Gadgetory

today we're going to be opening up and tearing down the Huawei p9 I've done a camera comparison the durability test and now it's time to review the internal build quality let's turn the phone off and remove the SIM card tray from the side using your SIM card removal tool now before we even open the phone things get interesting the two screws on the bottom are the exact same size as the iPhone screws this is the first phone I've ever seen with that same sized pentalobe screw in it to remove the frame from the metal body we're going to use my thin metal pry tool and slip it between the bottom edge of the phone and the screen but don't lift it up too far we have one ribbon cable that's attaching the fingerprint scanner to the phone unsnap that and then the back housing will come free from the screen here's the back housing we can see the metal aluminum frame along with the antenna bands that are plastic on the bottom side and then here's another look at that slinky ribbon cable that's attached to the fingerprint scanner fairly interesting design notice the camera lens is here we'll come back to those in a second here is the motherboard there are two screws that hold down the battery connection we're going to pop off this signal wire and then remove the little metal bracket that holds the plugs in place unplugging the battery first to disconnect the electricity that's coursing through the board it'll make it safer overall then we're going to disconnect the extension ribbon cable as well as remove the one screw on this other side next to the volume and power ribbons we'll disconnect the screen ribbon and then there are four screws holding down the motherboard to the main frame there's lots of little metal brackets on this phone so make sure you set them right next to the screws so they'll stay organized so here's the dual like a camera set up for the Huawei p9 the cameras are mounted in the same metal housing which is good because if they were separate and the phone was dropped that would mess up the image combining feature that I talked about in my camera comparison video that happens with all still images but not video I still debate on whether that actually works or not but Huawei says it does so we'll roll with it now like a that expensive camera company that Huawei paid to use their name didn't actually build this camera neither did Huawei Chinese company called sunny optical technology of China did but under the direction of Huawei with Leica's name stamped on it it all gets very confusing and if you watch my camera comparison video Stan why it's all sketchy creative wording the thing that bugs me the most as a hardware guy is this image that I pulled from huawei's website first off we have image covering text brilliant but that's beside the point look at all the thick glass in this image it looks almost like a real professional DSLR camera lens doesn't it but in all honesty this is straight-up false advertising as you can see from me holding the camera it is non-existent in the actual phone and the exterior lens on the back housing is just a flat piece of glass just like every other smartphone manufacturer like Samsung and the Apple iPhone Huawei is straight up lying about the glass in this phone anyway let's continue the teardown we're going to remove the sticky tape that holds the front camera into place this is an 8 megapixel camera and does 720p video the rear cameras do 1080p video there is no 4k in this camera will pop out the motherboard and while that may look like bubblegum or frosting it is just thermal paste to transfer the heat from the processors into the metal frame of the phone to cool it down so don't eat this the SIM card tray is soldered onto the mainboard so is not removable there is a dual color LED flash which I really like when the flash goes off it brings out the color in the picture so it's not washed out since there's two colors flashing at the same time now if you are going to remove your screen you will need to transfer over this proximity sensor earpiece and power and volume ribbon buttons to your next screen I'll talk about that more in a second just keep in mind that there are little components you'll have to deal with now see these black tabs these things are magical and we'll make the removing of the batteries so much easier just grab the top of the tab and pull the adhesive out from underneath the battery as the adhesive stretches it loses its stickiness and the battery will pop out relatively easy after both adhesive strips are pulled out it is very important to pull the adhesive horizontally away from the phone if you lift up the adhesive will break and then you'll be stuck using the old pry away from the metal frame method which is a lot harder so be careful there is a little bit of adhesive on the bottom left side of the battery that you'll need to pry out but it's a lot softer than the actual pull tab adhesive and be careful with those extension ribbons as you're prying it out here's the battery I will link replacement parts down in the video description there are three screws holding charging port components into place we're going to unplug the loudspeaker first and then the headphone jack pops off with that metal bracket in place don't try to remove the metal bracket from the little ribbon cable that attaches to the headphone jack because it might rip off we're going to unplug the extension ribbon cable from the charging port and disconnect that wire cable here is the USB type-c charging port it does have a little rubber hat along the bottom I think this is less for waterproofing and more for just shock absorbing the loudspeaker is held very firmly in place the nice thing about all of these components down here is that the metal frame is exactly fit each component so they're very very sturdy inside of the housing so this is the screen it has the glass layer the screen layer underneath that which shows the image and the metal frame luckily Huawei does sell this component as one the metal frame the glass and the screen all together and is actually relatively cheap I will link the replacement parts down in the video description replacing the screen on this Huawei p9 is actually easier than most Samsung and iPhones time to reassemble the phone we're going to take the loudspeaker and tuck that into place set the charging port into place and clip on that wire cable and the extension ribbon cable once those are secured you can take that little metal plate that's attached to the headphone jack and snap that into place as well as little ribbon cable for the loudspeaker it'll snap in like a little Lego get the three screws into place and then grab that motherboard and we'll tack that down into the top it does clip in there's a little guiding pin down in the bottom left corner to help you situate it correctly there's arrows as well on the board which is Huawei's signature move that we've seen on all the rest of their phones as well clipping the volume and power button or your phone will not work as well as the extension ribbon for the screen and for the charging port and then we'll get the battery back into place but we're not going to plug it in just yet because we don't want electricity coursing through the board while we're working on it get the dual Leica camera lens plugged in as well as the eight megapixel front camera snap that into place like a little Lego and now that everything's connected we can plug in the battery just make sure not to turn on the phone yet because we'll still be screwing things in the signal wire clips into place one more camera check this phone does not have oh is stabilization but it does have the mechanical focus so the lens moves just slightly in and out of focus light onto the sensor kind of fun get those three metal brackets back into place and these seven screws that hold that motherboard down then stick one side of the phone into the back metal housing so you can grab that slinky ribbon and clip that into place like a little Lego once it's attached you can line up the top edge of the screen with the top edge of the frame tuck that into place just like with the iphone repairs and then press the sides into place SIM card slot goes back in and now we can make sure the phone is working make sure your the two bottom screws back into place and you are set if you have any questions leave them down in the comments I do respond fairly regularly like always my behind-the-scenes and snap story can be found at Zach's jerry-rigged I do use Twitter and Instagram quite a bit as well thanks ton for watching I hope to see you around