After numerous rumors and leaks, the HTC One M8 is finally out, and will be available starting today. This time the company has gone a step further, and made the smartphone available the same day it was announced. Apart from the gorgeous looks and metallic chassis, many Android enthusiasts would like to know what lies under the hood such as detailed tech specs and the repairability score by the ever-popular folks at iFixit.
The new HTC One may at first look a lot like its predecessor, but on closer inspection, we can find a redesigned housing, larger display, powerful tech specs and a brand new Sense UI giving a modern look to the smartphone.
HTC One M8 Teardown
As always, the folks over at iFixit took the HTC One M8 and ripped it apart to find out details on its internal components, and also to see how much of the smartphone is repairable in case it gets damaged. The first step to get started was by opening the case of the smartphone.
As per iFixit, removing the rear case was easy, compared to last year. Adhesive and clips from last year was replaced with screws and that’s certainly a good point. Messy cables have been replaced with spring contacts, which makes it easy to remove the phone’s assembly.
Delving deeper, the team found that the motherboard is glued to the base which definitely hurts the reparability score of the phone. If you want to remove or replace the battery, then you’ll first need to remove the motherboard, but the worst part is that the battery too is glued to the LCD. This means that if your phone’s display is damaged, then you’ll need to undertake the pretty challenging task of removing the motherboard and the battery, and only then you’ll be able to get access to the display.
The display assembly cannot be replaced without tunneling through the entire phone. This makes one of most common repairs, a damaged screen, very difficult to accomplish.
Apart from the regular difficulties when taking it apart, the team says that “Copious amounts of tape, adhesive, and copper shielding make many components difficult to remove and replace” and that again does not comes in favor of the smartphone.
Overall the new HTC One 2014 gets a mere 2 out of 10 repairability score, with 10 being the most repairable. The original HTC One of last year got a score of 1, and now this new HTC One gets a 2, but this small improvement is not enough to call this phone a very “repairable” one.
