TL;DR
- Being able to open the phone from both the front and the back is a big step forward in reparability.
- Component replacement generally looks pretty easy, with the notable exceptions of the screen and battery.
This year’s Pixel lineup is all about giving you options. The new positioning of the Pixel 9 Pro feels like a smartphone being made without compromise, squeezing in a whole lot of performance into a package no bigger than the base Pixel 9. But for shoppers who want that kind of power, all of Google’s latest features, and the biggest (non-foldable) screen they can get, the Pixel 9 Pro XL is where it’s at. If you’ve been curious to see what makes this phone tick, it’s finally time to peel back its exterior and get into the guts within, as we check out a video teardown.
This time, it’s the crew over at iFixit cracking open the new Pixel (via 9to5Google), and almost from the get-go, problems start rearing their ugly head. At least, while the Pixel 9 Pro XL is easy enough to start prying apart from the front, the fragile display panel was an early casualty, partially delaminating during removal.
Blessedly, that’s not your only option for getting into the Pixel 9 Pro, and besides removing the screen, there’s also the possibility of going in through the back panel. While iFixit has some concerns about Google’s execution here, this still looks like a far safer option for anyone feeling brave enough to try replacing the phone’s battery.
Remember the temperature sensor from the Pixel 8 Pro that it felt like Google largely forgot about? And how Google didn’t even bother to talk about it returning on the Pixel 9 series? We don’t get the best look at it here, mounted in the back panel like it is, but it scores an overdue shout-out, all the same.
From here, actually getting to the phone’s battery looks pretty easy, and while a few stickers obscure screws you’ll need to remove, there’s not a lot else that’s getting in you way. At least, that’s the case up until you go to pull the battery itself, which is held in place with some serious adhesive. And despite the presence of tabs specifically designed to aid in battery removal, well, good luck:
On the phone’s bottom edge, everything comes out nice and cleanly, and considering how easy it can be to damage a USB-C port, being able to quickly replace the small daughterboard housing it seems pretty convenient.
Getting out the main board and the rear cameras attached to it is a slightly bigger struggle than working with most of the components we’ve seen so far, but so long as you’re careful and pay attention to how brackets are secured, you should be able to get it off without doing (too much) damage. Once that main board’s out, we get a good look at the new Tensor G4 chip powering this generation of Pixel phones:
With all the components out, iFixit gets to show off the mid-plate that forms the core of the Pixel 9 Pro XL’s frame, and helps contribute so much to the phone’s durability.
All in all, it looks like a solid step forward for Google’s smartphone designs — but that’s not a journey that’s over. For all the improvement’s Google managed to make to battery access, actually removing the component is still unnecessarily difficult. And while the phone itself is incredibly sturdy, parts like the display panel are all too easy to damage during disassembly. There’s always next year!
