After ripping open the Gear 2 to lay bare its internals, the experts over at iFixit have turned their gaze (or screwdriver, in this case) towards the Galaxy S5, Samsung's fifth-generation Galaxy S flagship. Unlike its predecessor (and the Gear 2), which scored 8 out of 10 points for repairability, the Galaxy S5 was found considerably tough to repair, scoring only 5 out of 10. It's not that it's hard to replace components once the phone is opened up – the problem arises due to the display, which must be taken out before you can get to the internals. This does make repairing faster, but it also makes things complicated as the display has been held in with a “significant amount of adhesive and requires very careful and persistent prying and a considerable amount of heat to remove without cracking the glass or cutting cables.”
Only the battery is easy to remove and replace, which shouldn't come as a surprise considering you only need to remove the back cover to do so. It's odd to see that it's the display and not the waterproof nature of the device that reduces its repairability, but given only a few folks would want to open up an $800 smartphone by themselves, it likely won't be an issue for general consumers.
Hit the source link for the full rundown on the teardown.
