Overview
- iFixit’s teardown on Wednesday rated the Galaxy S26 Ultra 5/10 for repairability, a repeat of last year’s score and behind Google’s Pixel 10 at 6/10 and Apple’s iPhone 17 at 7/10.
- The phone adds a pull‑tab battery that slides out once the back panel is removed, and it uses screw‑mounted parts for the USB‑C port and power and volume buttons to make those high‑wear fixes easier.
- The display is tightly glued and deeply integrated, and iFixit damaged the panel during removal as the new Privacy Display layer made the screen swap one of the toughest they have seen.
- The front‑facing camera sits under the motherboard and is held by heavy adhesive, so the heat needed to free it risks harming the sensor or the costly screen below.
- Beyond hardware, iFixit flagged poor parts and manual access, including screens often sold only as full assemblies, which increases costs and undercuts Samsung’s seven‑year software support promise.