We all know that the latest Pixel phone delivers great photos at an affordable price, but if you had to repair one yourself, how much of a challenge are you in for? A new Google Pixel 8a teardown video shows us the exact process, as well as revealing all the hardware secrets that lurk within.
Youtuber, PBK Reviews, posted a 10-minute video detailing the Google Pixel 8a teardown process (via GSMArena). It starts out simple enough, using just a hairdryer and a guitar pick to remove the plastic rear casing. It looks much easier than disassembling a glass-backed phone, and as an added bonus, you don’t even need to remove the back to replace the lens cover for the rear cameras.
Diving deeper into the phone, there’s the usual abundance of torx screws to remove we know from other teardowns of Google Pixel phones, but when we get to the battery, things become more challenging. Despite the YouTuber using plenty of isopropyl alcohol, and the battery having a prominent pull-tab, it’s so strongly glued in place that it’s very difficult to remove.
We then get a look at the cooling solution, and surprisingly, it’s comprised of just copper and graphite heatspreaders, adhered with thermal pads. There’s no vapor chamber cooling like you’d find on most flagship phones. We already know that Google’s Tensor chips tend to run pretty hot, so with such a simple cooling solution in place, the Pixel 8a is almost guaranteed to get toasty during longer gaming sessions.
PBK Reviews gave the Pixel 8a a 7.5/10 for repairability overall. The back is easy to remove, you can replace the screen without complete disassembly and the parts are easy to source. It’s mainly the very well-glued battery that took the score down a few notches.
Hopefully, it’s not something you’ll need to do, but with 7 years of promised software updates, there’s every chance that users will hold onto this phone for a long time. If you want to see how it compares to other Androids, see our picks for the best Samsung phones and the best Xiaomi phones.