Samsung Galaxy S21 Teardown: Still low in repairability
The Samsung Galaxy S21 has been finally announced last month. The release is earlier than usual so the South Korean tech giant has more time to promote the three new variants. There are three new premium flagship smartphones: the Galaxy S21, Galaxy S21+, and the Galaxy S21 Ultra. The Ultra already comes with S-Pen support as Samsung has extended the Galaxy Note experience to the Galaxy S series. IFixit has managed to do a teardown analysis of the Galaxy S21.
Before this, JerryRigEverything did a Galaxy S21 Ultra video disassembly that revealed the phone’s low repairability. As for the regular Samsung Galaxy S21, the teardown tells us it’s also not that repairable. Repairability score is only 4 out of 10.
What’s good about the Galaxy S21 is that opening it only requires one driver for the identical Phillips screws. You can’t mix up the screws but this means repair can be simple.
Watch the Samsung Galaxy S21 Teardown below:
There is no headphone jack so the USB-port will be used more often that as intended. We find it interesting that components are modular. They are also independently replaceable. If you plan on replacing the battery or screen, you may have to be careful because they are sticky and complicated as described.
