Easiest iPhone 5s fix yet? No more screen cloud.

I posted a question around mid-November about my screen having a “cloud” emanating from the center. I had dropped my phone on a hard floor. There was no damage to the screen other than the cloud. It would vary in size and color. Some days it was fine for the most part, then after using it for 10 minutes, the cloud would appear. Then shrink and almost completely disappear.

I did pop open the phone to see if there was anything amiss, but no. Everything looked good and it was seated properly. The frame may have shown to be a little bent, but nothing extreme. The cloud began to appear less frequently, but it persisted and was annoying at times.

I ordered a replacement screen and also ordered an Otterbox Defender –the hard clamshell with the rubber over sleeve. The Otterbox showed up before the replacement screen, so I put the phone in it.

VOILA! No more cloudy screen!

I have a suspicion that the clamshell is creating a bit of preloading across the screen/frame. What else could it be? Maybe it lost that preload when I dropped it (because it was the same before and after I opened it).

I’ve had it in the Otterbox for about a month now. Still a-ok! I haven’t bother to take it out to see if the cloud comes back. Why bother?