Samsung’s flagship smartphone for 2015, the Galaxy S6, has been announced and iFixit, the teardown experts, got their hands on this smartphone. As always, they took apart the smartphone carefully, and here’s what they have to say.
The folks over at iFixit gave a repair score of just 4 out of 10, which in a way explains that it would be really difficult to repair this smartphone. Ample use of glue is done, which means to take it apart, an iOpener and such instruments were used. The rear panel is similar to that of the S6 edge. The adhesive is globbed to the midframe, but after peeling it all out, all the screws can be removed.
Accessing the battery is easy on the Galaxy S6 when compared to the S6 Edge. As per iFixit, “Removing the battery from the S6 should be a little bit easier than from the Edge. In the Edge, the battery cable was routed under the motherboard before connecting on top, necessitating removing the motherboard to get to the battery.” However, changing the battery by a normal user would be a hard task, as iFixit says, “This hardly qualifies as a user-replaceable battery.”
Here’s what lies inside the Galaxy S6:
- Samsung Exynos 7420 Octa-core Processor – 64-bit, 2.1 GHz Quad + 1.5 GHz Quad
- Samsung K3RG3G30MM-DGCH 3 GB LPDDR4 RAM
- Samsung KLUBG4G1BD 32GB NAND Flash
- Skyworks 78041 Hybrid Multimode Multiband (MMMB) Front-End Module (FEM)
- Avago AFEM-9020 PAM
- Broadcom BCM4773 GNSS Location Hub
- Samsung C2N8AF (possibly image processor)
- Avago A7007
- Wolfson Microelectronics WM1840 Audio Codec
- Samsung S2MPS15
- Samsung Shannon 928 RF Transceiver
- Maxim MAX77843 Companion PMIC
- Maxim MAX98505 Class DG Audio Amplifier
- Samsung Shannon 600B5D
- STMicro FT6BH touchscreen controller
Overall, the 4 out of 10 repairability score is definitely not that impressive. The strong adhesive used in the back makes it very difficult to open the device, and replacing the glass without destroying the display is impossible. Replacing the battery is also not that easy for an average user. The only plus point is that the S6 is somewhat easier to repair compared to the S6 Edge.
