Sony Xperia Z3 Compact Battery Replacement

Written By: Tobias Isakeit

Comments: 12

Sony Xperia Z3 Compact Battery Replacement

Difficulty

Moderate

Steps

Time Required

45 minutes - 1 hour

Introduction

This guide shows you how to replace the battery in your Sony Xperia Z3 compact.

Follow this guide in reverse order to reassemble the device and apply new adhesive where needed.

Tools

Parts

Step 1

Heat the back cover of your Xperia Z3 Compact with an iOpener to loosen the adhesive underneath.
Lift up the back cover with a suction handle and put an opening pick in the gap.
Move the pick carefully around the edges to loosen the adhesive on every side of the phone.
Now you can pull up the back cover with the suction handle.

Step 2

Use a tweezer to remove the model label which is hooked in the right side of the frame.
Undo the flex cable of the NFC antenna with a tweezer.

Step 3

Unscrew the following screws which hold down the mid frame of the Sony Xperia Z3 Compact.
Two 2.7 mm Phillips #000
Three 2.5 mm Phillips #000
Use a Spudger to lift up the mid frame on each side.
Be careful and patient, the plastic mid frame is fragile and might break if bent too hard.

Silver screws (2) belong to the side of the frame. Golden screws (3) for top and bottom.

Joachim Burket - 10/01/18

Step 4

Declamp the metal bracket which holds down the flex connector of the rear camera.
Unplug the flex connector of the rear camera and lift it out of its recess.

Make sure to unplug the battery first so you don't short anything out.

Macro Man -

Step 5

Use a Spudger to unplug the headphone jack and sensor cable connector.
Unscrew the single 2.5 mm Phillips #000 screw on the upper left side of the motherboard.

Step 6

Unplug the battery and display flex connectors.
Open the compartments for the SIM card and the micro SD card and remove them.

Step 7

Use a Spudger to slightly lift up the motherboard.
Be careful! You need to thread the display flex cable through a gap in the motherboard while lifting it up. It is also connected to the vibration motor, which still sticks to the phone.
Take especially care of the two black connectors on the side of the battery. They break off easily during the removal of the motherboard.
Use a tweezer to take out the vibration motor and then remove the motherboard completely.

Step 8

Gently pull out both of the black straps with the adhesive tabs underneath the battery.
Never pull out the straps upwards but always sideways. It can easily happen that you rupture the adhesive tabs. In this case use a plastic card to pry off the battery carefully,Use a little bit of heat if necessary!
Now you can remove the battery from the motherboard easily.

Step 9

Warm up the NFC antenna a little bit to loosen the adhesive underneath.
Carefully peel it off the battery. If the adhesive starts to crumble use a plastic card to loosen the adhesive.

Conclusion

To reassemble your device, follow these instructions in reverse order.

10 comments

Thank you Tobias !

My Z3 compact starts now his second life :)

Guy Hard - 22/06/17

Thank you for repairing your phone and giving it a second chance.

Tobias Isakeit - 22/06/17

Where do I need the Back Cover Adhesive Strips for?

Visser - 20/08/17

The guide doesn’t mention that one needs new adhesive for the battery (the one I bought isn’t sold with it). It would therefore be wise to mention what kind of adhesive (two-sided, what thckness, etc.)

axel - 13/11/17

Double sided tape is enough to keep it in place, as the back cover and midframe holds everything down for extra reinforcement. Sony sure makes their smartphones !&&* to repair, but that’s another rant.

William Nephew - 26/11/17

Nice tutorial, thanks.

CAVE: I broke off one of the connectors to the magnet-charger contacts on the very edge of the mainboard when lifting it off the case. The same seems to have happened to the author (Step 8 and 9 - the lower one of the two black bridges looks rather wonky)

Pitfall: When lifting the vibration motor (Step 7), make sure you check the cable running on the underside of the mainboard afterwards. It is the connector to the on/off switch. If you unplug it accidentially (like I did), you won’t be able to turn your phone back on after the work is done.

Max - 05/05/18

Thank you for the precise guide, I’ve followed it with no major problems and no damage done :)

Just a friendly notice to others that will try this, reversing steps order is not enough to reassemble the phone if you’re not careful. Some parts are tricky such as the need to put LCD tape back through motherboard hole or the need to watch out not to destroy jack/sensor tape when pushing motherboard back. Also, you’ll need a double sided tape to glue the battery back to the motherboard - original tapes are destroyed during disassembly. The camera clamp is tricky to remove without bending it. Also, it seems that it’s only kept in place by back plate pressure. Also, remember or take a picture of how the NFC connector is attached - I’ve had problems figuring it out when reassembling.

All in all, great guide and my phone will work for me for months or even years instead of going to a trash can because of a swollen battery. Thanks again!

Grzegorz Krugły - 06/06/18

Took a couple hours but I couldn’t have done it without this guide, thanks! Lets hope the new battery won’t be dying on me by lunchtime every day :)

red_carbon - 14/06/18

After replacing the battery and turning on the telephone my Xperia doesn’t see the SIM card.

I did everything very carefully and I don’t know what can be the reason for that.

It’s not like there’s no service, it just can’t read any other SIM card too.

Does anyone have an idea how to fix it?

zofia.bochnak - 03/07/19

Amazing - with Carbon Rom this phone is still a daily driver and the old battery needed replacement due to gases expanding the body. I used a bit of sugru for the adhesive parts, especially the back cover. Although it is not waterproof anymore I am really happy that I could repair it with your guide. Much appreciated!

Simon - 31/07/20