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Well, they clearly report on niche phones that they feel have a decent repairability. For example they call out the Fair Phone (which is awesome, but according

Well, they clearly report on niche phones that they feel have a decent repairability. For example they call out the Fair Phone (which is awesome, but according to wikipedia they've only sold 400k phones across all models). It seems if they have limited resources they should focus on the most repairable models of all major phone manufacturers and tip the needle that way.

bdcravens 2y ago
The niche phones I see, as you've mentioned, tend to stand out in some way (open source based, new foldable models, etc), rather than being a variant of a brand they've covered dozens of times. I'm willing to bet that Samsung has hundreds of different SKUs, across their different categories: rugged enterprise phones, S class, A class, etc. At my local Microcenter, they literally have 27 different phones across about a dozen model number of Samsung (A05, A15, A25, etc). Most of them are all built on similar manufacturing processes, so I'm guessing that the repairability of a closely related one is comparable.
- capitainenemo 2y ago
  Yeah, the XCover6 is unique on repairability due to its design, thus the good score in the report I linked. Replaceable battery (one of the more common things that needs replacing as a phone ages). But also: "Everything else is relatively easy too, Samsung used standard Phillips screws and didn’t go wild with the glue. Also, not only does this phone have a 3.5mm headphone jack, it is a separate module held by a screw. It does take some disassembly to get to it, but it is not soldered to the board. The USB-C charging port is on a separate PCB, the pogo pins (which can also be used for charging) are below that and the speaker assembly." So, I feel if they'd call out FairPhone (which rightly deserves the 10 out of 10) they could also highlight this effort from Samsung to encourage things like this, one that maybe warrants an... 8? Just guessing :) 'course, thanks to the EU replaceable batteries will probably be a lot more common, although maybe not as easily swappable as this one. The other things are fairly unique too - perhaps they were aiming for easier repair since it was a business/military phone.

bdcravens 2y ago

The niche phones I see, as you've mentioned, tend to stand out in some way (open source based, new foldable models, etc), rather than being a variant of a brand they've covered dozens of times. I'm willing to bet that Samsung has hundreds of different SKUs, across their different categories: rugged enterprise phones, S class, A class, etc. At my local Microcenter, they literally have 27 different phones across about a dozen model number of Samsung (A05, A15, A25, etc). Most of them are all built on similar manufacturing processes, so I'm guessing that the repairability of a closely related one is comparable.

capitainenemo 2y ago
Yeah, the XCover6 is unique on repairability due to its design, thus the good score in the report I linked. Replaceable battery (one of the more common things that needs replacing as a phone ages). But also: "Everything else is relatively easy too, Samsung used standard Phillips screws and didn’t go wild with the glue. Also, not only does this phone have a 3.5mm headphone jack, it is a separate module held by a screw. It does take some disassembly to get to it, but it is not soldered to the board. The USB-C charging port is on a separate PCB, the pogo pins (which can also be used for charging) are below that and the speaker assembly." So, I feel if they'd call out FairPhone (which rightly deserves the 10 out of 10) they could also highlight this effort from Samsung to encourage things like this, one that maybe warrants an... 8? Just guessing :) 'course, thanks to the EU replaceable batteries will probably be a lot more common, although maybe not as easily swappable as this one. The other things are fairly unique too - perhaps they were aiming for easier repair since it was a business/military phone.