[Intro]
This time around we are going to test a couple different options of what we can do with Bixby
to disable the button.
And I think I have an idea.
So if you remember from my durability test, this Bixby button comes out relatively easily
right here on the side.
I think the easiest way to disable Bixby would just be to cut off this little niblet down
here at the bottom.
That tip is what is actually pressing the little button inside of the phone.
You can see right there the crevice itself.
Most of the water proofing, I believe, happens inside of the phone and doesn't have much
to do with the button since it's relatively sealed off.
So as you can see, once the razor blade cuts that little white niblet off, I can take that
same button without the niblet, and press it back into the phone, which lets the button
keep it's same position inside the phone and keep the same basic level of waterproofing.
But when you try to press the button, it doesn't activate Bixby, which is what we're after.
The problem is is that the button is semi loose, so it won't hold it's position anymore.
So if you tip the phone down, the button will hang loose a little bit, but it won't fall
completely out of the phone.
If you want to get crazy, you could put a little dab of glue in there and keep the button
completely flush all the time with the outer surface of the phone body.
So even though we've found a solution to permanently disable Bixby, there's something else I want
to try.
That jiggly button might bother a couple people.
This method's a little more extreme, but it should be interesting.
Today we're going to be working with a little bit of gold.
So I've worked with gold a little bit before.
You might remember this solid gold Hon Solo that I did here with S.E.
Needham's here a little while back.
This is a little Star Wars Lego piece that we casted into 14 karat solid gold.
I'll link the video up in the corner so you can watch that.
And today we'll be doing the same thing with Bixby whether he likes it or not.
So as you can see, when we take the button out of the phone, it leaves like a void – kind
of like a cavity.
Which makes sense, because in the past, they used gold and silver to fill cavities in your
teeth.
And that's basically what we're doing today.
So how much is this stick of gold?
[Joe] So this gold is worth about $250, and it's just a straight bar of gold, but we're
just going to use a small section which breaks down to maybe about $20 of gold.
[Zack] So when we're fabricating a Bixby button for the Samsung Note 9, the first step is
to make the metal slightly more workable.
And we do that by annealing which heats up the metal and makes it slightly softer and
easier to work with.
(Sizzling steam sound)
Then we can cut the 14 karat gold stick into the basic size that we need and start trimming
it down so it'll fit the hole perfectly, and tightly fill that cavity so it's snug all
the way around.
[Buzzing and scratching sounds]
After the button goes into the phone, it's not going to come out, so we're going to make
sure that it's polished, sanded and looks good before we set it into place inside of
the phone.
We want it to sit relatively flush with the surface so that it's not sticking up too far,
or falling down inside.
We took a bunch of measurements throughout this process to make sure the buttons were
the same size as each other, and once we got the gold button into the frame of the phone,
it was so snug we couldn't get it back out again which is exactly what we wanted.
Before we start chopping Bixby into bits, let's get a definitive answer on whether he
has anything to do with water resistance or not, and the only way to know for sure is
from the inside.
You can see both the volume and Bixby buttons are run off the same sensor ribbon with little
square contact pads, and when I pull the buttons out, you can see some gray rubber blocking
the hole inside the cell phone.
The button undercarriage contraption is made up of two components: one is this metal bracket
with the electronic buttons themselves.
And two: the secondary bracket with the rubber pads on the surface.
That secondary bracket with the rubber pads gets pushed very tightly against the side
walls of the phone, effectively making a water resistant barrier against liquid coming inside
the buttons.
Once that rubber pad is gone, we can see the little hole leads directly out of the phone.
After pushing the gold button out from the inside, we can see that the Bixby cavity has
the same design with a little hole underneath.
The volume buttons themselves don't appear to have any rubber or watertight seals around
the button, so it's pretty safe to say that the gray rubber on the inner metal panel is
doing most, if not all, of the work keeping water out.
And that gray rubber is held very tightly in place by the dual metal bracket design
inside the phone.
In my opinion, the water resistance will remain intact with the buttons gone.
But I've also never been a person to trust my phone around water in the first place,
even if it has a water resistant rating.
Water resistance wouldn't be the main worry if you pull out your buttons.
Voiding your warren-tee is probably the thing you'll need to take most into consideration
before killing off anything.
Samsung, of course, could save us all some trouble and allow Bixby to be turned off or
remapped, but they probably won't.
So there you have it.
A solid gold Bixby button.
Obviously there's a lot that can go wrong during this process, and taking apart your
phone probably isn't something Samsung really wants you to do.
But hypothetically, if you wanted a solid gold Bixby button, do you think that's possible?
[Joe] Yeah, it's definitely possible.
[Zack] Okay.
If we decide to...not sure if we will yet... down in the video description there will be
a link if you want a solid gold Bixby button for your phone.
Right now it's probably just for the Note 9, but we'll see what we can come up with
for the other phones.
It's a conversation piece, but it works.
Working with precious metals is always an adventure.
Super huge thanks to Joe, here at S.E.
Needhams, for helping me out with this project.
And thanks a ton for watching.
We'll see you around.