The Google Pixel 3a and 3a XL are official, and available to buy, the teardown experts at iFixit decided to do what they do best and take them both apart and have awarding the devices a reparability score of 6 out of 10. The site found that the new Pixel’s display is fairly easy to remove without the heat gun or blow dryer that’s often necessary to melt the adhesive securing the screens on many of today’s phones.
Instead, Google uses a “spongy, easily-separated adhesive.” The downside here and probably a key reason for the Pixel 3A’s lack of water resistance — is that it’s likely easier for water to seep through the outer screen perimeter and into the phone.
The phones are easy to open without heat, a rarity in this day and age, and the display is made by Samsung for both of them. The flash storage and RAM come from Micron, and as you may know there’s no Pixel Visual Core chip inside these mid-rangers – that’s a high-end Pixel exclusive.
You do however get Google’s Titan M security chip, as well as a modular USB-C port, which is good news if yours ever breaks. Also modular: the headphone jack. The vibration motor is a garden variety linear resonant actuator, so no fancy precision haptic motor here like in the Pixel 3 or Apple’s handsets.
