Motorola Razr teardown reveals a complex design, no scope for repairs

The Motorola Razr went on sale in the United States this month after its original launch date was pushed back due to reliability concerns. With the phone now released, the folks over at iFixit have subjected it to their teardown treatment revealing its innards.

Phones with foldable screens are complex and fragile devices, and their reliability when it comes to withstanding the day-to-day wear and tear is dubious at best as of now. The Motorola Razr is the perfect example of this.

Tearing down the device, iFixit finds that it ships with two separate batteries which have a combined capacity of 3300mAh. What's more interesting, however, is the presence of big, moving mechanical parts inside the Razr. The folding hinge of the device makes use of a geared hinge, cat-head cam, support plates, and some springs. It is very rare to see a device ship with such complicated moving mechanical parts in this day and age.

In fact, the very process of disassembling the entire device is so complicated that iFixit awards the Razr with the "most complicated phone-based contraption" they have ever taken apart. On the flip side, one could praise Motorola for managing to pull off such an impressive engineering feat.

The complex design of the Razr means that repairability is not its strong suit. No wonder then that iFixit gave the device a repairability score of 1 out of 10. It does note that you can replace the delicate flexible display provided you are determined enough to do so. Otherwise, the complex construction means that carrying out any in-house repair work on the Razr is tricky and extremely difficult.

Source: iFixit