The folks at iFixIt are back again, this time tearing down the Galaxy Note 7 from Samsung. With these teardowns, we get to see the innards of the smartphone, but also learn how repairable they are. Basically, if something breaks on the device, will you be able to fix it yourself? According to iFixIt, on the Galaxy Note 7, it looks unlikely.
To get started, the back of the phone must be removed. Using a whole lot of heat, suction cups, and a repurposed guitar pick, the backside glass comes off not so easily. On the upside, once it’s removed, easily removable Phillips screws secure the wireless charging coil. Once taken out, access is provided to the battery, speaker, and other goodies.
All in all, the Galaxy Note 7 is not easily repairable. However, it’s not impossible. iFixIt rates the Note 7 at a 4 for repairability. To compare, the Galaxy S7 received a 3 out of 10 and the Nexus 6P received a 2 out of 10. So, yeah, it’s a bit better than those.
Check out this little gallery, then read the complete iFixIt teardown by following the via link below.
Stupid question – the teardown notes “a nearby infrared blaster” as part of the Iris camera. Can we use this as an IR blaster that we lost last generation?
I’m about 99% sure you can not. That infrared blaster is to read your iris pattern. Not for use as a remote control. Maybe some dev will root the device and make an app to make it possible to use as a remote someday though. But it would be super inconvenient since you would have to point your phone screen at your tv to change the channel.
No.. different technologies…
iFixit gave my previous One M8 a 2/10 as well and I was able to replace the battery and USB port and be back on my phone in about 20 mins with 0 prior experience working on phones/tabs. Watch/follow a teardown vid, get a cheap toolkit for $10 or less online and you’ll likely have little problem.
Not sure how you got that thing open without heat, and given that the battery is adhered to the back of the lcd and you have to remove the motherboard (which is also glued down) to get to it, which itself lies under a copious amount of tape and heat shielding, I have absolutely no clue how you tore it down and put it back together in 20 minutes. Not that I don’t believe you, but you clearly must have some innate phone fixing skills.
The only place I saw that heat would have helped was the speaker grill covers, but I just pried them up since I had replacements already too and didn’t need to reuse them. The mobo was only screwed down, not glued. There was a lot of thermal tape, but it peeled off pretty easily and in once piece pretty much since it all overlapped and I just folded it back while I removed everything else. Battery was glued down, but it didn’t take much prying with my metal pry tool to get it up as it was only one thin strip of glue on one side of the battery as I remember. The thermal tape was the hardest/slowest part of the repair, but it wasn’t that bad to me.
Well good work, dude. I’ve repaired a couple of phones over the years (the screen on my wife’s Bionic and Note 3, and the screen on my G3), and I now have the task of replacing the charging dock port on my wife’s Note 5. I’m really not looking forward to getting that glass back off! I was curious about the M8 when you mentioned how easy it was to replace the battery, so I checked out the teardown on ifixit. The fact that you found that battery easy to replace made me doubt my skills! 🙂 All that tape and adhesive made me shudder. At least the motherboard wasn’t glued down like they said.
Hah, thanks. It looks a lot harder on the vids/teardowns than it really is, to me at least. But the newer Samsung phones do look a bit worse than my M8 was, so I wish you GL with that! My wife has a Note5 as well, but she just got it a few months ago (for free too with the Samsung Mobile Insights program) so it’s still under warranty for a while fortunately. I’ve had to warranty it once already actually because the display randomly died on it once. Yours isn’t still under warranty? They’re barely a year old now.
Good thought, but unfortunately her issue is more one of wear/tear/abuse than hardware failure. The 5-pin thingy (I’m sure that’s the technical name) inside the port on the phone actually got bent and ended up breaking off. Not exactly sure how it happened, but she has quite a way with breaking phones! 🙂
My M7 was no where near that easy to replace the battery. It sadly never went back together properly 🙁 Best phone I’ve ever used.
Would it cease to be water-resistant once you or a shop open it up to repair it?
Yep
Not if properly reassembled no.
Hmm… ditch the S Pen, expand battery to 4000mah, flatten the screen, and sell it as the S7plus launching alongside the Note7 every year (to take advantage of marginal updates that occur between S7 and Note 7 releases) for the same price as the Note7. Boom! I’d personally still buy the Note because I use the S Pen but I think there would be a whole lot of happy people is Samsung did it this way.
I do wish Samsung launched both phones at the same time like Apple does. When they do it the current way I compare the note 7 to the s7 edge even though it isn’t apples to apples. It just makes me want to stick with my note 4 until it dies/slows down and upgrade next year when the note 8 is released.
I can see it both ways I guess… The only way that would work for me is if they add the updates they put into the Note 7 into the S7 lineup… mainly the new AQSTIC DAC, updated touchwiz, USB-C w/USB3.1 Gen 1, updated screen with higher brighness and HDR video capabilities, etc. I think the way they are doing it now is ok as long as the Note still remains an update over what the S7 has due to availability of technology at the time and etc but otherwise I’d be fine with a March release for the Note. I just think they need to release a Note and another device with everything the Note is only without an S Pen and with a bigger battery… A flat screen would be fine too to help ensure a bigger battery would fit.
If the scrap the Note 7 all together, then maybe they will launch the Note 8 and S8 at the same time in the Spring. But I think the reason they do one in the spring and one in the fall is because crApple releases their phones in the Fall.
1. Ditch S-Pen
2. 4000mAh battery
3. Flatten screen and keep it 5.7 or 5.8″ OR make it 6″ or 6.1″ and keep it curved
4. 6GB RAM, 128GB storage and a SD 821/823
That’d be a true flagship flagship, since the Note line seems to have become somewhat watered-down and like a (barely) bigger brother to the GS Edge.
Just about every flagship launched this year had 4gb so I just don’t think that’s a huge deal breaker. My note 5 flies with only 4gb for example. I think Samsung needs to still have an S-Pen optioned phone and that should still be called the Note… my point is that they need to also release a phone alongside the Note called the S7Plus (indicating larger screen size) for people who buy Notes but don’t care about the S Pen.. then they would have the extra space needed to make the battery bigger. This would allow Samsung to basically use the same chassis with slightly different internals so they wouldn’t have to completely reinvent the wheel. I’m guessing the S8Edge will have the same edge the new Note7 has when it releases in the Spring.
Absolutely do not care about reparability. I take care of my phone and I get a new one every year.
Funny thing is…For someone, somewhere, this is the biggest critical issue for them on a device.
Everyone seems to have a hill they will die on for any device.
Honestly I’m not sure I’d want to risk it anyway.