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  • It's time to tear down the Galaxy Note 8 and review the tech from the inside...see how

  • hard it is to repair if you crack your screen, or just need to replace the battery.

  • Let's get started.

  • [Intro]

  • If you've watched my clear Galaxy Note 8 video, you've already seen some of the opening process.

  • It is difficult.

  • Samsung has used a new type of adhesive this year that is incredibly strong.

  • This is much harder to remove than on the Galaxy S8, or even the glass back of the LG

  • V30.

  • But, it's still removable.

  • This is accomplished through heating up the back glass until it's just barely too hot

  • to touch, and then sliding a thin metal pry tool between the metal frame of the phone

  • and the glass back panel.

  • I found it easiest to pull up on the center of the glass with my suction cup to ease some

  • of the tension, then slide my pry tool along the side of glass.

  • This is how Apple should have made their iPhone 8 – but they didn't.

  • Replacement glass panels are relatively cheap for the Note 8, so if yours is already broken,

  • or if you manage to break yours during this repair process, don't stress out too much.

  • I'll have replacement parts linked in the video description.

  • Go slow and be gentle.

  • That usually works for me.

  • I managed to slice through my fingerprint ribbon cable, but you can avoid that since

  • you can see where it's located.

  • Now that the back panel's off we get the first glimpse at the back of the camera lens frame.

  • If you wanted to swap out a cracked camera lens at this point, you could.

  • We also see 6 Philips head screws down by the charging port.

  • I'll remove those and then make my way up to the top plastic section with it's 10 screws.

  • Keep the screws organized.

  • I'll try to put them back from the same hole they came from when I reassemble the phone.

  • I'll remove the wireless charger from the frame at this point, and we can see the golden

  • squares that rest up against the motherboard.

  • They transfer power from the copper coil conductor to the battery.

  • When the bottom loud speaker comes off, exposing the charging port, we also glimpse the headphone

  • jack.

  • I'll show you how to remove all that in a second.

  • The speaker does have a water damage indicator on it, so remember, your phone is not water

  • proof, it's just water-resistant.

  • And Samsung does not cover water damage under their warranty.

  • If your phone gets wet, you're on your own.

  • One cool thing that Samsung has on the Galaxy Note 8 is the dual camera set up on the back.

  • Samsung talked about having optical image stabilization on both camera units: the 12

  • megapixel regular lens, and the 12 megapixel zoom lens.

  • And that does seem to be the casethere is some serious physical movement.

  • This hardware is used to stabilize the camera images.

  • Making sure the battery is disconnected, I'll move on to the display ribbons.

  • They unsnap like little Legos.

  • Even the headphone jack down at the bottom of the phone has the same style of connector.

  • The watertight S pen slot unsnaps next.

  • Then I'll move up to the top of the phone with the iris scanner and the 8 megapixel

  • front facing camera.

  • The front camera does have some play to the lens, but it's probably just the focusing

  • and not the extreme movement that comes with the optical stabilization.

  • There's one ribbon cable on the left side of the board next to the last silver screw

  • that needs to come out.

  • I'll unsnap the two little signal wires down at the bottom of the board with their circular

  • connections.

  • We did see this same style of wire when I made my clear Nintendo Switch video a few

  • days ago.

  • If you haven't already taken out the SIM and SD card tray, now would be a good time.

  • This cute little guy holds the expandable memory for the Note 8, as well as the SIM

  • card.

  • It has a rubber ring around the tip to help keep water out.

  • The motherboard is next to come out of the phone.

  • This is because the charging port Lego-style connection is plugged in and underneath the

  • motherboard down at the bottom.

  • So in order to get at the connector, the motherboard needs to lift up.

  • After the motherboard's out, the cameras can come loose.

  • They are both tied in as one unit.

  • A bit different than the dual connection set up that the LG V30 had, but cameras are pretty

  • cheap to replace, and having them connected as one unit isn't a super big deal when it

  • comes to cost or repair-ability.

  • Looking at the frame of the phone we get the copper heat pipe snaking down the side.

  • This wicks heat away from the processor and transfers it into the frame of the phone.

  • I took a thermal imaging camera to the one inside of my LG G6, and it actually functions

  • surprisingly well, more than I thought it would.

  • There are 4 screws holding down the charging port and the headphone jack.

  • I'll start lifting the tiny microphone out from the frame so I can be gentle with that

  • paper thin ribbon cable.

  • Then the whole thing can come loose.

  • Here is the charging port with it's rubber ring around the tip of the USB-C slot.

  • This helps keep water out.

  • The headphone jack has a similar ring around it's tip.

  • That rubber, combined with the pressure of the screws around them holding it tight, help

  • give the Note 8 it's IP68 water resistance ratingone step above the IP67 rating

  • of the new iPhone 8.

  • The housing of the S pen holster is also water tight from the inside.

  • The S pen itself can't get damaged from water since it's inductive with only some copper

  • coils inside, but the rest of the phone needs to be protected.

  • That holster is pretty sealed off.

  • Using the flat side of my metal pry tool, taking special care not to puncture the battery,

  • I'll gently pry it out.

  • Samsung has never been one to use the magic pull tabs, but they also use a gentler adhesive

  • than most.

  • The display is right underneath this battery, so I'm being very careful with this prying.

  • Now if your screen is cracked you'll have to separate it from the mid-frame using some

  • heat and the prying method that we used with the back glass panel.

  • It is not fun.

  • The screens do not survive the removal process, so only attempt this if your screen is totally

  • busted and your replacement screen is ready to go for the installation.

  • Assembling the phone requires that 3300 milliamp battery to go back in it's slot, along with

  • the charging port, getting all 4 of the screw holes lined up with the frame...including

  • that functional headphone jack.

  • The little charging port connector gets clipped to the underside of the motherboard before

  • the whole thing gets laid down into the phone's frame.

  • I'll pull up any extra ribbon cables underneath to make sure nothing is caught when I screw

  • the motherboard back into place with that one tiny screw.

  • The screen ribbons get snapped in like little Legos, along with the headphone jack ribbon.

  • Then the white and blue wire cables that snake up along the bottom of the board get plugged

  • into their circular connections.

  • There are 3 ribbon cables attached to the top side of the motherboard.

  • Then I'll plop in the front camera and iris scanner back into the little slots they came

  • out of.

  • Clicking them down into place.

  • The last thing I'm going to plug in is the battery.

  • Once the battery is connected, I'll plop the loud speaker plastics and the wireless charging

  • that rests on top of the motherboard back into place.

  • There are 16 screws holding everything together.

  • Now normally I would have to plug in the fingerprint scanner at this point, but since I annihilated

  • mine, I get to skip that part.

  • Then finally, the glass gets put back down over the top.

  • Hopefully you'll never have to fix anything on your phone, but accidents do happen and

  • batteries don't last forever, so I'll link all the replacement parts and a cool tool

  • kit, linked in the video description below.

  • I spend most of my free time on Twitter and Instagram, so come hang out over there.

  • And thanks a ton for watching.

  • I'll see you around.

It's time to tear down the Galaxy Note 8 and review the tech from the inside...see how

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