Google Pixel XL teardown shows that it is easy to repair, but repairing an Apple iPhone 7 Plus is easier. The Pixel, meanwhile, is put through a series of torture tests to see how durable it is.
As is the norm these days, every new smartphone in the market is put through a few torture tests to see how durable they are, and teardowns to see how easy they are to repair. With the Google Pixel and Pixel XL now on sale in certain countries, the team at iFixit has given the larger of the two smartphones a teardown treatment. The teardown shows how there is little to no evidence of HTC branding under the hood, and how it is among the easiest HTC-made devices to repair. That said, Apple’s new iPhone 7 Plus is easier to repair.
The iFixit team has given the Pixel XL a score of six out of 10 on their reparability scale, where 10 represents the easiest to repair. To put this score into perspective, Apple’s iPhone 7 Plus gets a score of seven out of 10. In the iPhone 7 Plus‘ case, it lost out on points because of the tri-point screws and how difficult it is to pry the display panel open. In the Pixel XL’s case, the team notes how the Samsung-made OLED panel has no internal support and is separated from the front glass a little too easily. As the initial opening procedure requires prying, it is quite possible that the panel gets damaged when opening the phone.
Moving on, the tagline for the new Pixel smartphones is ‘Made by Google’, and the company seems to be doing a lot to hide the fact that HTC has manufactured the devices. One of the big reasons why the Pixel XL is easy to repair is because the internal components are modular and can be easily removed and replaced. These include the display, chipsets and even the battery. Apart from the Samsung-made display, the teardown also reveals Synaptics-made touch controller, and Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 821 chipset and other chips.
Besides the teardown, JerryRigs has put the Google Pixel through a series of torture tests. One of the surprising findings is the speaker grille on the front, which is made of cloth. This could lead to difficultly in cleaning and potentially puncturing it as well.
The rest of the torture tests prove that the Google Pixel is extremely durable, especially when you compare it with last year’s Huawei-made Nexus 6P. The front screen scratches at hardness level of six, and the fingerprint scanner too scratches easily. But the video shows how the scanner continue working despite some pretty deep scratches. The aluminum body too is quite resistant to scratches, and it fairs pretty well in bend tests. Even after applying a lot of pressure, the Pixel hardly seems to bend, which is not something you could say for the Nexus 6P. This is some A-grade build quality.
Google’s Pixel and Pixel XL smartphones have gone on sale in certain countries. In India, sales commence next week from October 25. Prices for the smartphones start from Rs 57,000 for the base Pixel variant and goes up to Rs 76,000 for the top-end Pixel XL variant. The smartphones are already up for pre-orders on Flipkart with a bunch of offers, and Croma’s online store as well. From October 25, both the devices will be available via offline retail chains like Reliance Digital, Vijay Sales, Croma and Jumbo among others.
Google Pixel, Pixel XL specifications
The Google Pixel sports a 5-inch 1080p display, while the Google Pixel XL sports a 5.5-inch QHD display. They are powered by a Snapdragon 821 quad-core processor, 4GB of RAM, and are equipped with a 12.3-megapixel rear snapper, and an 8-megapixel selfie camera.
The Pixel sports a 2,770mAh battery, the Pixel XL sports a 3,450mAh battery, and both come with IP53 certification that makes them resistant to water and dust. Connectivity options include 4G LTE support, USB Type-C port for charging and data transfer, Bluetooth 4.2, GPS, Wi-Fi 802.11ac and NFC.
On the software front, both smartphones run on Android Nougat 7.1 out-of-the-box wrapped under the Pixel UI. Among the highlights is the built-in Google Assistant, which is not only more capable than Google Now, but also more contextually aware about what’s happening on your smartphone. One can simply converse with the AI and ask questions like weather, distance from one place to the other, or route from source to destination, and more. RELATED: Google Assistant: ‘I’m feeling lucky’ includes surprise trivia game for Pixel and Pixel XL owners