It's been brought to my attention with regards to my ant drawing, that ants in fact have 6
legs and not 4. For this I apologize. A Bug's Life lied to me...and I should go outside more
often. Now that I've remedied the situation and our ant has 6 legs, the entomologists
should be satisfied and we can commence with the Pixel 6 Pro teardown. Let's get started.
[Intro]
You might think that we would start on the back of the Pixel 6 Pro like other Android phones,
but that's not the case this time around. Google has once again designed the Pixel 6 so that the
screen comes off first. The phone is IP68 with plenty of adhesive around the edge. And with the
tiny bezels, I'm taking extreme care to not poke the side of the AMOLED display under the glass
because one poke would destroy the whole thing. Once the adhesive is sliced away on the one side,
I can use my suction cup to pull away the glass
and the whole phone opens up like a book. Under the one t4 screw is a single ribbon
connecting the display to the body. I can pop that off just like a little Lego
and the screen is free from the body. The Pixel 6 Pro display is definitely the easiest screen
repair of 2021. With the right tools and pre-laid adhesive, I bet a repair
tech could replace a broken screen in about 60 seconds. Nice work, Google. Thumbs up for that.
Now you might be like, 'Hey Jerry, but what about that fingerprint scanner?' And you're
correct. There is once attached to the screen, but luckily this isn't Apple we're talking about.
And Google has provided a fingerprint calibration tool that can be used online if your screen ever
does get replaced. Once again, nice work Google. The screen is still functioning.
I think we should go deeper. There is a copious amount of black tape covering the battery and
circuit board. I'm curious if this is here to help dissipate the heat out the front of the screen.
We have two more t4 screws down at the bottom holding down the cutest little bracket over
the charging port. This has a white water damage indicator on it so even though the phone is water
resistant, this little sticker will turn pink to tattle on you if liquid ever does seep inside.
We have 7 more t4 screws holding down the massive metal mid plate.
This guy is pretty hefty and made with solid metal. I imagine these mid plates are what make
the phone so heavy and keep it structurally solid. It also acts as a heat sink for the processor.
There's another little guy up top. And finally, with those metal plates gone we can unplug the
battery. The battery has a strange plastic pull tab on it. The adhesive underneath the battery is
still far too strong for it to be removed with just a simple pull. So maybe this pull strip
is supposed to help slice through the adhesive. Or maybe it's only meant to be lifted up on after the
isopropyl alcohol soaks the adhesive underneath. Cuz the ribbon itself isn't very strong.
I'll drip some isopropyl alcohol underneath the battery to dissolve that adhesive
while we take a look at this absolute unit of a camera unit.
Apparently the massive camera bump isn't just for aesthetics since the cameras really do take up
all that space inside of the phone. We have the 50 megapixel main camera over here on the left
with OIS. Then we have the 12 megapixel ultra wide camera which does not have OIS.
Then on the right side we have the 48 megapixel 4x telescoping telephoto camera,
which also has the internal optical stabilization. I took one of these apart in my Galaxy S20 Ultra
video if you want to see how that works. I'll leave a link for that down in the description.
Now that the alcohol's dissolved the adhesive, we can lift away the Pixel 6 Pro battery. It
has a 5003 milliamp hour capacity. I'll remove 4 more screws up here at the top. And again up here
we get another strange metal chunk. This would normally probably act as a heat sink for the 5G
antenna. The 5G antenna is probably why the entire top of the phone is made from plastic...except
that with previous 5G phones that I've opened up, my 5G antenna has always been attached to ribbon
cables. And this one is just free floating. I did a bit more research and it turns out that my phone
is an international variant which does not have the millimeter wave 5G. So this little guy is just
an impostor that's shaped like a 5G antenna and taking up space. This is normal though. The phone
can still be called 5G without the millimeter wave antennas. Not everywhere has those frequencies.
The earpiece and microphone both have red rubber rings around the opening to help keep water out,
along with these little foam balls. I'll unscrew 4 more t4 screws and remove the SIM card tray.
And then we can get our first look at the Pixel 6 Pro's motherboard,
which does have the front facing 11.1 megapixel selfie camera still attached.
It's got the Lego-style connector, and of course, the USB-C port down here at the
bottom which is soldered in place. It does have a cool blue rubber ring around the opening though.
The last thing we have inside of the Pixel 6 Pro is the wireless charger, also hidden under a ton
of graphite tape, but it's definitely back here. I imagine that the rear glass replacements of the
Pixel 6 Pro are going to be rather difficult. But at least the screen is quick and easy.
Now we just gotta see if everything still works when I put it all back together.
Overall I'm pretty impressed with the Pixel 6 Pro. We learned quite a lot. The cameras are obviously
a huge focus of the phone since they take up so much of the internal real estate. We also learned
that Google has taken a few minutes to think about repairability which is awesome. We learned that
ants have 6 legs. I'm still not quite sure what that battery pull tab was for though. But hey,
maybe that's on me. I'll get the big metal plate situated back on the motherboard
and get that single ribbon cable for the screen plugged in with it's metal bracket and screw.
Once it's turned on our Pixel 6 Pro is as good as new. Of course though,
if you want to see the insides of your own phone from the outsides,
I do make it a whole lot easier with my Teardown Skin from dbrand. I think the camera hardware
looks even more impressive when you can see how much space under the lens they are actually
utilizing. Grab a Teardown Skin for your own device with the link in the description. Hit
that subscribe button if you haven't already. And come hang out with me on Instagram and Twitter.
Thanks a ton for watching, and I'll see you around.