Z Fold 2 Teardown: 3rd Time’s The Charm? By iFixit

It's been about a year since Samsung released, or rather re-released their first foldable, the galaxy fold, the shaky launch of that phone made for a skeptical reception, but in just one year Samsung's engineers have made some big improvements. The z-fold 2 is a surprisingly polished device, both in the way it looks and the way it feels it has a larger cover screen a 120, hertz, glass, folding screen, a new, improved hideaway hinge, an updated camera configuration and, of course, some updated 2020 internal specs. For this new polished phone, we try a new polished opening procedure adapted from Samsung's own service manuals, which you can actually buy from Samsung. If you know where to look since we don't have the little oven chamber that Samsung uses, we try 10 minutes of exacting temperature on a heating pad, at which point the glue softens up so much. This 6.2 inch outer display almost lifts free with just a suction cup. Maybe next time we won't even need the picks.

This process does require a device capable of precise heating, which not many folks have, but the good news is. It also works on the rear glass panel, even if it does require a bit more prying. Our first look inside the fold.2 is blocked by plastic antenna modules and the wireless charging coil. These are held down with a lot of Phillips screws, maybe too many, but you won't catch us complaining after those tiny TRI points we found in the Surface Duo last week. Alright, now we can take our first real look inside the fold.2. , it looks like things have been significantly reorganized at a glance.

It seems it inherits more of its DNA from the z-flip than the first gen fold. There's a pair of 5g millimeter wave antennas, a few breakout boards to complement the main circuit board, a modular sim reader, a pair of beefy batteries and cables and connectors galore speaking of internals stay tuned to ifixit. com for x-ray and teardown wallpapers of the z-fold 2. Coming soon, we will link them in the description below when they're ready, a few more Phillips screws and those cables stand between us and the circuit boards. The main board comes out with the cameras more on those in a minute and underneath it, you can see a graphite thermal pad just like the one in the note 20 ultra.

This finding is in line with what seems to be a new trend where Samsung is abandoning their much hyped: copper, vapor chambers in favor of these graphite thermal pads. Next there's a second board in the other half of the phone and a third one for the USB-C port and the vibration motor. So the cameras, the original fold, was famously stuffed to the gills with cameras so much so that the folding screen had a huge notch to accommodate some of them. The full two shows a little more restraint with only five cameras: three rear-facing 12 megapixel cameras, ultra-wide standard, wide and telephoto, and two 10 megapixel hole, punch, selfie, cams one for each screen, since it worked so well before we send the full tube back to the heat pad in hopes it will soften up the display, adhesive and help us remove the super fragile, folding, glass AMOLED, but first the bezel, the original fold and the z-flip both had thin plastic bezels around their folding screens that were pretty easy to remove only lightly adhered in place. The fold 2 has a new bezel.

It's thicker now extending over the edge of the phone to meet the metal frame. It's got a tighter fit stronger adhesive and some clips holding it down to boot. All these traits make it more annoying to remove, but one thing's for sure the new bezel looks a lot more like it belongs there less like something Samsung tacked on at the last second, now the 7.6 inch folding AMOLED display can come out like the display we saw in the fold 1.1 and the z-flip it's glued in place and backed by two metal support plates, plus a series of tiny metal slats that curve around the folded. Part like a bamboo mat. All this metal supports the delicate panel so that, when you poke at it is doesn't just shatter.

We didn't forget the batteries we just weren't looking forward to this part plenty of solvent, eventually loosens the adhesive holding them down, and before you can say, consumable 10 times fast, they're free from their sticky prison thanks in part to the slightly larger footprint of the fold.2, the batteries have gotten a bit of an upgrade from the first fold. They are 9.1 and 8.37 watt hour cells now up from 8.65 and 8.22 watt hours. That's a nice upgrade, though. A lot of that power probably goes straight to the new high refresh rate screen. Finally, we peel up the sticker, hiding that new hideaway hinge.

It's a complete change from the elaborate three hinge system of clasps and gears inside the first folds, and it's also a lot more compact. Two geared metal hinges, one on either side of the fold with sturdy wings that hold the two halves of the phone together. These new hinges allow the phone to stay open at any angle, like the z flip, instead of snapping from close to open. Like the first fold. Of course, no tear down is complete without a little x-ray vision.

Here's a gorgeous see-through shot of the fold. Two's hinge in action thanks to creative electron. Well, that's the end of this teardown. Nothing left to do but hand out the awards. Despite the many improvements in build quality and polish, the Samsung Galaxy z fold earns a 3 out of 10 on our repairability scale, its relatively modular construction and use of friendly Phillips screws.

Just aren't enough to offset the zealous use of adhesive and the difficult battery and screen removal procedures. Thanks for watching our galaxy default, 2 teardown stays tuned to ifixit. com for those wallpapers and subscribe to our YouTube channel for more teardowns like this.

Source : iFixit