OnePlus 2 teardown reveals surprisingly repairable design

By Ryan Whitwam

The OnePlus 2 is technically on sale now for those with an invite, but shipments have been delayed in the US for several more weeks. However, iFixit was able to get its hands on one to tear asunder for science, and the teardown revealed something interesting. The OnePlus 2 is unusually repairable for a modern smartphone. It might be missing some standard features, but it looks like you can repair the new OnePlus flagship without breaking the bank.

Battery replacements are one of the most common repairs an aging smartphone will need, but most modern phones have batteries buried deeply within the components. While the OnePlus 2 technically has a non-removable battery, that’s kind of a formality. See, OnePlus is owned by the same parent company as Chinese smartphone maker Oppo, and it’s believed some features have been held back from OnePlus handsets so they don’t compete as strongly with Oppo’s own devices. That might explain why the non-removable battery is so easy to reach.

All you need to do is pop off the removable back cover and then remove several standard Phillips screws that hold the rear housing on (this is actually just a mid-frame cover). The battery is secured with a bit of mild adhesive, but it doesn’t even require any heat to remove — just a little tug. This gets the OP2 high marks for repairability, as does the use of standard screws.

The camera modules pop out easily, and the USB Type-C connector is on a single long flex cable connected to the logic board. iFixit says this component will also be very easy to replace, should something go wrong with the port. Since the OnePlus 2 doesn’t have wireless charging, that port is the only way to charge the phone too. The Type-C port is supposed to be more durable than microUSB, but this is the first phone to ship with one, so who knows what could happen? It’s good to see that it’s easily replaced.

Before the OnePlus 2’s release, the company announced it would be

powered by the notoriously toasty Qualcomm Snapdragon 810

. However, the OnePlus 2 was supposed to have special thermal gel and graphite covers “placed across different areas of the phone.” The logic board in the OnePlus 2 doesn’t actually look any different than other phones, though. The Snapdragon 810 is layered underneath the 4GB of Samsung LPDDR4 RAM with no outwardly apparent thermal mitigation. In my experience with this device, the top of the phone where this chip is gets extremely hot during heavy use — I’ve seen

surface

temperatures in excess of 115 degrees F (about 46 C).

The screen is where the OnePlus 2 loses some points on repairability. Like virtually every other phone these days, the LCD and digitizer are fused together. That means you have to replace both in the event of damage. Removing the screen assembly from the midframe required the application of heat as well.

When all was said and done, the OnePlus 2

received a 7 out of 10

for repairability. That compared favorably with devices like the Galaxy S6 (4 out of 10) and HTC One M9 (2 out of 10), but not quite as good as the LG G4 (8 out of 10) with its easily removable battery.