THERE’S a thrill of making things yourself. For Scotty Allen, a former software engineer in Silicon Valley who now resides in Shenzhen, China, building an Apple iPhone 6s from spare parts in Huaqiangbei was a chance for him to understand how everything works.

Huaqiangbei in Futian, if you didn’t know, is a gadget lover’s paradise. Think of it as a bigger, better Greenhills. So when we were billeted near the place the last time we were in Shenzhen for work, we were thrilled. 

Allen decided to build a refurbished iPhone 6s for two reasons. First, it’s his current phone, and he might need to have the same device he was assembling to compare with. Second, iPhone 7 parts were hard to find. 

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To make the smartphone, he needed the following parts: screen, shell, battery, and logic board. He wasn’t sure if merchants in Huaqiangbei would sell those to a foreigner who barely speaks Mandarin, but after a few hiccups, he was able to build an iPhone 6s 16GB variant.

And for less than P15,000 or roughly $300! Remember that when the device was launched in the Philippines in 2015, the base model initially cost P37,990 or approximately $769. Not bad, eh? Of course, you can always buy a new iPhone from Apple, but for do-it-yourself enthusiasts, where’s the fun in that?

Watch Allen’s journey in the video below, or read his story here.

How a former software engineer made his own iPhone — in China

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