Earlier this week we got our first peek inside the new Galaxy S7 as our friends over at iFixit did their normal teardown of the device. Today, the repair guide site gives us a look inside the device’s sibling with a teardown of the Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge.
The latest Galaxy S7 continues the trend of hard-to-fix smartphones. iFixit gives Samsung’s latest flagship device a 3/10 repairability score, noting how difficult it is to get into the device in the first place. And once you get in, it’s even harder to replace one component without damaging another.
As usual, iFixit has cracked into the latest Nexus device, Google’s Nexus 5X manufactured by LG, to give us our first look at the insides of the device and some insight into just how repairable it will be for owners.
Google’s Android team already filled us in on why it left out Qi Charging on the new Nexus devices (the reversible USB Type-C included is simply more efficient, it said), but we didn’t get an answer on why it didn’t take advantage of Qualcomm’s Quick Charge technology. It turns out the device actually includes a chip that supports the feature, the Qualcomm SMB1358, Quick Charge 2.0 IC, as confirmed in the teardown earlier today. And Qualcomm supports the Nexus 5X’s new USB-Type C connector, so it’s still a possibility the feature could be enabled for the device in the future.
But apart from getting a look inside of the device for the first time, the teardown doesn’t reveal many details we didn’t already know. It does, however, show that Nexus 5X is easily repairable compared to much of its competition with a score of 7 out of 10 meaning most components of the device will be easy to swap in and out or fix. The one downside iFixit noticed included a fused display assembly, which it noted means the “glass and LCD will need to be replaced together if one or the other breaks.”
The positives include the fact that several components “are modular and can be replaced independently,” according to iFixit, and that a standard Phillips screw driver, and not proprietary tools and parts like other devices, is all that’s necessary to open the device.
You can check out iFixit’s full tear down here.
In case you didn’t know, iFixit, known for its disassembly instructions and teardowns, does more than just smartphones. We may find the repairability of of our handsets to be just one more benchmark to compare different brands, but who says we can’t do that with routers too? Google’s OnHub router is one of the first of its kind, and it turns out that it’s not super easy to repair…
Hardware over the years has definitely become more attractive to the eye, but repairing these devices has gotten a lot more difficult at the expense of unibody designs and huge glass screens. The OnHub is kind of similar. Unlike the routers of old that were basically just a couple of screws away from full disassembly, the OnHub is held together with clips and has fragile parts.
To give you an idea, iFixit only listed one thing clearly positive about the OnHub: The device’s speaker is replaceable. But it’s all downhill from there. Assembled mostly with clips that iFixit found to be easily broken, the OnHub has most ports on one board (meaning solder will likely be needed), tiny fragile antenna connectors, and its build is overall fairly complex.
If you want to read more about the details of the OnHub’s hardware, head over to iFixit.
The iPhone 6 Plus launch was riddled with endless #bendgate drama, but it looks like the latest flagship from Samsung doesn’t fare much better than Apple’s flagship—at least according to this test. Dozens of YouTube videos have given the latest iPhone line the beating, but now it looks like it’s time for the 2015 round of Android flagships to get tested as well…
iFixit, a company which made its name supplying parts, tools and instructional guides for repairing Apple products, is now branching out into the Android market. So if you’ve been wondering what to do with a broken phone or tablet, you can now try your hand at a DIY repair.
Our Android Repair hub is now live. On it, you’ll find hundreds of Android repair guides and replacement parts for a dozen of Android’s most popular devices—including the Samsung Galaxy S, the Galaxy Note, and the Nexus tablet series.
The challenge, of course, is that there are way more Android devices than Apple ones–almost 4000 different models of smartphone, even before you start counting tablets, smartwatches and TV boxes …
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When the Nexus 6 was first released, I was just as excited as everyone else. What’s not to like about a Nexus device with a massive high resolution display, right? That excitement continued over the weeks, but after about a month or two of everyday active use, I noticed a very annoying defect in the build quality of the Nexus 6…
Following its ritual teardown of the Google’s new HTC-made Nexus 9 tablet earlier this month, today our friends over at iFixit have torn apart Google’s new Nexus 6 smartphone made by Motorola. While the Nexus 6 scores a decent repairability score— 7 out of 10, which is on par w/ the new iPhone 6 Plus— it does have some shortcomings that you’ll want to be aware of before cracking into your phone for repairs.
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[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OPuCmfhzgbg]
While it doesn’t seem to be as big of an issue as it was with the glass-backed Nexus 4, there are many reports that the Nexus 5 display isn’t holding up to even minor impact. If you’d rather go the DIY route than going through a repair company (both of which will void your warranty) ETrade Supply points us to an instructional video from LE55ONS that will walk you through every step of replacing the display assembly. You’ll of course need to pick up a Nexus 5 replacement screen, but otherwise the tools required are pretty standard: Phillips and flathead drivers, pry tools, tweezers, etc. The video goes over other parts of the Nexus 5 as well, but there is a step-by-step guide focusing only on the display here.
