With the Galaxy S10 pre-orders making its way into the hands of customers today, the iFixit team has published their detailed teardown of the Galaxy S10 and Galaxy S10e. The teardown reveals that Samsung has had to rework the internal cooling solution of the Galaxy S10 almost entirely to ensure the heat generated while using the reverse wireless charging feature is dissipated properly. The copper heat pipes inside the Galaxy S10 are significantly beefier than the one found on the Galaxy S9 and more in line with the one that Samsung used on the Galaxy Note 9. What’s interesting is that Samsung is even using the displays on the Galaxy S10 series as a thermal management tool. The rear of the display has layers of coppers and graphite to better dissipate the internal heat.
The teardown also gives a clear look at the punch-hole for the camera which runs right through the display to the motherboard and midframe to the camera sensor. The switch to the ultrasonic in-display fingerprint scanner on the Galaxy S10 and Galaxy S10+ also spells trouble from a repair perspective as it now requires replacing the entire display which is exorbitantly expensive.
Samsung has also soldered the USB-C port on the motherboard of its Galaxy S10 series this time around. This means that replacing a faulty USB-C port is going to be an expensive task as it will require replacing the entire motherboard. Overall, the Galaxy S10 series manages a repairability score of 3 out of 10. The only highlight of tearing the phone down is that one will only require a Philips screwdriver for the job. Otherwise, it is a risky process and in-house repairs on the Galaxy S10 are not going to be an easy job.
