Nexus 5 Teardown By iFixit Gets Repairability Score Of 8

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The folks at iFixit have got their hands on the latest and hottest gadget on the market, the Nexus 5. After getting ahold of this device, naturally they would like to tear it apart, and they did. Now the good news is that the Nexus 5 is very easy to tear down and put it back together. There’s barely any glue used in the phone, unlike iPad Air (which got a very poor repairability score), and this means that it would be really easy to replace individual parts if they stop working. Before we delve deeper into the teardown, let’s first get to know the tech specs of this phone.

Nexus 5 Teardown By iFixit Gets Repairability Score Of 8

Nexus 5 Tech Specs

  • 4.95″ full HD 1920×1080 display at 445ppi
  • Quad-core, 2.26 GHz Snapdragon 800 processor
  • 450 MHz Adreno 330 GPU
  • 2 GB RAM
  • 8 MP/1080p rear camera, and 1.3 MP front-facing camera
  • 4G/LTE wireless support, 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac (2.4GHz and 5GHz) dual-band Wi-Fi
  • NFC, Bluetooth 4.0, and wireless charging
  • 16 GB or 32 GB built-in memory
  • Android 4.4 KitKat

Nexus 5 Teardown

The Nexus 5 got an impressive repairability score of 8/10 (where 10 is the easiest to repair), while the iPad Air teardown last week got a very poor 2/10 score. The reason for this is that Apple’s products are mostly not that easy to repair, and the Cupertino company makes use of glue in abundance. Fortunately, Nexus 5 is not like that and can be easily repaired if the need arises.

Nexus 5 uses standardized screws which will further simplify repairs and reassembly. The back cover is held in place using plastic clips, and unlike glue, these plastic clips are easier to remove. However, the LCD and front glass are fused together to the display frame which means that fixing broken glass will be very expensive and difficult.

Nexus 5 Teardown By iFixit Gets Repairability Score Of 8

On the battery, iFixit says, “The Nexus 5’s minimally-adhered battery should only take a moment (and maybe a spudger) to replace.” The battery is the most likely part that might need replacement in the future, and thanks to iFixit, we now know that it wouldn’t be hard to replace a dying battery in the Nexus 5.

Overall it can be said that Google’s latest offering, Nexus 5, is highly repairable. A score of 8/10 is in fact, very impressive and few devices score that high. The smartphone comes in both black and white versions, with pricing at $349 for the 16GB variant and $399 for the 32GB variant.

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