Motorola Razr (2019) Gets Torn Down, Scores 1 on iFixit's Repairability Index

Motorola launched its foldable Razr phone in November last year that went on sale recently, and now it has got iFixit's teardown treatment. The results, as you might expect, were not in Motorola's favour as the phone got a reparability score of just 1 out of 10, putting it among the three worst phones when it comes to reparability. The other two phones in this group being the Essential Phone and the HTC One. iFixit says the Razr phone “might be the most complex phone they've tore down yet”, and that's saying something.

In a video of the teardown, iFixit removed one of the batteries and showed that to take out the other battery, the whole display has to come out. And, Motorola charges $299 (roughly Rs. 21,300) for replacing the screen, which is surprising because even though tearing it down, is a lot more complex than other smartphones, this price is still less than what you would have to pay for an iPhone 11 screen replacement.

Some of the major issues that iFixit points out are that the charging port is soldered to the main board, the multiple flex cables make repairing it even more tricky, and there are glued-on outer covers for most of the parts. iFixit did appreciate the fact that the teardown was “non-destructive” and that only a standard T3 Torx screwdriver is required when it comes to opening screws.

So why does reparability matter so much? Being one of the first foldable phones, the Motorola Razr has a prominent gap between the hinge and the display which raises the question of durability since tiny particles can get inside the phone quite easily and mess with the folding mechanism. The issue of the gap was what caused the first Samsung Galaxy Fold to fail in its original form. The difference here though, is that the gap in the Motorola Razr only appears when it is halfway through the folding process.

The Motorola Razr costs $1,500 (roughly Rs. 1.06 lakh) which is pretty expensive. It is powered by Snapdragon 710 processor and has 6GB RAM and 128GB storage. The main display is a 6.2-inch screen with a resolution of 876x2,142 pixels.