Following his scratch, burn, and bend testing, Zack from JerryRigEverything has stripped down the Nokia 8 to look inside the latest Finnish flagship. How easy is it to get inside the smartphone, to change the screen, replace the battery, or work on any other repairs?
It’s going to need a bit of patience and it’s not the easiest of smartphones to crack open, but the basic repairs and replacements a user may want to perform (typically the aforementioned screen and battery) are achievable.
Naturally this process is going to invalidate any warranty you may have, and starting your own repair will likely mean that HMD Global won’t help you out if you break the device, but Zack walks you through the process with a steady voice and clear guidance:
The Nokia 8 is finally on my tear-down table. Its time to see how hard it is to repair the Nokia 8. Is the Nokia 8 built the same way as the Nokia 6? First we will take off the screen, and then show how to replace the battery inside the Nokia 8. This video shows the entire Nokia 8 disassembly, and reassembly.
As expected for a smartphone with a smooth finish and exterior, there’s a lot of glue involved to keep everything in place, although not so much glue to cause an issue. The application of heat and the careful use of tools will open up the unit, revealing the standalone screen, a mid-frame that contains the battery, and the main circuit board with the other components.
It’s worth noting that there’s no ‘hidden’ waterproofing feature, just an IP54 cover over the speaker grille, which will help with moisture but will not stop any major ingress.
All told, the Nokia 8 is repairable, if you are happy to spend some time doing so:
[This is] …not the easiest to phone to repair, even the Nokia 6 felt a little bit easier, but it does have most of the features we have come to expect on flagship Androids, and the screen and battery replacements can be performed easy enough, so it gets a thumbs up from me.”
