The LG G Watch is surprisingly easy to repair

G-Watch-teardown

LG’s new G Watch goes on sale around the world today, and already the device has been given its customary teardown from the repair experts at iFixit. Despite its size, the new Android Wear smartwatch is surprisingly easy to get into, and even easier to repair — earning a repairability score of 9 out of 10.

The G Watch’s back plate is held in place by four T5 screws, and once those are removed, it pops right open. Fixed to the inside of the back panel sits the watch’s battery, vibration motor, charging connectors, and some other “fidgety doodads,” iFixit says in their teardown report.

Inside the front half of the G Watch sits its display and main logic board, and they’re connected by just two cables that are easily detached. The board can then be removed from the device; there are no more screws to contend with, and there isn’t a spot of glue in sight.

The G Watch’s chip collection consists of an SK Hynix 512MB DRAM that sits atop the Qualcomm APQ8026 processor — plus a Qualcomm PM8226 power management IC, an InvenSense 6-axis accelerometer, a Synaptics ClearPad 3400 series touchscreen controller, and a Broadcom BCM20715 Bluetooth 4.0 controller.

The only slightly difficult component to remove from the G Watch is the display, which is glued in place and therefore requires some heat to soften things up a bit. Once it’s ready, the display can be removed with a little bit of pressure on its back and a pick around its edges.

Given that the G Watch is so easy to pull apart, iFixit have given it a repair score of 9 out of 10. “Clean design with few fragile cables and connectors means a more robust, repair-ready device,” they conclude.

Parts won’t be easy to get hold of right now, of course — the device has only just gone on sale — but when they are, those who are brave enough should be able to perform most repairs on their G Watch themselves at home.