Will a hole in the top speaker mesh affect it in any way?

Hi Andrew,

As you've already pointed out, the purpose of the mesh is to keep dirt and debris from entering the phone, so having the speaker mesh intact is definitely a good idea.

As a temporary stopgap measure, you could get a small piece of mesh and glue it on top of the existing mesh to keep your phone safe. I'd think some of the mesh made for iPhone speakers would probably come close to fitting; you can always trim it if needed. Here's an example that might work.

Amazon.com: CKANDAY 40 Pack Mesh Anti Dust Proof Adhesive Net Sticker with Tweezers, 16 Pcs Metal and 24 Pcs Mesh Speaker Dustproof Cover Kit Protects Charging Compatible with 13 12 11 8 7 Pro Max Mini X XS XR : Cell Phones & Accessories

Yeah, 40 pieces is massive overkill, but that's just an example; you can obviously find a smaller quantity if you look around, especially in places like eBay and AliExpress.

On the other hand, I did find one place that sells the correct mesh for your phone on AliExpress.

10pcs For Samsung Galaxy A51 A71 A515F A715F Ear Earpiece Speaker Anti Dust Proof Grill Mesh With Adhesive Glue

Again, you could just trim it as needed and glue it on top of the existing mesh and that would probably be sufficient. If, on the other hand, you wanted to consider actually replacing it, you could probably do that.

I've been researching exactly how, but can't find any guides or videos on doing that, so I'm having to take my best guess here as to how to do it. As nearly as I can tell, the speaker mesh is mounted on the part of the phone called the midframe. I think (but can't guarantee) that all you have to do is remove the midframe and you should be able to get to the speaker mesh to replace it.

In order to remove the midframe, I'd suggest pulling up the battery replacement guide for your phone.

Samsung Galaxy A51 Battery Replacement - iFixit Repair Guide

Follow the instructions up to Step 14 where you remove the midframe. At that point if you flip it over and look on the inside, I believe you'll be able to see the mesh you want to replace. If it's not straightforward at that point, you could always post pictures of what you find and we can do our best to walk you through whatever next steps would be needed.

Hope you get this sorted; let us know how it goes!