Whenever a shiny new gadget hits the market, tech enthusiasts are always eager to know how easily a gadget can be repaired. Sometimes we need to shell out a fortune when replacing its components, while sometimes it’s very easy to remove and replace those components. Like always, iFixit got their hands on the latest shiny device, the Samsung Galaxy S5 and as per their nature, they have done a teardown on the device.
iFixit periodically tears down the latest gadgets on the market, and gives a repairability score so that we can know how easily the device can be repaired. In the case of the Galaxy S5, the smartphone is not that easy to be repaired.
Before we move over to the teardown details, let’s take a quick look at its technical specs. The Galaxy S5 is powered by a 2.5 GHz quad-core Snapdragon 801 processor, 2GB LPDDR3 RAM, 5.1-inch Super AMOLED display with 1920 x 1080 pixel resolution, 16-megapixel camera, 16/32GB internal memory and sensors for fingerprint, heart rate and gestures. Of course the device also comes with all the regular features such as LTE, NFC, Bluetooth 4.0 BLE, Micro-USB 3.0, WiFi and more.
Samsung Galaxy S5 teardown
Samsung earns praise from iFixit as the battery is “incredibly easy to remove and replace.” Batteries in Samsung’s smartphones are always removable which means that if ever the battery stops working, then one can easily remove the rear cover and replace the battery.
However, the good part is over and now comes the bad news. The first component to be removed is the display, and unfortunately it is held with ample “amount of adhesive and requires very careful and persistent prying and a considerable amount of heat to remove without cracking the glass or cutting cables.”
Once the display is out, several components like cameras, headphone jack, vibrator motor, and speaker are modular in nature and can be easily replaced if the need arises.
Samsung for sure has made this device very difficult to be repaired, even by DIY enthusiasts as replacing anything other than the battery would require you to remove the display first, something which cannot be easily removed.
The Samsung Gear 2 teardown revealed that the smartwatch is very easy to repair, which is in contrast with the Galaxy S5 teardown. The smartwatch scored a good 8 out of 10 for repairability, all thanks to the fact that various components can be easily removed and replaced.
Talking about the score, then Samsung Galaxy S5 got a low 5 out of 10 repairability score, which is a step backwards compared to the last year’s model. The Galaxy S4 got a good 8 out of 10 score, and somehow the company has made things worse for DIYers. In fact, iFixit says that this is the lowest ever score they have ever given to a Samsung smartphone.