Polishing vs Replacing Phone Glass

The short answer

Most used phones in a wholesale lot fall into one of these groups, and each group points to a different answer:

• Scratched glass, light or deep, no cracks → screen polishing. The scratches come out and the original display stays on the device.
• Cracked glass, or a chip that goes through the glass → front glass replacement, also called re-glass.
• A display fault (dead pixels, burn-in, lines) → neither. The fault is in the display panel, not the glass.

Mobility Traders LLC offers both glass services to businesses from Houston, Texas. Devices are shipped in from anywhere in the United States, serviced and shipped back; there is no drop-off or pickup. The full terms are on our wholesale cell phone polishing page.

When polishing is the right call

Screen polishing removes scratches from the surface of the glass. If the glass is whole and the problem is marks on it, polishing is the lighter fix.

• It takes out light scratches and deep scratches.
• The original display stays on the device; nothing is swapped.
• The method leaves no waves, and the screen stays normal.
• A screen protector can still be applied afterwards.

Polishing covers every iPhone, every Samsung and every Google Pixel, plus every aluminum Apple Watch and every Apple Watch SE. On Galaxy Fold and Pixel Fold devices it covers the outer glass screen only. Brand details are on the Samsung screen polishing page and the other brand pages.

When the glass needs replacing

A crack runs through the glass. Polishing removes material from the surface, so it cannot close a crack or fill a chip that breaks through the glass. A cracked screen sent for polishing is still a cracked screen.

For cracked front glass, the service is front glass replacement. At Mobility Traders, every re-glass is done under a guarantee of quality.

A simple rule for sorting: if you can see or feel a break in the glass itself, it is a re-glass device. If the glass is whole but marked, it is a polishing device.

What neither service fixes

Polishing and re-glass both work on the front glass. Neither one repairs the display panel under it. Before choosing a service, check each screen for:

• Dead pixels or bright spots.
• Burn-in or ghost images.
• Lines across the display.
• Other LCD or OLED faults, such as patches of discoloration.

A device with one of these faults still has the fault after its glass is polished or replaced. Sort these devices out before you choose a glass service for them.

How a mixed lot is handled

Used lots are rarely uniform. A typical high-volume lot holds scratched phones, cracked phones and a few with display faults, often across several brands. Here is how to send one:

• Sort by damage first. Scratched devices, cracked devices and devices with display faults go in separate piles.
• Tell us the service. Mark the service per device on your device list, or per lot if every device in it gets the same work.
• Mind the minimum. The minimum is 50 devices per service. A sample order of 10 devices is free if you want to see the result first.

When the lot arrives, each device is graded against the service ordered for it before any work starts. A device that will not pass for that service is not processed and is not charged. A cracked phone sent for polishing, for example, will not pass for polishing.

Every serviced device is PhoneCheck tested and goes through a double quality check. The lot ships back with a per-device manifest showing what was done to each unit. The turnaround is 7 days on average, and rush is available on request. If your next step is resale, our guide on how screen polishing improves cosmetic grade covers which scratched devices are worth sending.

To price a lot that mixes both services, send the counts per service through our B2B polishing service page.

Questions