Nubia Z20 Teardown Hints At Difficult Repairs

Foldable phones are one of the hot topics in mobile tech today but, for a short while, that wasn't the only eccentric new design in the industry. Dual-screen phones also offer more display than their regular single-screen counterparts but for a different purpose, one that wants to banish bezels on the front by relocating everything to the back. Of this rare breed of phones, the Nubia Z20 is perhaps the only one that ever reached US shores officially. You might, however, want to hold off if you're that type that needs to have your phone repaired often.

Accidents do happen, of course. When it comes to smartphones, it's sometimes less about preventing accidents and more about making sure phones survive those accidents. Either they're made to be durable and are given high dust and water resistance or they are at least easy to repair.

The Nubia Z20 is only one of those, sadly. YouTube channel JerryRigEverything proved that the phone is one tough nut to crack, survive its triple threat durability test. Tearing the phone down, however, is a completely different story and you might not want to tempt fate too much.

In contrast to its innovative design and technology on the outside, the Nubia Z20 is revealed to be pretty old-school on the inside, and not in a good way. Perhaps to cut down on build costs, Nubia has employed old methods, including gluing the battery down tightly, making replacement difficult and dangerous. There are also a few components that seem to be soldered lightly only, making repairs risky as well.

Repairing the Nubia Z20 isn't impossible, just extremely difficult to perform for inexperienced users or even veteran technicians. Nubia prefers that you send devices to them for repairs, anyway, but their small presence in markets may make that more difficult. Fortunately, the phone's price tag won't have you bawling too much when the worst happens.