OnePlus 7 Pro Clear Back hints at some potential bad repair news

The OnePlus 7 Pro was revealed to be a very durable phone and despite having no formal IP rating, OnePlus insists it has enough water resistance to survive accidents. Durability and ingress protection, however, does have some drawbacks to them. Making a phone a strong as a tank while not looking like a tank also means making it tight and near impregnable. And, as JerryRigEverything seems to have briefly found out, that could make it hard for repairs as well.

Unlike the YouTuber's usual teardowns, this latest adventure isn't exactly to get to all the innards of the OnePlus 7 Pro. Instead, Zack Nelson is more interested in making a transparent, or at least translucent, back for the phone. The secondary goal is to uncover the secrets of that motorized camera, hopefully without breaking anything.

The good news is that he was successful on both accounts. The OnePlus 7 Pro's colored back is luckily just a thin layer of material that could be heated and peeled off. The glass itself is frosted so it's not completely transparent. It does add some character to the already unique look of a clear glass back phone.

The elevating camera was also nothing out of the ordinary but still an uncommon piece. It has some semblance to the Vivo NEX S' camera, reinforcing their familial relationship. It does seem durable enough, despite the moving parts.

The bad news is that getting there is quite a chore and a dangerous adventure. Not only is there more adhesive than usual, the fragile cable that attaches the flash to the board can easily be torn as well if not careful. Unfortunately, Nelson didn't go deeper to how difficult it would be to remove the battery but hopefully it won't be as terrible as the LG G8 ThinQ.