Nokia Makes Its First Repairable Phone - Nokia G22 Teardown And Repair Assessment

Nokia just released a phone that supposedly built to last made from recycled materials and is equipped with what Nokia is calling Quick Fix repairability is this just a bunch of marketing nonsense or does this phone really have something new to offer one thing's for sure it's the first phone I've seen with an iFixit logo on the box Nokia says starting with this phone they're going to be making smartphones that you can fix yourself using iFixit as the distributor for parts and repair manuals so let's take a look at this one is it really as easy to repair as the product page makes it out to be for the 350 Australian Dollars around 230 us this is the cheapest phone currently on the market with the ability to purchase genuine replacement parts along with the phone is a Sim reject tool some basic paperwork and a USB cable no power brick but while I'd usually complain about that Nokia actually included a USB a to USBC cable so you can actually use your old charging brick and with three years of warranty and security updates this cheap Android boasts some pretty impressive claims so it's time we get this phone all fired up the two Android version updates promised is better than it sounds as it's not currently running the latest version being loaded with Android 12 this means you're really only getting until Android 14 which is currently in beta still Android version updates are not as important as security updates which Nokia promises monthly for three years with a headphone jack and room for either dual Nano Sims or an SD card it's better equipped than almost every flagship but what about that quick fix repairability I was expecting the return of a removable back panel with Easy Battery access but it's not that simple while no heat is required the back is held in with many plastic Clips the official manual instructs you to insert the plastic pick above the SIM tray and work around the perimeter while not too complicated it is a little bit more challenging than I would have expected from a phone that boasts such easy repairability you need to take care with this as the plastic Clips allow for a sudden jarring separation of the back panel which could break the fingerprint cable it needs to be disconnected before the back can be fully detached a phone that uses plastic Clips to attach the bank is not new in fact many low end phones have used this very method before including the xiaomi A1 a phone I took apart several years ago in fact the internals very closely resemble that bone so what makes the G22 any different why would you pick this over any other budget Android its big selling point is the genuine replacement parts meaning no more hoping some AliExpress part will work as advertised taking the guesswork out of buying parts but is there anything else Nokia has done to improve the repairability of this phone I'm going to dig a little further to see located under the NFC antenna is the motherboard there isn't many things connecting to it as with most phones at this price point a lot of smaller things such as the proximity sensor and LED flash are soldered directly onto the board down at the bottom of the phone is the speaker and charge port both secured with Phillips screws but before I take out the charge port I wanted to see how easy it was to remove the battery this is the one part of the phone that will degrade no matter how you treat your phone most phones use a ridiculous amount of adhesive Nokia has provided a pull tab to help us with its removal but has failed in the same way as practically every other phone maker the adhesive is just too strong as such I wasn't able to use the pull tab to remove it having to resort to a suction cup while I was able to use another method to remove it someone doing a repair like this for the first time might not know what to do especially when the repair manual shows the battery lifting out with such ease while not a hard battery to remove in the context of modern bones it wasn't as easy as the manual implied back at the bottom of the phone we can detach the charge port and headphone jack daughterboard underneath is a very unimpressive vibration motor given just how poor this vibration motor is I thought maybe I could retrofit a Samsung one in however it's a completely different size so it looks like we're stuck with it running this Flex cable between the frame and back of the screen is an odd Choice especially in a phone meant for quick and easy repair however one positive with the available replacement parts is that a new display comes attached with the frame easing repairs and limiting the amount of things we need to remove the last thing inside this Nokia G22 is its motherboard packing 128 gigs of storage and 4 gigs of RAM with the G22 totally disassembled it's time to evaluate whether this is actually a more repairable smartphone it opens like several budget phones and its internals are arranged in a similar way it has a battery pull tab but it still uses too much adhesive but you can buy genuine replacement parts from day one so you know what repairs will cost you and Nokia isn't trying to stop you from repairing the phone in fact they're encouraging you to give it a go with self-repair not voiding your warranty one thing to keep in mind is if you repair one of these there is two screw sizes thankfully though they're color coded while the Nokia G22 isn't the most repairable smartphone on the market it's a good start and commitment from Nokia to be considering repair for our devices I really hope they continue on this trend and make improvements with each new model but as for this phone it's time to get it back in one piece given the very few parts inside this phone it's not going to take long one small thing that gets me is the liquid indicators being placed on top of the screws if repair doesn't void your warranty there's no need for them to be placed here as they just get ruined when you unfasten the screw they're stuck to foreign once the NFC antenna has been fastened into place it's time to reattach the back panel I'll reconnect the flex cable for the fingerprint reader and attach the bracket that goes on top after wiping down the internals to remove any dust the last thing we need to do is press the back panel back into place once all the clips are firmly in place I can reinstall the SIM card tray and we're done so this is it the Nokia G22 Nokia's first attempt at a sustainable and repairable smartphone while it has no standout repair feature it's good to see another phone maker offer genuine parts and longer warranty periods and when software support does end it's good to know the bootloader is unlockable it's by no means a powerful phone but for those who want something more affordable than a fair phone or Google pixel this might be worth considering and on that note this has been a Hugh Jeffries video if you like what you saw consider subscribing and check out the tear down and repair assessment playlist for more videos just like this one and if you're looking for any used devices be sure to check out my online store link for which is down the description that's all for this video and I'll catch you guys next time

Channel: Hugh Jeffreys

Views: 336,429

Keywords: Hugh, Jeffreys, Apple, iPhone, iPad, iPod, technology, repair, restore, restoration, destroyed phone, broken phone, phone repair, android, samsung

Id: FZGM-SgfyU4

Length: 7min 52sec (472 seconds)

Published: Sat Apr 29 2023