The Gear 2 and Gear Fit, Samsung's newest wearables, have been found to be fairly easy to repair by the teadown experts at iFixit, but according to a report from ZDNet Korea, that doesn't mean the devices are cheap to repair or replace. The report suggests that getting a Gear Fit or Gear 2 repaired has a costly fee associated with it – 250,000 won (around $240) for the Gear 2 and 177,000 won (around $170) for the Gear Fit, which is almost as high as the prices the two wearables retail for in the market. The main reason behind the high cost is touted to be the lack of availability of replacement parts, which requires users to turn in the device for repair rather than attempt to do it themselves.
iFixit noted in its teardowns that the display is the biggest obstacle, as it is glued to the body of the smartwatch and is difficult to remove. Even after the display is out of the way, the fact that most components are soldered onto the main board is also an issue, as it would require skills with soldering to take faulty components out and replace them with brand new ones. Samsung does test its smartwatches to make sure they are more tolerant to faults than phones or tablets, but the high cost of repair is still a worrying aspect, though it will hopefully go down once wearables are more widespread.
