Discovered this site not long after I bought my PRS-T1 sometime in November, been lurking the forums since then. I'm really astonished of how helpful and nice everyone seems to be to each other here, so now, when I had something to contribute, registering and doing just that felt like a no brainer.
I guess every PRS-T1 owner has been wondering what Sony's engineers thought when they designed the E-reader in question with a glossy front bezel, the glare can be really annoying. Sure, there are cases that covers the bezel, but personally I rather attack the very root of the problem if I can
Found the
service manual here on Mobileread when googling for instructions on how to disassemble the PRS-T1, and with that at my disposal, opening the reader and removing the bezel was pretty easy.
I made an opening tool as depicted in the service manual from a piece of ABS plastic. I wouldn't recommend metal, or anything else that's a lot harder than the material the shell is made of, it's probably made to be shock resistant, and that usually means its somewhat prone to plastic deformation. If you got a strong thumb nail, you could probably use that as well.
Insert the tool between the back side and the bezel. I found it to be easiest to do in a corner, just bend out the bezel a little bit to make room for the tool, and insert it. Run the tool along the side, and bend the back side slightly outwards where the service manual says there's a claw. I did it in the order suggested in the service manual, I begun with the top, then did the sides, and finally the bottom. In any case, do the bottom last, it makes it a lot easier to get the shell loose from the different connectors.
Once the back side is removed, you'll see the motherboard assembly. It's fastened to the front bezel with six small black Philips screws, three in the top and three in the bottom. Unscrew those and keep them somewhere where you won't loose them, they're pretty small.
Next you need to loosen the wlan antenna. It's a little white tab, maybe 5x7 mm or something like that, with a black coax cable connecting it to the motherboard. It's glued to the front bezel. Peel it loose, be careful not to damage it. Never pull the cable in any way.
Now you can start removing the front bezel, follow the instructions in the service manual. What the service manual don't tell you is that there's a strip of double-sided tape on each side of the screen, holding the bezel down to the motherboard assembly. Insert the tool between the bezel and the motherboard assembly, and turn it while lightly pulling the bezel away from the motherboard. Move it a bit further down, rinse and repeat. Don't use too much force, I don't think the bezel can withstand all that much abuse.
Hopefully you've now managed to remove the bezel in one piece, and it's time to do something about the gloss. Personally I used 380 grit valve grinding paste and a rag, but I reckon you can get almost as good results using fine grit water sanding paper, or perhaps even a Scotch brite pad. Cover the button row and the brushed aluminum piece with the Sony logo on it with tape for protection, and then start working the bezel with whatever abrasive you got at hand
Once done, clean the bezel thoroughly. And old toothbrush is very helpful when removing residues from the grinding lodged between the buttons. Personally I washed it with water and detergent.
Put it all together in the reverse order you took it apart. Snap on the bezel, replace the screws, attach the wlan antenna where it used to be, and finally snap the back cover back on. Done!
Here's how my PRS-T1 looks now. As I'm at sea for moment, I don't have my camera with me, so I had to snap the pic with my phone. I really hope the bad image quality is excused by the nice background view. You can even see a little dry bulk loader if you look closely