How Repairable Is The Google Pixel XL?

Few of us would dare to crack open electronic goods to see what’s inside in fear of never being able to put them back together again. Luckily, iFixit specialises in gadget teardowns and it busted open the Google Pixel XL to investigate the guts of the new smartphone in order to assess just how easily it would be to repairable it.

This article originally appeared on Lifehacker.

The Google Pixel handset range was officially released last week and, while it does carry a high price tag, it is one of the best Android phones you can find on the market. iFixit specialises in breaking devices open to explore their inner workings in order to make it easy for people to repair their own gadgets by taking the guess work out of the process.

iFixit gave the Google Pixel a Repairability Score of six out of 10 (with 10 being the easiest to repair) for the following reasons:

Pros

  • Many components are modular and can be easily replaced once the display (which can be tricky to extract) is removed.
  • The battery has a removal tab and is adhere by a modest amount of adhesive, making its removal painless.
  • The handset uses T5 Torx screws.

Cons

  • The opening procedure requires prying up a very thin and poorly supported display assembly, making it extremely difficult to open the phone up without damage.
  • In addition to screws, the mid-frame is secured by press-fit notches that makes it hard to remove and subsequently repair.

You can find a detailed teardown of the Google Pixel XL over at iFixit.


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