Both BlackBerry and HTC are banking on their new phones' releases to turn their fortunes around. The two companies have high hopes for the BlackBerry z10 and HTC One, and what better way to test out their worthiness than by taking them apart and rating their repairability? Thankfully, when it comes to taking apart brand new electronic devices, iFixit is unequaled, and they've done exactly that.
Sadly, in this situation at least, we have one phone that performs very well and is quite easy to repair, and another phone that is simply awful. So which is which?
The short answer here is that the HTC One performed horribly, and you should be very careful not to break it. Separating the screen from the phone's aluminum shell was smooth sailing, but the rest of the journey took place on noticeably stormy waters.
"It turns out that the HTC One's guts are glued into the machined aluminum casing," iFixit's Miroslav Djuric said in an emailed statement. "So if you want to replace anything inside, *at best* you'll just disfigure the perimeter of the device. Even worse, you may inadvertently mangle a speaker or cable during the opening process."
"It took us over half an hour to separate the rear aluminum case from the functional components of the phone," Djuric added. "Worse yet, our diligent spudgering appears to have permanently mangled the plastic bezel surrounding the aluminum case. It's possible that prying at a snail's pace while applying heat could minimize this damage, but we're not too hopeful. This phone was not made with openability in mind."
The HTC One scored an abysmal 1 out of 10 on the repairability scale, an unprecedented achievement for a smartphone. There's a first time for everything, but this probably isn't the thing the HTC One wanted to be "number one" at.
The BlackBerry Z10, meanwhile, did a lot better, scoring an 8 out of 10. Users can replace the battery with no tools necessary, and the use of standard screws makes unraveling the thing even easier. The only problems iFixit had were when it tried to remove the display assembly, because the LCD screen is fused to the glass.
The most annoying thing in a list of two was the fact that the BlackBerry Z10's smaller components, like the camera or headphone jack, were held into place with adhesive that can be annoying to dislodge.
In the battle of repairability, the BlackBerry Z10 clearly comes out on top, but does it matter? Do these kinds of teardowns affect your purchasing decisions? Let us know in the comments.
