Nexus 5 Gets Teardown by iFixit, Found Easy to Repair

News
By Jane McEntegart
published

Google's Nexus 5 uses minimal amounts of glue.

 

Google's Nexus 5 was announced just last week, and while early adopters wait for their phones to ship, reviews of the device are already live online to help others make their decision. Of course, the iFixit team is also on hand to offer insight into Google's latest flagship phone. It's just a different kind of insight.

In tearing down the Nexus 5, the iFixit team found that the phone is easily repaired at home. In fact, the Nexus 5 scored an 8 out of 10 on the iFixit repairability scale; the phone itself is held together with minimal amounts of glue and plastic clips.

 

Under the hood, iFixit discovered that the quad-core 2.26 GHz Snapdragon 800 is layered beneath the SK Hynix H9CKNNNBPTMRLR-NTM 2 GB LPDDR3-1600 RAM. There was also a Qualcomm LTE/HSPA+/CDMA2K/TDSCDMA/EDGE/GPS transceiver, and Qualcomm power management ICs and audio codec. Sandisk provided the 16 GB of NAND flash, while the WiFi chip and NFC controller are provided by Broadcom. The screen controller is an S3350B from Synaptics.

You can check out the full gallery of photos as well as the step-by-step breakdown over on iFixit.

Follow Jane McEntegart @JaneMcEntegart. Follow us @tomshardware, on Facebook and on Google+.

Jane McEntegart
10 Comments Comment from the forums
  • tekwiz00
    I came here for the link, and its nowhere to be found
    Reply
  • anonymous_user
    Which link? The one for iFixit is under the title where it says Source: iFixit
    Reply
  • tekwiz00
    gotcha
    Reply
  • bombebomb
    Surprised that Google did everything the opposite of Apple, nope.
    Reply
  • DarkSable
    So there's a way to replace the battery as it gets old, for those of us not scared of hardware. That makes me happy.
    Reply
  • rwinches
    Replaceable headphone jack! no soldering.
    Reply
  • Grandmastersexsay
    There is no way this phone deserves an 8 out of 10 for repairability when you have to take the phone apart to replace the battety.
    Reply
  • DarkSable
    11881172 said:
    There is no way this phone deserves an 8 out of 10 for repairability when you have to take the phone apart to replace the battety.

    That's not what reparability is talking about. That's a feature that a phone either has or that was sacrificed for slimness. The fact that the nexus 5 is slim AND able to have the battery replaced is just a plus.
    Reply
  • Darkk
    11879408 said:
    Um how many people are going to open their smartphone to fix it? Way less than 1% of the people who buy it. I'd rather have tons of glue being used...why? mechanical fasteners can come loose.

    You realize of course they actually use screws to make it easier to take apart and put back together?

    I rather they use more screws and less glue so these things can be fixed or modded easily.

    Reply
  • jchambers2586
    Here is the link to I fix it. http://www.ifixit.com/Teardown/Nexus+5+Teardown/19016
    Reply