Can you fix your own phone in 2023? Changing the battery of the Nokia G42

So, armed with no knowledge and no previous experience disassembling smartphones and the provided iFixit kit, I decided to go for the easiest of tasks: changing the battery.

(By the way, there's a step-by-step guide at iFixit, which I decided to skip and make things more exciting. You should check it out, as it makes things a bit easier)

Step 1: Taking the back cover off

This one's trickier than you'd think. First, you need to remove the SIM tray with the SIM ejector tool. Underneath, there's a tiny slot where you stick the triangle guitar pick-like tool in order to separate the back from the phone. You go around the back, and the plastic clips pop with a disconcerting sound.

In the end, the back was off, but it suffered minor damage in the process—some scuffs and dents from the prying tool. The back of the Nokia G42 is plastic, and a soft one at that. When removing the back, you should pay attention to the flex cable connecting the power and volume buttons to the phone.

Step 2: Taking off some plastic covers that you actually don't have to

Looking at the opened device, I decided I should remove the bottom cover, shielding the USB port and some flex cable connections. It looked like these cables needed to pop out before I could pull the battery out.

Well, it turned out that you could leave the bottom plastic cover on; the flex cables run below the battery, and you don't have to disconnect them.

Step 3: Removing the plastic cover that matters

The top plastic that covers the motherboard has to go. The battery cable is underneath, and even though you could technically remove the bracket holding that cable and try to lift the battery, the iFixit guide recommends removing the whole motherboard cover.

I used the provided Philips screwdriver to undo the screws and lift the whole thing off, battery cable bracket included.

Step 4: Disconnecting the battery cable

This is done with a tool called a spudger; you stick it under the connector and gently lift it with a wiggling motion. Plain and simple, I just started to worry about putting these little connectors back into their pockets.

The battery looked ready to go at this point, so I braced myself for the hardest part, as it required a fair amount of force.

Step 5: Pulling out the battery

This wasn't easy. There's a green plastic pull tab that you pull to separate the battery from the adhesive underneath. After some careful pulling and wiggling with no effect whatsoever, I applied a little more force and snapped the plastic band in half.

Fortunately, there was enough of the thing left to hold onto, and with the help of the funnily named spudger, I was able to pry the battery out. It went out with horrible tearing noises that got me worried about the display and flex cables underneath, but everything was safe and sound.

Step 6: Swapping the battery and putting everything back together

The Nokia that I used in this experiment was brand new, so I just put the battery back in and repeated all the steps in reverse order. I also realized that once you've done this one or two times, it gets much easier. By the time I had the phone assembled again, there were no missing screws or leftover parts, which is a good sign.

I powered up the phone, and it booted with no traces of my surgical intervention. Success. Mission accomplished! Now it's time for some final thoughts.

Final thoughts

So, can you change the battery on your phone in 2023? Absolutely! If the phone is designed to be user repairable, if you have the right tools, and if you can follow instructions closely (or, in my case, loosely).

The real question here is, why do we need to train ourselves in smartphone repair to be able to do something that used to require five seconds, no tools, and no special training whatsoever? I was able to swap the battery in my old LG G3 in mere seconds, and this phone was much thinner than the Nokia G42, and while not technically water resistant, it survived more than a couple of water encounters.

To be fair to HMD Global, making the phone repairable is a step in the right direction. I'm not sure if anyone would actually try to change a broken screen, but it's better to have that option nonetheless.