Today we’re going to be opening up and tearing down the Huawei P9. I’ve done a camera comparison,
a durability test, and now it’s time to review the internal build quality.
Let’s turn the phone off and remove the SIM card tray from the side using your SIM card removal
tool. Now before we even open the phone, things get interesting. The two screws on the bottom
are the exact same size as the iPhone screws. This is the first phone I’ve ever seen with
that same size pentalobe screw in it. To remove the frame from the metal body we’re going
to use my thin metal pry tool and slip it between the bottom edge of the phone and screen.
But don’t lift it up too far; we have one ribbon cable that’s attaching the fingerprint
scanner to the phone. Unsnap that and then the back housing will come free from the screen.
Here’s the back housing. You can see the metal aluminum frame along with the antenna
bands that are plastic on the bottom side. And then here’s another look at that slinky
ribbon cable that’s attached to the fingerprint scanner. Fairly interesting design. Notice
the camera lenses here; we’ll come back to those in a second. Here is the motherboard.
There are two screws that hold down the battery connection. We’re going to pop off this
signal wire and then remove the little metal bracket that holds the plugs in place. Unplugging
the battery first to disconnect the electricity that’s coursing through the board. That
will make it safer overall. Then we’re going to disconnect the extension ribbon cable as
well as remove the one screw on this other side, next to the volume and power ribbons.
We’ll disconnect the screen ribbon. And then there are 4 screws holding down the motherboard
to the main frame. There are lots of little metal brackets on this phone so make sure
you set them right next to the screws so they’ll stay organized. So here’s the dual Leica
camera set up for the Huawei P9. The cameras are mounted in the same metal housing which
is good, because if they were separate and the phone was dropped, that would mess up
the image combining feature that I talked about in my camera comparison video. That
happens with all still images, but not video. I still debate on whether that actually works
or not, but Huawei says it does, so we’ll roll with it. Now Leica, that expensive camera
company that Huawei paid to use their name, didn’t actually build this camera. Neither
did Huawei. Chinese company called Sunny Optical Technology of China did. But under the direction
of Huawei with Leica’s name stamped on it. It all gets very confusing and if you watch
my camera comparison video, you’ll understand why it’s all sketchy, creative wording.
The thing that bugs me the most, as a hardware guy, is this image that I pulled from Huawei's
website. First off we have image covering text…brilliant, but that’s beside the
point. Look at all the thick glass in this image. It almost looks like a real professional
DSLR camera lens, doesn’t it? But in all honesty, this is straight up false advertising.
As you can see from me holding the camera, it is nonexistent in the actual phone. And
the exterior lens on the back housing is just a flat piece of glass, just like every other
smart phone manufacturer like Samsung and the Apple iPhone. Huawei is straight up lying
about the glass in this phone. Anyway, let’s continue the tear down. We’re going to remove
the sticky tape that holds the front camera in place. This is an 8 megapixel camera and
720p video. The rear cameras do 1080p video. There is no 4K in this camera. We’ll pop
out the motherboard, and while that may look like bubble gum or frosting, it is just thermal
paste to transfer the heat from the processors into the metal frame of the phone to cool
it down. So don’t eat this. The SIM card tray is soldered onto the main board so it’s
not removable. There is a dual colored LED flash which I really like. When the flash
goes off it brings out the color in the picture so it’s not washed out since there are two
colors flashing at the same time. Now if you are going to remove your screen you’ll need
to transfer over this proximity sensor, the earpiece, and power and volume ribbon buttons
to your next screen. I’ll talk about that more in a second. Just keep in mind that there
are little components you’ll have to deal with. Now see these black tabs? These things
are magical and will make the removing of the battery so much easier. Just grab the
top of the tab and pull the adhesive out from underneath the battery, and as the adhesive
stretches it loses its stickiness and the battery will pop out relatively easily after
both adhesive strips are pulled out. It is very important to pull the adhesive horizontally
away from the phone. If you lift up, the adhesive will break and then you’ll be stuck using
the old pry away from the metal frame method, which is a lot harder, so be careful. There
is a little bit of adhesive on the bottom left side of the battery that you’ll need
to pry out, but it’s a lot softer than the actual pull tab adhesive. And be careful with
those extension ribbons as you’re prying it out. Here’s the battery. I will link
replacement parts down in the video description. There are 3 screws holding the charging port
components into place. We’re going to unplug the loud speaker first. And then the headphone
jack pops off with that metal bracket in place. Don’t try to remove the metal bracket from
the little ribbon cable that attaches to the headphone jack because it might rip off. We’re
going to unplug the extension ribbon cable from the charging port and disconnect that
wire cable. Here is the USB type C charging port. It does have a little rubber hat along
the bottom. I think this is less for waterproofing and more for just shock absorbing. The loud
speaker is held very firmly in place. The nice thing about all of these components down
here is that the metal frame is exactly fit to each component so they are very very sturdy
inside of that housing. So this is the screen. It has the glass layer, the screen layer underneath
that which shows the image and the metal frame. Luckily Huawei does sell this component as
one; the metal frame, the glass and the screen all together. And it’s actually relatively
cheap. I will link the replacement parts down in the video description. Replacing the screen
on this Huawei P9 is actually easier than most Samsung and iPhones. Time to reassemble
the phone. We’re going to take the loud speaker and tuck that into place. Set the
charging port into place and clip on that wire cable and the extension ribbon cable.
Once those are secure you can take that little metal plate that’s attached to the headphone
jack and snap that into place, as well as the little ribbon cable for the loud speaker.
It will snap in like a little Lego. Get the 3 screws into place and then grab that motherboard
and we’ll tack that down into the top. It does clip in. There’s a little guiding pin
down in the bottom left corner to help you situate it correctly. There are arrows as
well on the board which is Huawei’s signature move that we’ve seen on all the rest of
their phones as well. Clip in the volume and power button or your phone will not work.
As well as the extension ribbon for the screen and for the charging port. Then we’ll get
the battery back into place but we’re not going to plug it in just yet because we don’t
want electricity coursing through the board while we’re working on it. Get the dual
Leica camera lens plugged in, as well as the 8 megapixel front camera. Snap that into place
like a little Lego. And now that everything’s connected we can plug in the battery. Just
make sure not to turn on the phone yet because we’ll still be screwing things in. The signal
wire clips into place. One more camera check. This phone does not have OIS stabilization
but it does have the mechanical focus so the lens moves just slightly in and out to focus
light onto the sensor. Kind of fun. Get those 3 metal brackets back into place, and the
7 screws that hold that motherboard down. Then stick one side of the phone in the back
metal housing so you can grab that slinky ribbon and clip that into place like a little
Lego. Once it’s attached you can line up the top edge of the screen with the top edge
of the frame. Tuck that into place just like with the iPhone repairs. And then press the
sides into place. SIM card slot goes back in. And now we can make sure the phone is
working. Make sure you get the two bottom screws back into place and you are set. If
you have any questions leave them down in the comments. I do respond fairly regularly.
Like always, my behind the scenes and Snap story can be found at ZacksJerryRig. I do
use Twitter and Instagram quite at bit as well. Thanks a ton for watching. I hope to
see you around.