iFixit's teardowns usually give a good idea of how repairable a smartphone is, and the website has just published its Pixel 4 XL teardown guide. Going by the website's evaluation criteria, the new Google flagship isn't easy to repair, as it earned a repairability score of 4/10.
While a score of 4/10 appears to be terrible, it's not actually bad when compared to other smartphones. Better put, it's bad but not out of the norm. The Samsung Galaxy Note 10+, for example, was rated even worse at 3/10.
Phones like the OnePlus 7 Pro, Huawei P30 Pro, and the Pixel 3 XL all have repairability scores of 4/10. Phones like the iPhone 11, iPhone 11 Pro Max, and Pixel 3a XL are more repairable, however, with all three having a 6/10 rating.
The guide clarified a few things:
- The 6GB LPDDR4X RAM was made by Micron
- The 64 GB storage was made by SK Hynix
- There appears to be a special RAM module for the Pixel Neural Core
- The biometric system consists of two NIR (Near Infrared) cameras, an NIR dot projector, and an NIR flood emitter
- The Soli radar chip is placed alongside the earpiece speaker, ambient light sensor, and mic
It also confirms that the display is made by Samsung, just like we said a few days ago.