Nothing phone (1) becomes the "least repairable phone of 2022" on a popular device teardown YouTube channel

2022 has yet again been a year of new iPhones that discourage third-party servicing with strategic software locks. Nevertheless, the 14 series avoided being branded Hugh Jeffreys' least repairable mobile devices of the year so far thanks to a switch to a much more "modular" design in the 14 and 14 Plus for the first time in several generations.0

Then again, even the 14 Pro and Pro Max (which have proven as unattractive to teardown enthusiasts as their predecessors) avoided this criticism in any case thanks to the Nothing phone (1).

Its faux-transparent design and Glyph lighting makes the dissection of one of its units even more difficult compared to the average modern Android device; in addition, Jeffreys noted that replacing its display results in fingerprint reader dysfunction, due to the inability to re-calibrate it following a repair.

The same cannot be said of the Pixel 7, as its OEM Google makes the software tools required freely available in its case. The new vanilla flagship traded blows with the Galaxy S22 for the repairability crown in Jeffreys' new video; however, they both ultimately lost out to the Fairphone 4 for slightly obvious reasons.

The Australian vlogger did concede that his assessments are limited in that he could hardly access every smartphone released in the past 10 months or so. In addition, 2022 might have some new smartphones left in it yet, as some OEMs, most notably Xiaomi, might scramble to get their new Snapdragon 8 Gen 2-powered flagships onto the market before the end of the year.

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