Samsung’s Galaxy S10 gets the iFixit treatment; will be quite expensive to repair

Samsung’s new 2019 Galaxy S10 family has  **just hit certain retail stores in India** today and even gone on sale online. While our review of the Exynos variant of the Galaxy S10 Plus is already out, the teardown specialists at iFixit got their hands on all three units and they just could not hold back on prying them open and revealing some deep, dark secrets. iFixit got their hands on the standard Galaxy S10, the lower-priced Galaxy S10e and the bigger Galaxy S10 Plus which in India retails from Rs 73,990. [caption id=“attachment_6128711” align=“alignnone” width=“1024”] The Galaxy S10 E, Galaxy S10 and the Galaxy S10 Plus. Image: Samsung[/caption] The teardown specialists gave the smartphone an above average repairability score of 3. Carefully opening the smartphones, the team discovered plenty of parts being held together by adhesive. According to iFixit, even the back panel was easy to pull out while a single Phillips-head screwdriver could be used to open various layers and get to the motherboard. This means that getting the motherboard replaced is not too difficult. After getting to the motherboard, the team discovered that there were a surprising number of modular parts. The 3.5 mm headphone jack too is a modular component making it easy to replace if it gets damaged. [caption id=“attachment_6223771” align=“alignnone” width=“1280”] Teardown of the Samsung Galaxy S10 and the Galaxy S10e. Image: iFixit.[/caption] But then they quickly discovered how the USB-C charging port is literally soldered to the motherboard. This meant that replacing the USB-C port without replacing the motherboard is quite difficult. In the event that the port gets damaged the owner may have to replace the entire motherboard which will turn out to be quite expensive. Samsung also glued down the battery, making replacements a difficult task. But nothing beats the placement of the S10 and S10 Plus model’s fingerprint scanner. Attached directly to the display, the sensor is almost a part of the screen itself. If something goes wrong with the sensor or the display, the display will need to be replaced along with the fingerprint scanner, which will cost a bomb.