Inside the Samsung Galaxy S9 Plus

Getting yourself a new Samsung Galaxy S9 Plus? Don't break it!

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Thinner. Lighter. Faster. Less repairable. The modern smartphones trends continue with the Samsung Galaxy S9 Plus, which gets an even poorer repairability score than the latest crop of iPhones in iFixit's teardown of it.

The Galaxy S9 Plus is what we've come to expect from a modern smartphone -- a slab of glass held together by tiny screws and adhesive -- and as such repairability isn't a high priority when designing these products. Although as the iPhone battery debacle has highlighted, once your smartphone gets to be a few years old, you might be wishing that repairability, especially battery replacement, was easier.

Replacing the battery in the Galaxy S9 Plus isn't without its headaches. You have to navigate past adhesive, easily broken ribbon cables, and use a special adhesive remover to get at your prize.

The teardown did reveal some interesting surprises:

• The battery is held down firmly with adhesive, and doesn't look like something that I'd like to prise out without using adhesive remover
• The battery is the same specification as the one found in last year's S8, as well as the infamous Note7
• The headphone jack -- yes, a headphone jack -- which is a failure point on devices, seems pretty easy to fix

All in all, the Galaxy S9 Plus scores a pretty poor repairability score of 4 out of 10 (where 10 is easiest to repair). Compare this to the iPhone 8 and X, which both scored 6 out of 10, and neither of those devices are easy to repair.

So, if you're planning to pick up a Samsung Galaxy S9 Plus then a good case might be a worthwhile investment, as might insurance to cover breakage.

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