Teardown

While most of the smartphone world seems to have outgrown their popup and flip camera phase, ASUS has gone old school this year. Granted, it is only one of two phone makers that adopted that flip camera design (Samsung was the other one with the Galaxy A80) but it might be the only one left making such unconventional designs. Of course, such deviation from the usual build of smartphones does have consequences when it comes to taking them apart as this teardown video of the ASUS ZenFone 8 Flip clearly shows.

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Xiaomi Black Shark 4 teardown reveals its secrets as pre-orders startSmartphones these days have started to become a tad boring. With few exceptions, each new generation really has just more of the same stuff. Those exceptions include, of course, foldables, but if that's not your cup of tea, you might have to look towards gaming smartphones for some of the craziest innovations in the smartphone market. Unfortunately, those often come at a literal price but JerryRigEverything takes apart the Black Shark 4 in search of something a bit more affordable.

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Some smartphones are getting more interesting again after the market has seemingly plateaued in design and innovation. Leave it to gaming smartphones, however, to really take the cake when it comes to pushing the envelope not just in terms of performance but also in design. After the very first ASUS ROG Phone, it is perhaps Lenovo's latest Legion Phone Duel 2 that has the most peculiar quirks and features. And while it didn't survive the durability test, JerryRigEverything's teardown reveals just how unique the phone is on the inside.

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On the heels of the Galaxy S21 series, Xiaomi launched its own early 2021 flagship in the form of the Mi 11. Like all its predecessors before it, it manages to cram all those high-end goodness in an affordable package. There will always be catches, of course, and iFixit's meticulous teardown reveals some of the trade-offs from having so many features, most of them relating to the phone's durability and longevity down the line.

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Samsung's top-of-the-line smartphone this half the year has so far been better received than last year's Galaxy S model. That may be partly thanks to interest in the S Pen functionality but also thanks to the evolutionary, not revolutionary, improvements that the Galaxy S21 Ultra offers. iFixit unsurprisingly took that phone apart to take a closer look inside and while it does show Samsung's trying to perfect its art, it also reveals some unfortunate decisions the manufacturer took this year.

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There was a time when Apple produced some of the most repair-unfriendly products and while some still do better in that regard, there are now others who have also done worse. It seems that Samsung's obsession to one-up Apple in almost every sense may have backfired a bit in this year's Galaxy flagships. The Galaxy S21, the most affordable of the three available models, does have some things going for it when it comes to third-party or self-repair but nothing to save it from getting a disappointing mark on iFixit's scale.

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While it does look significantly different from the outside, the Galaxy S21 Ultra is, to some extent, an incremental upgrade compared to its predecessor. Almost all the internal components have been upgraded, as one would naturally expect, with only a few notable standouts. One of those is, of course, the display panel that's now compatible with an S Pen stylus. The other noteworthy upgrade is the fingerprint scanner, something you won't see unless you tear down the phone first.

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We're still waiting for iFixit to do its usual in-depth investigation into the innards of Samsung's early 2021 racehorses but, in the meantime, we're getting a preview of what it will take to repair them. Following PBK Review's teardown of the Galaxy S21 and the Galaxy S21 Ultra, we're now being treated to the same process for the "in-between" model. And for better or worse, the Galaxy S21+ definitely mixes its siblings' features, making it only slightly easier to repair than the Galaxy S21 Ultra.

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iFixit might still have its hands full from a backlog of products to teardown but PBK Reviews, fortunately, lost no time in poking inside Samsung's latest and greatest. The Galaxy S21 proved to be a pleasant surprise in some ways, particularly for its modularity and the screen's relatively easier repairability. The YouTuber now takes the Galaxy S21 Ultra apart with some optimism that was, unfortunately, met with a bit of a disappointment.

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As always, Apple launched the AirPods Max with a premium price tag that proved to be controversial even among fans of the company. And as always, too, that price tag is being justified by appeals to sound quality as well as design. Now, iFixit has finally concluded its month-long investigation of the headphones and, despite the self-repair experts' opinion of most Apple products, may have found points that at least justify that $550 figure to some extent.

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Samsung put a hard line down between the Galaxy S21 Ultra and the Galaxy S21 and its larger S21+ sibling. That's true not just for the features but even for the materials used, especially for the backplate. That potentially makes repairs or replacement easier and, as PBK Reviews found out, that was really just the beginning for a mostly uneventful first teardown of the based Galaxy S21 5G model.

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Although not as flamboyant as the Galaxy Z Fold 2 or as eccentric as the LG Wing, the ZTE Axon 20 5G actually brought one of the biggest innovations in the mobile industry this year. Granted, it's not exactly as most would have hoped but the under-display camera or UDC has long been a holy grail for smartphone makers. Although many manufacturers did try their hand at it, it was ZTE that first came out with an actual commercial product and JerryRigEverything literally digs into the phone to see how it works.

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