Every year we tear down a ton of devices and most of the time we find small changes and
spec bumps.
But every so often we find something that really peaks our interest.
These are our most interesting teardown finds of 2019.
When the Galaxy Buds were released in march of 2019 we were skeptical of how similar they
might be to the airpods.
But right off the bat we were happy due to the buds being easy to open.
All it took was some a little squeezing, prying, and unscrewing to take it apart.
Unlike most other earbuds, in the Galaxy Buds were designed so the batteries were easy to
access.
The process of repairing and recycling these buds is easier and safer since the batteries
are easy to remove.
And button cell batteries are all you need to keep these buds going, so you never have
to worry about not eng able to find the right battery.
They’re available at your corner store or online where other household batteries are
sold.
Then came along the AirPods Pro, a brand new form factor for Apple’s AirPods.
With the Airpods history of being completely un-repairable, scoring a disastrous 0 out
of 10 on our repairability scale, we were pretty sure that the Airpods pro would be
just as terrible.
But to our surprise we saw improvements, small improvements but it’s better than nothing.
The opening procedure proved to be slightly easier, Using some squeezing and prying with
picks the airpods open up.
But wait there’s more!
The battery that was usually in the stem of the airpod, and almost impossible to remove
without complete destruction, was now an easier to access button cell battery just like the
one we found in the galaxy bud!
Insane right???
We also spot a zif connector which means that you can actually separate the two halfs safely.
While the rest is still hard to separate and remove from the Airpods this was still a step
in the right direction but not a big enough step to improve their score.
They still got a 0 out of 10.
In October the highly anticipated Galaxy Fold was released, after being delayed from it’s
initial release date back in April!
The first time we started hearing about the fold, reviewers had a ton of technical issues.
Mysterious bumps in the display, a removable display covering that is not supposed to come
off-whoops- and it also had some other random failures.
This made Samsung pull the device before it was even released to the public.
Well, October came around and the Galaxy Fold was back!
This time with a giant warning label of things not to do.
For instance it says to not press too hard with your fingernail.
Some other changes we noticed were that Samsung added a small protective bezel to counter
the large gaps at the center of the device, and the hinges on the frame that were once
bare are now covered with tape to prevent dirt and grime from getting under the display.
Samsung also reinforced the display with an extra metal layer and even extended th e advanced
polymer protective layer to the edges of the display making it less of a temptation for
people to pull off.
These fixes might have improved the durability of the fold but it still only scored a 2 out
of 10 on our repairability scale.
Later on in the teardown season Microsoft released a device that we had no idea was
going to impress us The Surface Laptop 3.
WIth its history of requiring complete destruction to disassemble, we went into this teardown
with our scalpels ready.
But by golly were we really wrong this time.
The opening procedure was now completely non destructive.
Removing some screws and lifting up the upper case gives us full access to the laptops innards.
Before, this process would destroy the outer layer so kudos to Microsoft on this one.
Also this machine definitely surprised us when we realized that we can easily upgrade
and replace the SSD.
The SSD is in plain sight and just one screw gets in the way of removal.
Many other parts are also modular so we are happy that microsoft took a step in the right
direction!
Just goes to show that a machine can go from a 0 out of 10 to a decent 5 without compromising
form factor!
And lastly, much to the distress of many of our viewers we found that the new 6 thousand
dollar Mac Pro does in fact grate cheese.
Just not well.
It also became Apple’s highest scoring device for as long as we can remember getting a 9
out of 10.
We’re already hearing rumblings about new devices heading our way, and we guaranteed
to have some extremely interesting teardown finds in 2020.
Make sure you’re subscribed to our channel to be the first to see what we find next!