The OnePlus 6 is starting to trickle out to consumers, and the phone brings you flagship-class specs in a package that only costs $529. OnePlus made a number of changes to the 6 over last year’s OnePlus 5T, and in our full review, we found most of the changes to be, well, bad.
iFixit has torn down the OnePlus 6, and it seems that you can add “harder to repair” to the list of downgrades brought on by this year’s update. The screwed-on metal back of the OnePlus 5T has been replaced with glass and glue, and iFixit has dinged it two points from last year’s design, down to a “5” repairability score.
Once you pry off the glass back—which takes a heat gun, pry pick, and suction cup clamps—things aren’t so bad. There’s a lengthy cable connected to the rear fingerprint reader, so the cable is less likely to be damaged when you’re prying off the back. The battery is easily removable thanks to a pull tab and only a light amount of glue. The other components are easy to swap out, too, thanks to a plethora of Phillips head screws.
iFixit found a surprising amount of water resistance work for a phone that has no ingress protection rating. Besides the gasket around the SIM tray that any mere mortal can see, the site found seals around all the flex cables, the speaker grills, headphone jack, and USB-C port.
You can see the full teardown over at iFixit’s site.
