the iconic pixel 3xl with its dual
facing front cameras and a knotch you
could land an airplane on is ready to be
torn down taken apart and reviewed from
the inside we'll see if those back glass
scratches can be removed as well let's
get started like with most class phones
we open it up from the back using a lot
of heat to soften the adhesive between
the back and the frame you know how it
goes
big suction cup lifts up while my razor
blade slices through the thick
watertight adhesive having a metal tool
so close to the fragile circuits and
lithium battery induces a tad bit of
anxiety but there's not really a better
way to do glued shut watertight phones
or just what we deal with these days
it's hard but not impossible finally
cutting through that last bit of
adhesive and lifting up the glass panel
reveals that the insides of the pixel
3xl look much different than the regular
sized pixel the wireless charging is the
normal boring black color and the black
NFC is actually stuck to the glass the
pixel 3xl is just less aesthetic inside
than the regular sized pixel before we
get too far into the teardown let's see
if we can remove these scratches on the
back panel erricka Griffin made a
fantastic video where she was able to
clean off some of the scratches on her
black pixel XL in the sink using soap
water and a toothbrush I mentioned my
durability test video that the frosted
glass panel was probably acting like a
level 6 abrasive kind of like a
chalkboard of sorts to any metals softer
than a level 6 that it came in contact
with like keys coins and pry tools brass
keys are pretty common in are usually
about a 3.5 on Mohs scale of hardness
steel would be a 5.5 or so the etched
level 6 surface of the back of this
phone is literally acting like a piece
of sandpaper to these common metals and
the residue of the metal is left behind
as a permanent mark Erica managed to
clean off her softer brass residue with
just water and soap but my stainless
steel residue from the pry tools is not
coming off with soap and water I think
Google should have just itched the
underside of the glass so it would still
visually look cloudy but leave the
glossy smooth non abrasive surface on
the outside putting your phone in water
is incredibly dangerous
and liquid damage is not covered under
any warranties and doesn't even clean
off all metal marks so keep your phone
as dry as possible I'll show you where
those water damage indicators are hidden
in just a second my welding brush is
quite a bit stronger than a toothbrush
but was equally unable to remove any
scratches back to the teardown let's see
why it's a bad idea to get your phone
wet unlike the normal sized pixel three
this fingerprint scanner is clipped in
with a latch style connector which lifts
up and then lets the fingerprint scanner
come loose from the motherboard now the
pixel three is ip68 water-resistant not
waterproof
meaning that water can still get inside
the phone if it's deep enough or if
there's added pressure from a faucet or
steam from hot water google couldn't
tell if your phone has been wet or not
by this little white sticker near the
charging port the white sticker turns
pink when it comes in contact with
liquid so putting your phone in the sink
is just not worth the risk Google will
know there are more water damage
indicators as well but they are hidden
under a series of t3 screws holding down
all of the components let's start with
those four screws holding down this
metal side rail I'll link all the tools
I use in the video description with that
side rail gone now I can unclip the
battery and the wireless charging both
unsnap like little Legos now it's pretty
excited to see some pull tabs underneath
the battery usually this means that the
battery has an easy removal process but
both of these tabs turned out to be
worthless they were incredibly tight
made no sound and both of them broke
before releasing their death grip on the
battery which means we have to commence
the prime I use a little bit of heat to
soften the adhesive frying is dangerous
because batteries are not meant to be
bent or punctured it would have been
nice if Google spent an extra two
pennies per phone and got some
worthwhile pull tabs like look at this
nightmare it's like the monster from
venom has a death grip on the lithium
the wireless charger is super simple
I'll peel that off like a giant sticker
revealing a 3400 milliamp power battery
no match for the notes four thousand
milliamp hours but still better than the
iPhone 10's 2,700 milliamp hour down
here at the bottom of the phone we have
one of the two stereo speakers held in
place by five of those same t3 screws
I'll pop out the SIM card tray and then
remove
the speaker with its black plastic
covering the interesting thing about
this speaker is where the sound emanates
from it's just the one side of the
charging port not the whole thing
meaning that the extra large size of
that bottom speaker grille is mostly for
aesthetics looking over here at the
other large hole in the bottom of the
phone the SIM card slot we get yet
another water damage indicator running
along the entirety of the SIM card
opening this indicator is one of the
largest I've seen and if it gets wet it
also turns red notifying Google that
your phone is not covered by any
warranty since it got wet this indicator
is also visible from the outside of the
phone when the SIM card is removed so
once again keep it away from water
now let Sun bury that knotch there are
five screws holding down the plastic top
plate over the motherboard and another
two screws holding down the bracket over
the taptic vibrator I'll unplug the side
buttons remove one more motherboard
screw and two more screws holding down
the long bracket over the notch
components before the motherboard can
come out I'll unclip the squeeze sensor
ribbon cable and the other squeeze
sensor ribbon the screen ribbon and the
last final ribbon down at the bottom of
the board for the charging ports there's
one more screw at the top right of the
motherboard then I can unclip the two
front facing cameras and the top
earpiece speaker lastly if you're not
asleep yet I'll unplug the two signal
wires at the bottom and then the whole
motherboard can just shimmy out of the
pixel three frame the motherboard is
free and it looks like we have some
thick white thermal paste on the back of
the processor the rear camera also plugs
in back here and is arguably one of the
main selling points of the pixel 3 this
12 megapixel sensor with optical image
stabilization combined with Google's
software it's supposedly one of the best
smartphone cameras on the market at the
moment it kind of just boils down to
personal preference though I still
prefer a dual camera setup for telephoto
and wide-angle speaking of which the
pixel 3xl does include two cameras I
don't know if you saw it or not but the
pixel 3xl has a notch on the front and
that notch is home to dual eight
megapixel cameras one normal selfie
camera and the other camera for
wide-angle grupe pictures the large
earpiece surprisingly has a few sensors
attached to it and sits comfortably
between the two cameras right over top
of the much smaller speaker grille
opening realistically judging by the
size of the front-facing cameras the
notch couldn't be much smaller than it
is
large cameras need a large notch to hide
behind and that's just the way this
phone was designed screen replacements
require heat to pull the glass away from
the frame the old cracked screens
usually do not survive the removal
procedure so I'm gonna leave my screen
in place and intact for now the last
thing to come out is the charging port
it has three more of those same t 3
screws we've been taking out this whole
time once those are out the charging
port ribbon pulls out from inside the
phone frame it does have the normal
rubber ring around the USBC port to help
keep water out but judging by the
placement of the water damage indicator
even Google knows it's still a weak
point the SIM card tray does have a
rubber lip around the edge to keep water
out as well but it's minor and
unimpressive and keeping your phone away
from water is still the best plan of
action even if you're trying to wash off
scratches I think Google did a pretty
good job this year with the pixel 3
yeah the notch is big and the glass gets
marked up easy but for die-hard pixel
fans this is still a solid phone I'm
gonna tuck the charging port back down
into frame making sure all the screw
holes line up with where they originally
came out of slipping the motherboard
back in and making sure it's not lying
on top of any ribbon cables it's time to
find out if this thing still works I'll
clip the side squeezing ribbon back onto
the motherboard this is the third
iteration of the flex sensors that we've
seen each little sensor can detect my
new fluctuations in the sidewall
squeezing acts like a button of sorts to
activate the camera or other
applications
I'll get the earpiece back into place
with the front facing cameras clipping
them in one by one and the bracket that
holds everything in place I know I
always stress keeping your screws
organized in projects like this because
it's super important it actually makes
the assembly process go so much faster
the bottom speaker is back in his slot
and finally it's time for this large
random chunk of metal it makes you
wonder if the phone wasn't structurally
sound enough beforehand and they added
the metal chunk afterward to keep things
from bending in half smart move
let's give them a thumbs up for the
random metal chunk it sits snugly over
the top of the battery connector and the
wireless charging look then the
fingerprint scanner ribbon can slip into
its little slot in the motherboard and
latch down firmly into place all that
double-sided adhesive to keep the back
glass down it's definitely not
watertight anymore but everything still
works I'd say the biggest issue with the
pixel 3xl is getting permanently marked
up by basically any metal that comes in
contact with never has keeping your keys
and phone in
Britt pockets been more important a case
her skin would be a good idea to help
keep the resale value up but other than
that it seems like a solid device to me
check out the clear mod I made with the
regular sized pixel 3 that looks pretty
amazing inside and hit that subscribe
button if you haven't already thanks
dumb for watching I'll see you around