I bought this screen to use with a boxy pixel aluminum front shell and it fit perfectly! You don’t even have to adhere, it drops right in to the aluminum housing. I did solder all the wires so I could have all the functionality and it came in handy to be able to position the screen. It’s also a nice touch that you get a screen lens for free when buying this ips display in particular.

Game Boy Color Retro Pixel 1.0 Q5 IPS LCD Kit - Funnyplaying

I'll get the bad bit out of the way first: there is a significant chance you'll receive a defective display. That's not HHL's fault, or even Funnyplaying's, the panels are just 10-year-old new-old stock for a smartphone that fizzled. The good news is, if you do get a bad display like I did, Handheld Legend will get you a replacement, so all you're really out is shipping time.

Now for the good stuff: this is hands-down the best display upgrade available for the GBC as of Q1 2022. It's big, bright, vibrant, and feature-rich with no issues like frame tearing or stutter. Colors look as good as you'd expect off-angle, the grid effects are neat, and being able to adjust the alignment is a nice touch. Pro-tip: both the 1.0 and 2.0 (Laminated) versions use the same flex PCB controller, so any features on the 2.0 kit are also available in this one. That means that yes: the colored logo backlighting is present, and yes: you can turn it off if it's causing light bleed. (And all the settings save, so you don't have to redo them every time you power on) I recommend using a shell designed for the Q5 LCD for best results, but you can absolutely trim a stock-style shell if you're so inclined.

The power draw is significantly higher than stock, and the stock voltage regulator does get noisy at full brightness, but the noise is only significant if you're running a bigger speaker amp. Since the -18v power supply is no longer necessary with this display, completely replacing the stock voltage regulator with a more modern regulator is a good option to reduce the noise. In any case, you will chew through batteries more quickly. Take all of that as you will.

4/5, would recommend

Game Boy Color Retro Pixel 1.0 Q5 IPS LCD Kit - Funnyplaying

It's a beautiful screen of course, but the alignment feature is just ok. Better of perfectly aligning it in the housing first because you'll be re-aligning everytime you start the thing.