Samsung's Galaxy Note 10.1 far easier to repair than the iPad

Samsung's new Galaxy Note 10.1 has been built in such a way as to make it much easier to repair than Apple's iPad, claims repair experts iFixit.

A teardown revealed that the new tablet, which is only 8.9 mm thin, which makes it marginally thinner than the current iPad 3, is held together using a combination of clips and screws as opposed to using copious amounts of glue like Apple does. The extensive use of glue by Apple makes removing the iPad 3's screen tricky without using heat guns and guitar picks, and even when the greatest care is taken there's a real risk of shattering the screen.

Some adhesive is used in the Galaxy Note 10.1, but its use is described by iFixit as "necessary."

But it doesn't end there. Once inside the Galaxy Note 10.1 iFixit found that different components are connected to the mainboard using separate connectors, reducing repair costs. Even components such as the front and rear camera -- which are usually a single component in most smartphones and tablets -- are separate components in the Galaxy Note 10.1.

Even the battery is easy to replace, which means that Samsung's new tablet isn't designed to become obsolete as soon as the battery starts to degrade.

"Samsung used good ol' Phillips screws, didn't glue the LCD to the front glass, and provided a modular internal layout," writes Miroslav Djuric, iFixit's Chief Information Architect. "All of these aspects of the Note allow the device to be repaired inexpensively and without specialized tooling".

iFixit gave the Galaxy Note 10.1 a respectable 8 out of 10 repairability score, identical to that given to Amazon's Kindle Fire and one point more than Google's Nexus 7.

The result is a far better repairability score than the miserable 2 out of 10 that iFixit awarded the iPad 3. This means the difference between being able to repair something, and -- well -- throwing it in the trash.

Image credit: iFixit.