Samsung’s newest smartwatch is the latest to fall victim to iFixit’s teardown treatment. Fortunately for potential buyers, there’s good news as the wrist watch isn’t all that difficult to get apart and repair should you ever need to.
To gain entry, use a Torx driver to remove four small screws and give it a little prying. There are no cables to contend with when removing the rear panel as all communication is handled via spring contacts.
Once inside, the battery is easily accessible and even has a pull tab to make removal a breeze.
Unlike the original Gear, Samsung has moved the camera from the wrist strap into the brushed metal surface of the watch itself. That’s good news should you ever want to replace the band with something a bit more stylish.
Digging deeper, the team ultimately dug past the music / speakerphone speaker (held in place with light foam tape) and noted a series of gaskets that lined the case and the screw holes – enough to garner an IP 67 certification.
Going deeper still reveals the LCD and digitizer are connected to the motherboard via a single cable. The 2-megapixel camera was also in the way and had to come out before getting to the actual board which contains the meat of the hardware.
All said and done, the Gear 2 earned a very respectable repairability score of eight out of 10 (10 being the easiest to repair). It received high praise for the removable wrist band while the use of screws, clips and spring contacts made it easy to get into. Also, the battery is a cinch to replace once it expires down the road.
The only thing the team didn’t like was the fused display assembly glued into the front of the device as it’ll make replacement a little difficult and costly.
