Google‘s tenacious $450 midrange smartphone, the new Pixel 6a, has been disassembled before it has even been made available to the general public; the launch is set for later this week. Google Pixel 6a received a teardown and a repairability score which is better than its predecessor.
The relentless disassembler PBK took apart a Pixel 6a over the weekend and gave it a very good repairability score of 7/10, better than the Google Pixel 6 Pro’s 5.5/10 score because of its more difficult-to-remove parts, notably the battery unit.
Thankfully, the battery’s center wasn’t as tightly attached as it is on the Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro, so it came out relatively simply. Additionally, Google attaches the display with clips rather than a tonne of adhesive, and the panel can be taken off quite easily.
The Pixel 6a’s “3D thermoformed composite” plastic back, which can also be unglued, makes it unlike other modern glass-bodied phones in that you won’t have to constantly watch over it.
The only ho-hum aspect in terms of repairability is the USB-C charging port that is soldered to the mainboard together with Google’s Tensor chipset and all other silicon paraphernalia, so if you break the port you may be in for a larger repair than needed.
Google, however, recently entered a partnership with iFixit for providing genuine spare parts and repair schematics that should make fixing a Pixel 6a cheaper and easier, in a move to preempt any mandates stemming from the recent Right to Repair Act passing.
The brand-new Google Pixel 6a packaging contained some trash, and there were scuffs on the polycarbonate rear and camera lens bezel when the disassembly unfortunately started. We can only hope that early adopters won’t have similar catastrophes on a frequent basis, since it would again point to Google’s Pixel phone assembly partners’ failings in terms of quality control.
RELATED
