iFixit recently had a chance to teardown Shift5.1 smartphone. Touted as the first German smartphone, iFixit revealed that the phone managed to fetch a repairability score of 6/10.
The iFixit team found that the Shift5.1 smartphone had used extensive use of standard components. According to iFixit, this approach will most likely cause troubles during the repair process. Hence, the Shift5.1 handset only reserves a 6/10 score as opposed to 7/10 in the French-based Wiko Pulp 4G handset.
Upon teardown, iFixit found that the Shift5.1 bears a 2000mAh battery, which is same as the Fairphone 1. Morerover, you can easily remove the battery. The main attraction of Shift5.1 smartphone is that only 10 standard Phillips screws are used throughout the phone. If you are repairing the phone, you will certainly feel the joy.
The main surprise with Shift5.1 smartphone is that a soldered cable establishes connectivity with the motherboard. Hence, the component replacements will be expensive than other smartphones.
According to iFixit, the Shift has not provided any proof of the social and ecological goals they want to achieve with their devices, despite being their priority.
Talking about the specifications, the Shift5.1 features a 5-inch HD IPS display, Mediatek MT6582 processor, 2GB RAM, 16GB internal storage, 8MP rear camera coupled with a 5MP front-facing snapper. The phone is loaded with Android 5.1 Lollipop. A 2000mAh Li-Polymer battery supplies adequate power for the phone. You can make use of both normal and micro SIM cards.
During the teardown, iFixit found that the cover and battery are easy to remove. They can be easily swapped without any tools. The handset doesn’t feature any excessive glue. You will not find any proprietary screws. Instead, you will find Phillips #000 screws. You can alter the fused display but you need to take out everything else reminding us of the iPhone 4 and 4s.
The main drawback is that you will find that several components and connectors are soldered to the motherboard. You can solder by hand if needed but this makes repairs more difficult.
As per iFixit rating system, a repairability score of 10 indicates that the concerned phone or tablet can be easily repaired. The scale of 6 for Shift5.1 indicates that it is easy to repair but requires plenty of work.
