Galaxy S6 - Teardown

It’s finally here: The new Samsung Galaxy S6 is available for purchase. With its latest flagship model, Samsung is raising the bar a little higher in the upper price segment. We’ll show you what to expect inside the Galaxy S6, and tell you whether repairs are easier than for previous models.

Let’s take a quick look at the key data:

• OS: Android 5.0 (Lollipop)
• Dimensions: 143.4 x 70.5 x 6.8 mm, 138 g
• Display: 5.1" FHD Super AMOLED (2560 x 1440), 576 ppi
• RAM: 3 GB
• Memory: 32/64/128 GB
• Rear camera: 16 MP (3840 x 2160 pixels)
• Front camera: 5 MP
• Battery: 2550 mAh

Like on most popular Samsung models, you have to remove the back cover of the smartphone first.
Oh no, what happened? There’s no longer a convenient way to simply take the cover off the smartphone. The back cover is really glued on, which will have a negative effect on repairs.

With the patience of a saint and the strength of Hercules, we manage to get the back cover off the smartphone. One good thing is that Samsung didn’t use cement.

At least the enclosure looks more delicate and cohesive because the back cover’s glued on. We’re still not sure that’s an advantage.

Samsung isn’t done scoring minus points for repairs on the Samsung Galaxy S6. Not only is the battery’s capacity lower than in the previous model, but the battery’s also really glued in place. While we can use removable adhesive strips to take the battery out of an iPhone, we have to play Hercules again to get it out of this model.

Work very slowly and carefully because the tool could damage the battery and cause fluid to come out.

Because batteries get replaced pretty often, this is a major step backward.

In other Samsung Galaxy models, you’d be able to remove the battery now. But Samsung has made some more changes. This is another minus point. More on that in step 7.

Now we remove 13 Phillips screws. Our iDoc Wiha Picofinish PH00 was starting to get impatient and can’t wait to get to work.

But we still can’t get the midframe out. The frame is still clamped securely in the smartphone.Using a suction cup, pick and pressure on the battery, we manage to detach the midframe. Lift the charging pad slightly.

Now we can disconnect the midframe from the display.

You can also disconnect various buttons, the charging pad and the speaker from the midframe. The charging pad’s cables are very thin. Removing the speaker is pretty tough and takes a lot of patience.

But hope springs eternal. Maybe the rest of the teardown will be like taking apart Legos.

As in the iPhone 6, the dock connector and the headphone jack are an integrated unit, which is fastened by a screw. Unfortunately, you can’t just remove the dock connector because the navigation buttons extend from it and are under the front panel, so you have to remove that first.

The adventure continues, and a few more tricky steps lie ahead of us. Now we need heat and the pick again. You have to position the pick between the screen and the frame and carefully detach the glue. Carefully work your way further.You can’t just blindly jam the pick between the frame and the display to detach the glue. There are really tiny resistors in little gaps that you could easily break off. If you’re replacing a screen that’s already broken, this isn’t such a big deal.

Sobald beide Teile getrennt sind kann der Dock-Connector abgeklebt werden.

As soon as you’ve disconnected the parts, you can detach the dock connector. Once again, we can see that removing the display from the Samsung Galaxy S6 won’t be easy. Like in the previous model, the display unit is firmly glued to the frame. Very small parts could break off when you disconnect the display.

The Home button is glued to the display frame and easy to detach.

Now things are getting easier. All we have to do is disconnect all the connectors.

• Display
• Front camera
• Battery
• Earpiece
• Home button
• Antenna cable

Now the logic board is exposed and we can lift it on one side. Like in the previous model, the Samsung Galaxy S5, the dock connector is connected under the logic board. We disconnect it. Now we can simply remove the logic board. We can take the main camera off of the bottom.

Looks like we’ve got the hard steps behind us. The individual parts are easy to get at. We have no trouble removing the:

• Front camera
• Earpiece
• Vibration motor

Samsung decided to break new ground with the Galaxy S6. Not only did Samsung use new materials on the outside, but there are also a lot of changes on the inside, partially due to the new design. But what does that mean for repairing this smartphone?

In our experience, there are two parts that always get replaced on a regular basis. One is the display, which often falls and breaks. The other is the battery, which always has a limited life. Up to Galaxy S4, both of these components were still easy to replace. You’ll need a lot of patience if you want to replace the Samsung Galaxy S6’s display or battery. Both components are glued firmly in place, and could be damaged during removal if they weren’t already defective. In other words, the major challenge is removing components that still work without damaging them.

One improvement on the previous model is that you can replace a lot of parts in just a few steps since you don’t have to remove the battery or display.

But because of the battery and display, we’re still giving this device a bad grade for repairs.

You can quickly remove the speaker, earpiece, cameras and vibration motor
Glued-on parts
The LCD and glass are a single unit and will make replacing the display expensive
Display is glued on; requires heat gun and patience
Battery glued firmly in place
Back cover glued on