The Galaxy S20+ gets a meager repair score of 3 from iFixit

Samsung’s first batch of premium products for 2020 are getting torn down left and right. And we don’t mean heavily criticized, but literally disassembled to their core components. The culprits are usually the same, the team of iFixit. They went through the foldable Galaxy Z Flip, the massive Galaxy S20 Ultra and even the Galaxy Buds+.

Now, it’s time for the middle-sized S20, the Galaxy S20+, to reveal its internals to us and show how easy it is to repair. Well, see for yourself in the video below:

After all the components are separated from each other, the verdict is out, and it’s a harsh one. A repairability score of just 3 out of 10 for the Galaxy S20+. Watching that video, you might think that it wasn’t that bad, but keep in mind those are people that disassemble phones for a living.

In case you couldn’t watch the video or didn’t have the sound on, here’s why the S20+ got such a low score:

First, the OLED display is mounted directly to the frame without any additional support for rigidity, which makes it extremely easy to damage it when removing it. So, even if only the protective glass is cracked and the OLED panel itself is intact, you’re very likely to break it while repairing the other damage.

Second, the battery is glued to the back panel with excessive amounts of adhesive. Sure, no one wants parts moving around but it’s not like the battery has many places to go sandwiched between the phone’s front and back panels.

One the bright side, Samsung uses standard phillips-head screws, but that was only enough to bump the score to the aforementioned 3. Somewhat surprising, considering Samsung did such a good job with improving the repairability of its Galaxy Buds+ that got 7 out of 10.

Hopefully, Samsung will take note when designing the Galaxy Note 20 and will at least dial down the glue dispenser.