TL;DR
- Samsung’s Galaxy S22 and S22 Ultra have been dissected by iFixit.
- The phones received a repairability score of three out of 10.
The Samsung Galaxy S22 series generally looks like a great trio of flagship phones, featuring powerful internals (at least when it comes to the Snapdragon variant), upgraded main cameras on the base and Plus models, and an S Pen slot on the Ultra variant.
One thing you won’t be getting here though is a DIY-friendly design, according to the folks over at iFixit. The outlet conducted a teardown of the Galaxy S22 and Galaxy S22 Ultra, awarding a repairability score of three out of 10 for both devices.
The outlet said that the only upside to the S22 and S22 Ultra teardowns was that they used standard Phillips screws. Otherwise, it called the battery replacement process “too difficult” and said every repair requires users to deal with tough adhesive.
The complaints didn’t stop here, as iFixit lamented the lack of a free, public service manual for the phones and criticized the “awful” screen repair process. It also expressed disappointment with the base S22’s switch back to a glass back instead of more durable plastic,
Either way, the Galaxy S22 and S22 Ultra’s score is a long way off devices like the iPhone 13 Pro (six out of 10) and Pixel 5a (six out of 10). Then again, you should probably consider something like the FairPhone 4 if you really want a DIY-friendly device, getting a perfect score from iFixit.
