Alright today we are going to take apart the Galaxy Gear from Samsung.
This is a watch that connects to the Android phone.
First thing we’re going to do is we’re going to turn it off.
Make sure that there’s no power going to the screen before we take it apart.
We’re going to grab a pentalobe screwdriver and there are 4 screws along the bottom that
I’m going to unscrew.
While I’m taking those out, I also did a tear down on the MotoActv which is Motorola’s
watch I can connect to smart phones.
It also has a GPS and stuff in it.
So if you want to see the tear down of that go ahead and click the little box in the corner
and that will take you in a new window to that tear down.
Pretty fun.
Both watches are pretty interesting on the insides.
Now that I’ve gotten all four of these screws out of the watch, I’m going to go ahead
and take my pry tool and kind of go along the edge of the metal screen and the plastic
body and separate the two.
There is a little rubber seal between the frame and the watch band itself so you kind
of got to pry it loose just a little bit.
Helps keep it, you know, water resistant, sweat resistant.
Once you get it kind of away you’ll see the ribbon cable that connects the charger
to the LCD and other components on the screen.
I’m going to take off the sticker right here to give us better access.
So you can see right here this is the little vibrator for the notifications.
And this part right here is where the dock charges the actual watch itself so I just
lifted up the little ribbon cable connector to unclip it from the dock itself.
And there are two Phillips heads screws on either side.
I found it interesting that the dock connector charges through the port on the bottom and
it goes to the motherboard first and then the motherboard has two leads on it that go
down to charge the battery.
It seems like kind of a complex way to charge the watch itself, but you know, that’s the
way Samsung wants to do it.
So right here I’m lifting out the dock connector ports and now the motherboard and the LCD
are free from the actual phone itself.
It’s also interesting that these screws on the front are purely for decoration; you
can see that they go absolutely nowhere.
And then right here I am loosening, there’s a little bracket that holds the battery into
place.
So I just unclip that and the battery is actually stuck down inside the phone as well.
There’s double sided sticky tape on the bottom that holds it in.
So you lift up on the little pull tab, be very careful though because there are still
two leads right here.
This is what I was talking about before that connects to the motherboard to get the power
to the battery itself.
Now that that’s up and off you can see inside the frame.
This is the little rubber seal that helps keep the water and moisture out.
Go ahead and place the battery back in starting with the feeds, the little connectors.
There’s a little circular thing on top that helps line up the connectors and have it sit
right there in the groove where it’s supposed to be.
Press both of those things back down into place.
And then I’m going to put the motherboard back in as well.
Get it all lined up.
And you see right here on the top and the bottom there’s two sound channels where
the microphones are as you can have a conversation completely from the watch.
There’s a speaker and a microphone.
Once it’s blue toothed to your phone you can have an entire conversation just from
your watch.
Anyway, get the two Phillips heads screws back into the top.
Clip down that little ribbon cable connector it’s kind of like a Lego; you’ll hear
it snap into place.
You can do that before or after you screw it in.
I think before might be a little bit easier to make sure it’s all lined up.
Get the little metal bracket pinned down just like it was before and then you can gently
close the screen, making sure not to kink that ribbon cable between the body of the
watch and the LCD in any weird ways.
And then just press it down into place.
And it should sit flush completely all the way around the outside.
You can see that there are no gaps or anything.
And then I’m going to take all four of these screws and get them placed back in.
And screw them back in tight with that same pentalobe screw driver that I was using before.
I’ll link all the tools and stuff that I use for this project down in the video description
below.
It’s kind of nice to have a small screwdriver set lying around.
And then any replacement parts as well I will list in the video description below.
Amazon is usually where I get all my stuff.
eTradeSupply is also another good spot for parts.
And that is it.
The Galaxy Gear is up and running.
Overall pretty solid build.
I like heaviness, the feel of the watch is pretty nice.
If you have any questions make sure to leave them in the comments below.
You can also contact me at Google Plus, Twitter @ZacksJerryRig and Facebook.
And don’t forget to subscribe to my YouTube channel.
Hope to see you around.
Thanks for watching.