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iFixit
Samsung’s latest flagship handset, the Galaxy S5, isn’t easily repairable, a new teardown from iFixit has revealed.
iFixit, which provides periodic teardowns on tech gear and also sells products that DIYers can use to repair devices, gave the Galaxy S5 a repairability score of five out of 10. The device earned praise for a battery that’s “incredibly easy to remove and replace,” but was taken to task for requiring users to remove the display before even having the chance to fix anything else, effectively “risking extra damage on the way to a repair.”
Samsung unveiled the Galaxy S5 earlier this year. The device comes with a quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon processor and runs Android 4.4.2 (KitKat). Samsung’s handset, which also comes with a 5.1-inch HD display and 16-megapixel rear camera, will go for $200 on a two-year contract. The Galaxy S5 is pitted against HTC’s One M8 and Sony’s Xperia Z2 in the current Android race.
In addition to judging the Galaxy S5 on repairability, iFixit looked at what was under the hood. The company found that the device’s 2GB of onboard RAM has been provided by Elpida, while the 16GB of storage comes from Samsung itself.
The Galaxy S5’s relatively low repairability score stands in stark contrast to Samsung’s Gear 2 smartwatch, which was also torn down recently by the folks over at iFixit. That device earned a score of 8 out of 10 for repairability, thanks to the ease with which the watch could be taken apart and components could be replaced.
CNET has contacted Samsung for comment on the teardown results. We will update this story when we have more information.
