Game Boy Advance SP IPS Modified Shell

I love these shells. I have made over 17 different SPs over the course of my hobby making them for others. These shells are very durable, look amazing, and last a long time if you take care of them. Will definitely buy more!

I bought the Blue Raspberry shell and the Golden Sun(?) buttons for a Zero Suit Samus themed SP. Worked like a charm. I also bought a set of glow membranes not realizing that the clear shells already come with some... BUT. Even closed, the glow in the dark effect is awesome. Can't lose your SP in a dark room if you've had it open. The only sucker about it is the screw holes might need a wee bit of trimming. Didn't bother with the included screws. You already have an original set...

Just upgraded my AGS-001 with the IPS Backlit LCD Kit V2 display and Clear shell. My SP looks gorgeous now. As mentioned by other reviewers, the only problem I have is that the buttons that came with the shell, mainly the AB buttons, can be twisted out of alignment causing the buttons to be stuck in the 'pressed' position. Possible solutions that I can think of are: (1) Make the grooves in the shell deeper (2) Make the tabs on the buttons taller to avoid clearing the shell grooves (3) The bottom of the buttons and top of the membrane are too smooth allowing them to slide on each other. Any adjustments to any or all of these would make the shell the best in the market.

Great replacement shell that can hold everything in place nice and snug. I do wish they came with padding for the display, but easy enough to fix with some thin foam.

I ordered the Solid White color. It is not what I'd call Solid White. It has a bit of a sparkle to it and I think Pearl would be a better color description. This isn't a bad thing, I think the actual look might hide flaws better.

The feel of it is okay. It feels a bit cheap honestly. It doesn't have the same solid feel that an OEM shell does. The light from the power LED shines through the shell in a way that it doesn't on the original.

All of the screws to assemble it are included. There's three copper colored screws to attach the board, those screws seem fine. The rest of the screws that hold the shell together are so so. The screw holes don't seem to be threaded and the hole in the top of the screw is very shallow and prone to stripping. Be careful with these screws. I got it together but it was a bit of a struggle.

Moving on to the "IPS" ready aspect of this shell. This shell fits the Funny Playing IPS mod perfectly. It's basically perfect for that. I also tried inserting the Cloud Store IPS mod. That one does not fit great. You'll have to use tape or something to hold the screen in place. Personally, I vastly prefer the FunnyPlaying install to the Cloud either way.

There's one other thing I want to touch on. The battery compartment is slightly bigger than the OEM shell. If you try to use the Makho Battery mod it won't hold in place the same way it would in an OEM shell.

Overall, it does work. You can get a cool color shell. I'm giving it 4 stars because a "cheap" shell is still nicer than a damaged OEM one and it does save you having to cut an OEM shell to fit an IPS. Overall it does it's job.

I got the solid black shell to replace my OEM shell when upgrading to the IPS screen and at first glance I was a bit worried. I originally described it as looking very "third party" when I opened the box, but aside from a few scratches/blemishes it looked very clean once assembled. It doesn't have the same feel that the OEM shell has. The finish, while smooth still has a much more textured feel to it than the OEM shell it was replacing. There's a noticeable amount of flex on the bottom where the shell covers the cartridge and I feel it every time I press the Start button. The included screws were a nightmare to deal with (wouldn't drive in, very soft, wouldn't sit flush where needed) so I ended up using the almost 20 year old screws that were in my OEM shell.

I didn't use any of the included buttons except the L and R shoulder buttons which look and felt nicer than both the OEM ones and the 3rd party buttons I ordered. I also kept the power and volume switches because they looked good on the sides. The notes state the OEM buttons might not have the best fitting and I can see where that's the case for the A and B buttons which aren't bad, but not a perfect fit. The other OEM buttons fit nicely and feel good to use.

The biggest issue I'm seeing in the reviews is a gap when the screen is closed but I'm not experiencing that thankfully. I do believe I installed the OEM hinges incorrectly though because the screen no longer opens up to an angle and only opens up and stays flat as it would if it was closed. It also doesn't "snap" closed and doesn't feel securely closed so I wouldn't want to leave it loose in a backpack or other carrying case. I'll be ordering replacement hinges because on of the tabs broke on the OEM hinges so I'll update this post if anything changes.

Lastly the back of the case where the ports are looks pretty good but some of the plastic doesn't line up properly. It's not too noticeable but I'm concerned that my GameCube controller adapter won't attach securely. This is such a minor detail though so not in a huge rush to unpack the adapter and test it.

Overall the issues are pretty minor and easy to overlook. If I had to use the included screws I would have marked off one star but since I had an alternative I'm keeping my review at 5/5.

UPDATE: I replaced the hinges and after some trial and error (popping them out, rotate, re-install) I was able to get the case to open and close properly. It opens up and holds at an angle and snaps closed and keeps it securely closed. I could have continued using my OEM hinges but for $5 I have extras now.

I've also confirmed that the OEM display brightness, start, and select buttons are SLIGHTLY shorter than aftermarket buttons so they feel really deep in this case. I swapped those 3 for the buttons that came with the case but kept my OEM D-pad, A, and B buttons (new pic added).