iFixit Gives PS4 Pro High Marks For Repairability

Sony may have offered its own teardown video of the new PlayStation 4 Pro console, but that didn't stop the experts at iFixit from pulling one apart and assessing its repairability. The PS4 Pro, of course, is a much more powerful version of the standard PS4, designed to produce the best graphics possible with support for 4K TVs. But the good news here is that all that extra horsepower doesn't put a hamper on opening up and repairing the console.

Unlike the smartphones we're used to seeing iFixit dive into, the PS4 Pro uses very little glue or other adhesive material to keep everything sealed. In fact, the only real obstacle to opening the case is a set of torx security screws, which use a special shape on the head to discourage users from tampering with things.

But just like the original PS4, the Pro model's accessibility extends to the hard drive bay. A single Philips screw is all that needs to be removed to pull out the hard drive, and as iFixit points out, nothing here is proprietary, so upgrading to a newer drive is easy and causes no problems with the warranty.

Going deeper, iFixit found the power supply on one side of the console, with the (large) main board on the other. Components like the fan, heatpipe, and optical drive are held in place with screws, which is better than glue, but removing them does require some work.

In the end, iFixit gave the PS4 Pro a repairability score of 8 out of 10, finding that its assembly is very much like a small PC. This means that identifying parts, accessing and removing them is fairly easy to figure out, but Sony does try to keep users out with plenty of warning stickers about voiding the warranty.

SOURCE iFixit