It’s got 5 cameras, an in-display ultrasonic fingerprint sensor and the ability to wirelessly
power share!
It’s the Samsung Galaxy s10 Plus and today we’re going to tear it down.
Even with all the new tech, the process of getting into the the Galaxy S10 Plus hasn’t
changed.
Heating up the rear panel and and carefully cutting away the adhesive will get you inside,
and now that the S10 Plus uses an in-display fingerprint sensor we don’t have to worry
any attached cables when removing the rear panel.
We’ve got a mid frame assembly to deal with next and it’s held in place by a whopping
16 screws.
While this mid-frame might look similar to others we’ve seen in previous Samsung phones,
it has been upgraded to allow wireless charging of other devices.
It will be interesting to see how this feature effects long term battery life.
Disconnecting the front facing cameras cable, is all that’s stopping us from removing
them.
This dual camera system features a 10 MP selfie camera alongside an 8MP RGB depth camera,
which should gather better depth data and make augmented reality effects, like live
focus,look more realistic.
There is just a single cable and 3 phillips screws holding the motherboard in place but
before we lift it out we grab the modular headphone jack and remember to remove the
sim tray.
On the board you can see the 1TB of eUFS storage, and the 12 GB of LPDDR4X RAM with the Qualcomm
Snapdragon 855 layered underneath.
The rear camera system is connected to the underside of the motherboard and pushes right
out.
The 3 cameras that make up this system include a 12MP telephoto camera, a 12Mp wide angle
camera and a 16MP ultra wide angle camera.
The battery is next and it’s strongly glued in place, so we needed to use adhesive remover
to get it free.
The Galaxy S10 plus has 15.79 watt hour battery which is a pretty decent
upgrade from the galaxy s9 Plus’s 3.85 volt 13.48 watt hour battery.
The 6.4 inch Amoled display remains, glued to the frame.
Fortunately with a little heat and some delicate prying we’re able to lift it up an off.
The Ultrasonic fingerprint sensor is glued to the back of the display and while we were
able to lift it’s cable up, digging any further seems like it’s going to be pretty
destructive, so we’ll leave it in place for now.
This definitely seems like it’s not a user replaceable part.
With the Galaxy S10 plus fully disassembled it’s time to think about repairability.
The S10 plus scored a 3 out of 10 and here’s why
Draft repairability bullets!
Comments welcome
On the upside A single Phillips driver takes care of all
the threaded fasteners.
The speaker, cameras, and headphone jack (yay!) remain 100% modular, but the USB-C port is
now soldered directly to the main board.
But on the downside The battery remains mightily glued down and
problematic to replace.
Shattered screens—among the most common of all repairs—require a near-total teardown
to fix.
All repairs entail heating and slicing through stubborn layers of glue—which must then
be replaced.