Items tagged with Teardown
Following months of rumors and speculation, Apple two weeks ago did what everyone pretty much expected it would, which was announce a smaller size iPhone model with modern guts. Dubbed the iPhone SE, it's not so much a new iPhone as it is a shrinkage of the iPhone 6s. Lest there be any doubt about this, a teardown...
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Even though some may cringe at the thought of the highly anticipated, $600 Oculus Rift being dissected instead of enjoyed, you have to hand it to the folks over at iFixit for giving this season’s hottest tech gadget the teardown treatment. Today, we’re give some insight into how relatively easy it is to repair the...
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Despite its rugged exterior designed to protect it from the unforgiving clumsiness of grade school kids, the ASUS Chromebook C202 is surprisingly easy to operate on and repair at home. That's the takeaway from iFixIt's latest teardown, which noted that "opening the C202 was easier than sticking a straw in a juice...
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There's always that one kid who instead of playing with his toys, he takes them apart to see what makes them tick. He's the neighbor who turned his Rubik's Cube into a pile of squares, straightened out his Slinky, and disassembled his Voltron (fist bump if you get any of those references, your childhood rocked). And...
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Show of hands, how many of you are reading this from an iPad Pro? Anyone? Well that's weird, we were under the impression (provided by Apple CEO Tim Cook) that the iPad Pro was going to kill off the market for traditional PCs and "deluded" devices like Microsoft's Surface Book. Should Cook's prediction eventually...
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It's hard to tell if today's increasingly thin and light laptops pose engineering challenges that cause them to be built in a way that diminish opportunities for do-it-yourself repair, or if the companies making these things purposely make it difficult. Either way, a teardown analysis of Microsoft's new Surface Book...
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Google is prepping a new flagship phone for pre-order sale, the Nexus 6P, and it looks every bit a top-end device. Naturally the only logical thing to do with a high-tech handset loaded to the brim with cutting edge components is tear into the sucker and get a close-up look at its guts. Ah, but save yourself the cost...
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Microsoft is fond of referring to the Surface Pro as a tablet that can replace your laptop, and based on our experience with them, it's not an incorrect statement, at least from a performance and usability standpoint. But as a teardown of the Surface Pro 4 reminds us, there is in fact a difference between tablet PCs...
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As we can attest, it's important to maintain relationships in the tech media industry, otherwise it's a lonely and difficult road. That doesn't mean giving companies special treatment, but it does entail respecting things like non disclosure agreements (NDAs). The folks at iFixIt didn't do that with regards to the...
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The steady handed tech surgeons at iFixIt wasted no time getting their mitts on an iPhone 6s Plus model and gutting it like a Halloween pumpkin. Along with the non-Plus version, Apple released its new flagship iPhone models to retail today and the big question everyone wants to know is, will it blend?
Second to our...
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What's one of the most expensive wearable on the market today? It's the Apple Watch, of course, which starts at $349 and goes all the way up to $17,000. An AppleCare+ protection plan and you could be looking at up to an additional $1,500. Or you could take repairs into your own hands. Just how feasible is the DIY...
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Samsung discovered that the not-so-secret formula to reviving interest in its Galaxy line of handsets was to ditch the chintzy plastic construction and roll with a premium design consisting of metal and glass. As a result, the Galaxy S6 and Galaxy S6 Edge have racked up impressive pre-sale figures, though there are...
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Dell's new XPS 13 has been compared to Apple's MacBook Air because of its thin stature and overall aesthetic design. However, it's not just the operating system and spec sheet that separates these two laptops, there's also a big divide when it comes to in-home repair. Getting at the guts of a MacBook Air is more...
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There have been a lot tablets and smartphones to receive the teardown treatment, so it's nice to see a different kind of product get taken apart. This time it's the Amazon Echo in-home personal assistant thingamabob -- essentially a know-it-all smart speaker that acts like Siri but comes in the shape of a tube with a...
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We've said it a thousand times before, but to make it a thousand and one, the big trend in mobile design these days appears to be adhesive, and lots of it. Whether it's a smartphone or tablet device, manufacturers seem obsessed with lathering the chassis with glue to seal the front and back panels together. Breaking...
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We're in the midst of a bad run for mobile devices when it comes to evaluating the level of difficulty in repairing or replacing defective components. Teardown after teardown has shown that mobile device makers are infatuated with adhesive, though there's one portable product that finally bucks the trend -- Amazon's...
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Editor's Update: 11:26AM EST - Though it may not exist in the original iFixIt article, to be clear, the "glue and hackery" comment was made in an email communication to us. And, to be fair, as an informed redditor pointed out, tablets are tough and the iPad Air 2 scored low as well. Still, it begs the question, could...
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If there's ever a shortage of glue, you can be pretty sure that Apple is partially to blame. When it comes to Apple products, teardown after teardown reveals that the glue-happy company isn't afraid to lather its mobile products with adhesive. We saw it recently with the iPad Air 2, and here again with the recently...
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If a part goes bad in your PC, you whip off the side panel door, yank out the defective component, and replace it with a working one. But should something inside your tablet give up the ghost, you better cross your fingers it's still under warranty, because in most cases, do-it-yourself (DIY) is going to be difficult...
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Apple has a history of trying to prevent owners of its products from mucking around inside its devices, and in case you thought the company turned over a new leaf with its Mac Mini system, think again. Though the previous model was relatively easy to service at home -- it scored an 8 out of 10 on iFixIt's teardown...
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Apple made a splash during its press event earlier in the week by introducing a new 27-inch iMac model with a 5K "Retina" display. That's not a typo -- at a time when PC sales are still trending in the wrong direction, Apple decided the best way to spark renewed interest into its line of all-in-one systems was by...
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Samsung took a page from Apple's design portfolio when it released the Galaxy Alpha, a handset that looks like a stretched out version of the iPhone 5s, complete with metal construction. Yes, the front and back are still made of plastic, but the metal frame gives the handset a premium look and feel that's not...
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