watch me hack up my $700 phone !! yeah F**k that

modifying earpiece voids warranty

@colnago:
was it worth it?
did it fix your issues?

Here you go

@quipper8: thanks for reposting something that I've already read. I felt that 'conclusion' was a mixed bag and asked for a bit more clarification from the OP.

Given that I was still having volume issues, though I have only heard my g/f voice mail, and called into my own voice mail, and volume still seems really low, I can not say for sure...leaning towards it being more of a system/hardware issue overall.

Again, if nothing else, I feel like I'm getting similar volume levels with the phone's earpiece "at any part of the ear". "For me", it was worth the knowledge and minor performance gain.

After the first few cuts, and the initial curved groove was started, the screen shaves down fairly easily. The hardest part was to not go too deep with the blade, but was issue free for the most part. FWIW, the opening is now about 2x the original width, and I'll probably go another 0.5mm wider on the top and bottom (since I still can not tell how the speaker is aligned. Its hard to tell with the pics, but I actually cut into the screen protector on the top end.

Sorry you paid $700...Only $500 was paid for "my birthday present".

I hope you read this thread here first, because that thread was the first thing that popped into my head reading your post. At least you have a bigger hole for more ear wax to get trapped in there now XD.

Should be able to shave quite a lot off, I believe the actual speaker is at THE BOTTOM of the N900 with just a long channel leading up to that little hole, so nothing to damage underneath. However that also means a channel to aim the earwax, dust and water ingress down to the speaker. I'm sure there was a damn good reason to keep it the size it was.

I would always choose wired/wireless headset over voiding my warranty any day.

Lot of issues listed in that thread...most of which I've read about previously. My concern, since getting it in Nov. was that call volume was too low, on both the earpiece and speaker...varying levels may or may not be another issue, but again, even at "max", I feel it could be louder.

I've also read about the speaker possibly being located towards the bottom of the screen. I would have taken the phone apart "again" (following my USB port coming detached) to confirm the driver location, but I didn't want to risk having the slider mechanism not be flush again. However if the opening is merely a channel, couldn't hurt to open it up.

FWIW, there is metal mesh underneath the black fabric that is visible at the bottom of the opening.

For you guys getting earwax in the earpiece...wow. I'd find that hard to do. May I suggest:

Wow. You, my friend, are insane!

I'll stick to repositioning it and teaching muscle memory where I should be holding it. I'm sure we can also patch out a upper volume restriction, but that might lead to distortion.