap effort, the reality is quite different. The glass back of the iPhone houses several important components, including the wireless charging coil.
The end result is an iPhone 16 Pro with a neat makeover, microphone elements, MagSafe kit, and LED flash module that would clearly fly off the shelves, assuming I could muster up the courage to take it out myself. Sho.
The entire process begins with blowing a jet of hot air to remove the graphite paper, which seems like a painful process in itself. However, the most difficult part seems to be removing the wireless charging coil from the glass shell.
Looking at the video, it seems like it’s not easy to take off. Instead, you’ll need a combination of heat blasting, additional adhesive, and a MagSafe pack to remove without messing with the wires. But that’s just the beginning of a daunting aesthetic journey.
The people behind the project had to soak the iPhone’s back glass panel in acid for three days. The aluminum plate beneath the glass was then polished and treated with gallium, a silvery metal that is liquid at room temperature and pressure.
The liquid metal essentially weakens the aluminum cover so you can use a knife to peel it off like paper. The whole ordeal is incredibly messy, requiring boiling water to remove the stain, along with some cold gas bubbles.
The final stage requires some old-fashioned manual work. Removing the paint on the iPhone 16 Pro’s glass shell requires using a thick razor, like an experienced craftsman would with a block of softwood.
Once the shell has acquired its final transparent avatar, the experiment is terminated after carefully reattaching parts such as the charging coil and elements close to the camera module. Thankfully, nothing broke and the camera and other systems remained in good working order despite the daunting complexity. And yeah, it looks weirdly awesome.
In the meantime, if you’re planning on leaving your iPhone gathering dust in a drawer, don’t go on that adventure.
Despite the repairability and DIY-friendly design changes Apple has made to its smartphones in recent years, the underlying engineering work remains too complex for the average person to handle, let alone a colored glass shell. It is difficult to leave it intact after giving it a transparent shine. above.
And you’ll probably end up spending a few hundred dollars alone on the right tools to handle the chores detailed in the video. But if you can’t completely erase the sight of a shiny, transparent iPhone 16 Pro from your memory, there are plenty of clear decals readily available online, including a very nice option from Dbrand.
