Galaxy S8 and S8+: Teardown reveals handsets are extremely difficult to repair due to curved screen

Following the Note 7 flaming disaster, Samsung positioned the Galaxy S8 as the iPhone killer handset. It bet on the new Galaxy flagship to regain its huge consumer base, which it lost with the Note 7. Now, if you want to know how the S8 and S8+ stand up against the rival, reparability firm iFixit has the answer.

iFixit ripped apart the new Galaxy models to reveal the innards of the handset. The teardown suggests the bigger one with a 6.2 in screen, the S8+'s battery voltage, capacity and design tolerance are identical to the Note 7.

A key point iFixit makes is replacing the front screen without destroying the display is extremely difficult, which is because of the curved screen. Both the S8 and S8+ received four points out of 10 in reparability.

iFixit claims the S8+ unit it used for the teardown has the battery from the same manufacturer as the one used in the Note 7.

The design around the battery used in the S8, its installed position, spacing and reinforcement are quite similar to the Note 7. The battery is firmly glued down, which makes it harder to replace.

The S8+ houses a 3500mAh battery, the same capacity as the Note 7, but slightly less than the S7 Edge. The S8's battery is of 11.55, which is comparable to the 10.66Wh battery used in Google Pixel.

Except the dimension, the S8 and S8+ are almost identical, with the speaker grille, microphone hole, USB-C charging port, headphone jack, rear-facing camera and fingerprint reader. Most of the hardware components in the handsets are modular and can be replaced independently. The battery could be replaced, although it is difficult due to the tough adhesive material.