Screen replacement > Face ID functionality?

Hi Lucas,

Excellent questions; you've obviously done your homework!

Okay, first off, Face ID. You'll be transferring the earpiece speaker assembly from the old screen to the replacement; that's the part that's related to the Face ID system. Assuming you don't break anything during the transfer, there's no reason Face ID won't continue to work properly.

Next, True Tone. I'm afraid with that one you're stuck. A programmer is absolutely required if you want that function on your new screen. The accepted method is to read it out of the old screen and write it to the new one, but it's also possible to retrieve the data directly from the phone itself for programming into the new screen. So it can be done at any time; it's just that you'll have to remove the screen again if you put it off and later get yourself or get access to a programmer.

Finally, the non-genuine part warning. Not really much of a way around this one. According to what I've read, the warning will appear on wakeup for about a week, then it'll go away and only appear in Settings after that - permanently. The two ways around that are to 1) Use the Apple self-repair program, meaning you have to buy the screen from Apple and rent their equipment to do the job, or 2) Transfer the eeprom from the old display's touch screen flex cable to the new screen. That, of course, requires microsoldering experience and somewhat specialized tools to accomplish, so it's generally not something us home DIY-ers can tackle. You may or may not be able to find a repair shop that can do that for you. However, given that the warning does not affect the operation of the display in any way whatsoever, most people consider the cost of getting rid of it much too high.

Apple has indeed relented and updated iOS so that non-genuine screens do continue to work, albeit with the warning in place.

Of course, iFixit has you covered with a guide stepping you through the whole replacement process.

iPhone 11 Screen Replacement - iFixit Repair Guide

Of course you can find a replacement screen cheaper on sites like eBay, AliExpress and Amazon, but if you care to support iFixit's repair efforts you can get a screen from them.

iPhone 11 Screen: LCD + Digitizer Replacement Part, Repair Kit

I'd suggest getting the "Fix Kit" version, as it comes with the precut adhesive sheet and all the tools needed to do the job for only $10 US extra. Speaking from experience here, I usually buy a couple of sheets of adhesive, as it's all too easy to misalign it even by a small amount and then end up with a tangled ball of glue trying to get it back off and into the right place. If you do get it right, well then you've got a spare for any unanticipated cases where you have to open the phone up again.

Hope that helps; let us know how your repair goes!