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The Galaxy Note 8 received a 4/10 repairability score from iFixit, a San Luis Obispo, California-based electronics repair service known for its many product teardowns. The device experts from the firm found Samsung’s new Android-powered flagship to be hard to disassemble for the purposes of component replacement, noting how every potential repair of the handset involves removing its rear glass panel which is stuck to the frame of the smartphone with a significant amount of adhesive and is hence prone to breaking during this step. Even replacing the front 6.3-inch Super AMOLED screen of the Galaxy Note 8 requires first removing its back plate, iFixit said, noting that while the Infinity Display of the device is extremely susceptible to breaking, most scenarios warranting its removal would likely be caused by the module itself already being broken.
The company also found a straightforward battery replacement to be out of the question with the Galaxy Note 8, saying that while its cell can still be replaced, Samsung’s decision to use a large volume of tough adhesive made the process “unnecessarily difficult,” adding that the same applies to its rear panel and the manner in which it’s attached to the frame of the handset. On the bright side, the Galaxy Note 8 only features standard Phillips screws, meaning all of them can be removed with an affordable repair kit, and a wide variety of the phablet’s components are modular and can hence be replaced without any soldering work or a complete motherboard replacement. iFixit’s overall findings related to the repairability of the Galaxy Note 8 are largely similar to the ones the company listed earlier this year after tearing down the Galaxy S8 Plus, describing that particular device as yet another one of Samsung’s high-end offerings whose unique design makes repairs difficult, but not outright impossible, thus awarding it the same repairability score.
The Galaxy Note 8 is presently up for pre-orders in many parts of the world and is scheduled for a commercial release on Friday, September 15. While iFixit and several other repair services already stated that Samsung’s latest phablet isn’t particularly easy to disassemble, it still fares well compared to many of its high-end alternatives like the Essential PH-1 which iFixit recently deemed almost impossible to repair.
