Today we're going to take apart the Pixel 7 Pro. We will dissect Google's latest phone
to find out what's going on to make that antenna line crack during the bend test. Separation along
the antenna line is never a good thing. You know what other lines aren't good? Lines at
the Post Office. Huge thanks to Stamps.com for sponsoring this video. With the end of the year
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and if you run an online store, Stamps.com integrates seamlessly with all major shopping
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and helped over 1 million businesses. This holiday season you can trade late nights for
silent nights at Stamps.com/JerryRig. Now that we've solved the long lines at the Post Office,
let's see what's going on with the antenna lines on the Pixel 7 Pro. Let's get started.
[Intro]
Here we are with the Pixel 7 Pro – looking very similar to the Pixel 6 Pro except for that this
time we have the metal, scratchable camera visor. I'm a pretty big fan of the Pixel phones from a
repairability standpoint. They are usually one of the more repairable phones we come across.
And if the layout is anything like last year, we'll be starting the teardown from
the screen side with lots and lots of heat. The reason for heat is because the screen is very
securely glued to the frame of the phone. The glue works as part of the structure as well as
helping keep water out. With a strong suction cup and sharp razor though, we can start to see
some separation. However, this is where I made my first mistake. During my initial incision,
the incursion failed to fully penetrate all of the layers. Instead of filleting the screen as
a whole, my razor separated the glass from its protective plastic border, you know,
two layers which should not be separated. Last year's Pixel 6 Pro also had this plastic border
around the glass so I should have been prepared for it, but here we still are.
The display is unlikely to survive without that plastic protection. And yeah,
we have indeed damaged the screen. An unfortunate occurrence for sure,
but since my mistake can also be used as an example of what not to do, the death of my
phone can help prevent others from also dying, so I'll still consider it a win.
Let's go deeper. Google has gotten rid of the little screw that held down the screen ribbon
bracket. We just have a little latch instead, meaning that this whole screen repair procedure
could indeed be done without any tools besides just a hot plate and a separator.
Pretty nice. The screen still has the optical fingerprint scanner attached,
but Google does provide online tools to sync a new scanner with your phone
after repairs are made, so it's not that big of a deal when it comes to repairs.
Next to the hole punch camera we have a translucent portion of the screen. This
is for the light and proximity sensors. Inside the Pixel 7 Pro there is quite a bit of graphite
tape which is probably to help transfer the heat out of the phone through the screen.
Once the graphite tape is gone we get access to our 8 T4 screws that hold down the midplate. While
very similar in design to last year's Pixel 6 Pro, the shape of the midplate this time is
different. The blade in the 6 Pro extended up above the camera visor line while this
metal mid plate does not. It stops right at the first camera bump edge, making the camera bump
and the corresponding plastic antenna line the weakest point of the phone. The metal midplate
does have two water damage indicators, and it's also super rigid, non flexing,
and super brittle. Either it's not really metal or the vegetable I ate last week is really paying
off. When the plate's screwed down into the phone, it probably does provide quite a bit of structure
though. If Google had extended this plate upward a tad farther to help support the antenna line area,
maybe the phone wouldn't have bent as much and our water protection might still be intact.
With the midplate gone I can unplug the battery just like a little Lego,
and we find the same plastic style pull strap under the battery that we
saw last year. Now it would be nice if we could turn this strap into a saw and cut
through the adhesive under each end of the battery just like how bakers use thread or
dental floss to make cinnamon rolls. But as you can tell this doesn't really work,
and the strap itself isn't strong enough to lift the battery out on its own. I imagine Google wants
their technicians to drift some isopropyl alcohol under here and then use the strap, which is fine.
It does work and Google's battery is still only about half as glued in as Samsung's batteries.
Less glue is a good thing. With all 5,000 milliamp hours taken out from the phone, we get our first
look at the metal mill markings on the inner battery tray. Very similar to the mill markings
left behind by our own tormach that makes our Not A Wheelchair prototype gear housings. The markings
in the phone are just much smaller. To get access to the camera unit I'll unplug all the little
ribbon cable connections and then remove three more T4 screws holding down the massive metal
camera housing into the massive metal exterior camera bump. It's like a nesting doll for nerds.
We have the large 50 megapixel main camera with OIS on the side. A 12 megapixel ultra
wide camera in the center with no OIS. And apparently, Google says that their 48 megapixel
telephoto camera with the 5x optical zoom does have optical image stabilization as well.
But we can only check on that from the inside. There are three kinds of camera stabilization:
optical where the lens is visible shifted around using magnets to stabilize the incoming light.
Then we have sensor shift which is what Apple uses to visibly move the sensor under the lens
to stabilize an image. And then we have EIS, or electronic image stabilization, that happens after
light has hit the sensor, all in the software. Any, and/or all of these can be combined to work
together at the same time. So if we take a look at the periscoping lens components from the inside,
we can see on the left we have our periscope. In the center we have our zoom-in focus,
and on the far end, perpendicular to the back of the phone, we have our camera sensor.
Looking for the optical stabilization since there doesn't appear to be much movement,
we do see copper electromagnetic coils positioned along each of the moving parts so the OIS does
indeed exist, it's just very minor when compared to the wide angle camera. Hopefully those small
movements are all we need with the telephoto lens. I'll leave those comparisons for other reviewers.
The motherboard is coming out next, whether it wants to or not. Three more T4 screws get taken
out and some wires popped off. And then we get a close-up look at the cute dollop of thermal
paste that's pressed against the midplate, along with the soldered 23 watt USB-C port with its
vibrant blue rubber ring around the opening. I think the whole phone should be that color
next time. We also have the heftiest guiding pin I've ever seen in a smartphone. Usually we
see large pins and vehicle transmissions or gear housings to guide the halves of a unit together,
but Google over here spearing the motherboard into place with a gigantic obelisk is rather creative.
The loudspeaker does have balls inside. Remember, these foam
balls make the speaker sound bigger than it actually is. Instead of a gymnasium reverb,
it helps provide more of a sound booth quality audio output, on a very tiny scale of course. It
also has the waterproofing mesh and red rubber ring around the opening. The upper earpiece
speaker is the same way. It's next to the 10.8 megapixel selfie camera glued and screwed in.
It also has the red rubber rings, waterproofing, and balls of its own on top. Which means that
the stereo sound quality of the Pixel 7 Pro should be pretty good.
And finally, after a long and perilous journey, just like the one Frodo made to Mordor,
we have finally reached the wireless copper rings at the back of the phone.
And just like Frodo could have, you know, avoided the danger just by taking the eagles, you too can
avoid the dangers of a teardown just by installing one of my Teardown Skins. Reaching the copper at
the back with all of the joy and none of the peril, and best of all, no one needs to lose a
finger. I'll leave a link for you down in the description. I mean, I don't have super high
hopes that the Pixel 7 Pro is going to magically start working again once everything is put back
together, but let's put everything back together and hope something magically starts working again.
It's been an interesting phone. We found out why there's a structural weakness along the antenna
line. And the telephoto optical stabilization hardware is pretty nifty. Electromagnetic
smartphone OIS is a great icebreaker at parties. And finally, of course, we learned that the screen
should definitely be removed with their protective plastics still intact, because when they're
separated the screen does seem to die, even if the phone itself is still alive and active underneath.
Oh wait, what's this? We have life. As you can clearly see, the screen is very visibly lit
up and operational. You can see it with your own eyes. Haters will say it's photoshopped,
but it's most definitely another successful teardown here at JerryRig. Hit that subscribe
button if you haven't already. Come hang out with me on Instagram and Twitter,
if it still exists. And thanks a ton for watching. I'll see you around.