While unveiling the Galaxy S25 Ultra at Unpacked last month, Samsung overlooked many details that highlight its improvements over its predecessor. As expected, AI features stole the spotlight, while hardware upgrades — aside from the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 Elite — barely got a mention. However, an iFixit teardown of the Galaxy S25 Ultra reveals what Samsung somehow kept under wraps.
Galaxy S25 Ultra teardown by iFixit reveals it’s most repair-friendly Samsung phone in a long while
In a six-minute teardown video from iFixit, Shahram Mokhtari begins by talking about the downgraded S Pen that comes with the Galaxy S25 Ultra. We’ve already shared our disappointment many times over the loss of Bluetooth capabilities. So much so that we even started a petition, hoping to see its return in the next Ultra model.
Mokhtari starts the teardown by removing the back panel, which comes off quite easily. And that’s not a bad thing. If anything, it’s a step in the right direction, helping the phone get a better repairability score than Samsung’s past models. He points out that the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 Elite for Galaxy isn’t the biggest change this year. Instead, it’s the “simple” battery release mechanism, no longer glued to the board. They call it a “welcome change” since Samsung batteries have long been known for being stuck down with too much glue, making removal much harder.
Credits: iFixit
As for what’s different in the S Pen’s hardware, iFixit shows how the new version lacks a capacitor that previously acted as a battery. Since not many people used the Bluetooth features, Samsung decided to remove it — leaving the S Pen, as Mokhtari plainly puts it, “dumb.”
Next, they carefully take out parts like the cameras and other components, making the teardown process oddly satisfying to watch. Towards the end of the video, we get a look at the improved and 40% larger vapor chamber inside the Galaxy S25 Ultra. In the end, Samsung’s latest Galaxy S25 Ultra gets a “provisional” 5/10 repairability score from iFixit. While that’s lower than the iPhone 16 Pro Max’s 7/10, it’s still a clear improvement over the Galaxy S22 Ultra’s 3/10 and the S23 Ultra’s 4/10.
