Nokia (HMD) and iFixit manage the feat of offering a phone under 200 euros which can be changed several elements. At MWC 2023, we tried the operation: it’s even easier than we thought.
We announced it to you at the very beginning of MWC 2023, Nokia (HMD) and iFixit have teamed up to make the brand’s latest smartphone, the Nokia G22, easily repairable for ordinary mortals. The structure of the phone itself has been designed to facilitate the operation and to allow the change of a battery, a charging port, a screen or the rear panel. We attended the complete disassembly of the phone before getting our hands a little dirty, too.
The Nokia G22 // Source: Frandroid
The Nokia G22 // Source: Frandroid
The Nokia G22 // Source: Frandroid
The Nokia G22 // Source: Frandroid
The demonstration is convincing. Even if the demonstrator who proved it to us worked for iFixit and was therefore probably trained as it should be, dismantling the Nokia G22 seemed to us to be unbelievably simple.
A few tools and let’s go
To get started, you will need a small toolkit designed by iFixit and sold with the G22 spare parts. It includes a pick, a screwdriver and a small tool to catch the pieces and unhook them. That’s about all you’ll need.
iFixit’s phone and toolbox // Source: Frandroid
The iFixit toolbox // Source: Frandroid
You have to start by removing the SIM drawer. The latter is a little different from usual, a small flat hole invites you to slip the pick into it. From there, with a light flick of the wrist, hop, you’re in the process of taking off the frame of the phone by its back. 30 seconds to a minute later and a bit of elbow grease (nothing bad), the back of the phone comes off.
There, we had to turn a screw on the connector and remove a small metal element and finished, the back is already disassembled.
Make way for the drums, but it won’t take long to tell. To remove it, HMD has integrated several plastic strips to make it easier to pull on it. We pull and hop, the battery comes off very easily. Child’s play.
Room for screen and charging port
For the other elements, the screen and the charging port, we left it to the professional so as not to monopolize the stand, but the operation did not seem so complicated. The charging port requires removing 8 screws at the base of the phone, removing a connector and you’re done. The screen itself requires removing the motherboard and some additional manipulations, but even having never disassembled a phone, it seemed totally within my reach.
Source: Frandroid
Source: Frandroid
Let’s be clear: we were completely thrilled by this presentation. Succeeding in presenting a phone with a relatively modern format under 200 euros from which you can easily disassemble four break-sensitive elements, it’s prodigious.
Fairphone certainly does, but on a phone that suffers significant inflation due to this ability to be dismantled. The Nokia G22 is a very basic entry-level phone, which happens to be removable. Here’s a nice idea.
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