Samsung Galaxy Note 9 Gets Low Repairability Score in iFixit Teardown

Samsung launched the Galaxy Note 9 at an event in New York earlier this month, and the smartphone came with slight upgrades to its design, upgraded specifications, and an improved S Pen. Samsung's Galaxy Note line is known for its low repairability score, and iFixit did a teardown of the Galaxy Note 9 to see if the tech giant had made any changes this time around. Unfortunately, upon dissection, iFixit found issues with battery replacement, opening up the phone, and display repairs as well and therefore gave it a low repairability score of 4 out of 10.

iFixit notes that the Galaxy Note 9 is glued together with strong adhesive, and they had to show it heat, use suction, and slice the panel open. Once opened, they found the massive 4,000mAh battery to be glued down, making it difficult to replace. Also, iFixit notes that the battery weighs more than what it weighed on the Galaxy Note 8. Even the S Pen was difficult to open without damage.

The DIY repair site gave the Galaxy Note 9 a low repairability score because of the difficulty in replacing the battery, and servicing even a small component requires the engineer to 'painstakingly un-glue (and later re-glue) the glass rear panel.' Furthermore, 'display repairs require replacing the entire chassis or tediously separating the gluey cracked glass.'

iFixit has some positives to say about the Galaxy Note 9 as well. It claims that the components are more modular for easy removal, and the screws used are standard Phillips screws making it easy to unscrew them. The Samsung Galaxy Note 9 price in India starts from Rs. 67,900 for the 6GB RAM/ 128GB storage variant, while the 8GB RAM/ 512GB storage variant costs Rs. 84,900