Many Samsung fans were left disappointed when the Korean company announced that its newest Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge battery will be non-replaceable. You won’t understand why Samsung has done away with a replaceable battery until you take a look at the inside of the Galaxy S6. The device is so tightly packed inside that even removing the battery could be extremely difficult.
Galaxy S6 teardown: don’t do it yourself
Samsung has detailed the entire process to remove the battery in the Galaxy S6 user manual. But the Korean company notes that only authorized service agents are allowed to carry out the procedure. Now, MyFixGuide has performed the first Galaxy S6 teardown, which shows how difficult it is to replace the battery yourself. The battery is secured such that it is inaccessible to a majority of users.
Experts at MyFixGuide had to heat up the back cover of the phone with a heat gun for 2-3 minutes. If you move past that point, you’ll have to remove a number of different parts to reach the battery. There is the middle frame held in place by screws. Next is the NFC chip, and the motherboard before you can take out the battery.
Certainly, it’s not as user-friendly as taking off the back cover and swapping batteries within seconds. Inside, the ultra-fast 64-bit Exynos 7420 processor is arranged on the slim motherboard, alongside the flash memory, RAM, and SIM card slots. On the other side of the motherboard, you’ll see heart rate sensor, NFC, and infra-red sensor. The device is so neatly and tightly packed that Samsung could not have squeezed a bigger battery than 2550mAh (or 2600mAh in S6 Edge).
Galaxy S6 not the only phone with non-replaceable battery
You shouldn’t try to replicate the teardown process at home because it may void the warranty. Galaxy S6 is not the only smartphone that comes with a non-replaceable battery. Most of the well-built smartphones such as the iPhone 6 come without a removable back.
Separately, Taiwan-based market intelligence firm DRAMeXchange said that it expects Samsung to sell a whopping 50 million units of the Galaxy S6 this year. That’s slightly higher than Citigroup’s projection of 46 million units. The Korean company has already received pre-orders for 20 million units from wireless carriers.