Google and Motorola’s lovechild has inevitably found its way into the hands of teardown specialist iFixit. It’s generally good news for the Nexus 6 as it is reasonably easy to repair so long as you can get inside.
Breaching the perimeter of the Nexus 6 will require a bit of prying although the adhesive holding it on didn’t put up too much of a fight. With the rear panel off, however, you still have a lot of screws to remove – 22 to be exact – before making any real progress.
First up is a 3220mAh battery with inductive charging coil. Also of interest is the outer camera assembly; its circular camera lens cover mimics a ring flash. The rear camera itself uses a Sony Exmor IMX 214 CMOS image sensor which is the same model used in the OnePlus One.
Digging a little deeper, the team managed to free the display assembly. Although it was somewhat easy to get to, the display is fused to the digitizer glass meaning it won’t be cheap to replace should you somehow crack the screen.
All said and done, iFixit awarded the Nexus 6 a repairability score of seven out of 10 (10 being the easiest to repair). The phone earned praise for the use of pressure contacts and cable connections that make replacing cameras, buttons and the headphone jack a painless task.
What’s more, the Nexus 6 uses only a single type of screw throughout and although there are a lot to deal with, it’s certainly better than the alternative: clips and gobs of adhesive.
Oh the flip side, several other components are directly soldered to the motherboard which makes them more difficult to replace. And as mentioned earlier, the digitizer is fused to the display meaning you’ll need to replace the entire assembly in the event of a cracked screen – a costly affair.
