Phandroid
Samsung Galaxy S5 teardown shows device’s mechanical organs ahead of launch
Why are techies so obsessed with teardowns? Because they’re damned cool, that’s why. You may think you’ve seen them all if you’ve seen just one, but there’s always something new and unique about each and every device when you go beneath the hood.
In the case of the Samsung Galaxy S5, it seems Samsung made it dead easy to get to the battery, but repairing and replacing anything else could come with a bit of trickery. The display, first and foremost, uses tons of adhesive that makes it difficult to remove without damaging the display or wires.
If that’s not enough, a vast majority of the components are only accessible by removing the display, so think of it as a tough barrier of entry to do anything worth anything should your phone suffer a fate worse than declining battery performance.
All of that led to a repair score of 5/10, with 10 being the easiest to repair. There’s a good thing insurance exists, and you will definitely want to get it if you’re buying ANY phone worth hundreds of dollars. The device is available tomorrow, so you still have a bit of time to think about which route you want to take.
[via iFixIt]
T-Mobile announces Tablet Freedom to make it easier and cheaper to add tablets to your lines
T-Mobile is continuing to count down the days until they implement their latest uncarrier moves. Yesterday, they revealed a new entry-level plan for $40 that gives folks unlimited talk and text with 500MB of data for $40 per month. Announcement 2 of 3 deals with tablets, and how sucky other carriers make it to add connected devices to their account.
They’re calling their latest moves “Tablet Freedom,” and here’s what it’ll bring:
- A T-Mobile 4G LTE + Wi-Fi tablet for zero down and pay no more than you’d pay for the cheaper Wi-Fi-only model of the same tablet.
- 1GB of free 4G LTE data each month combined with the 200MB of free data you already automatically get every month with T-Mobile’s previously announced “Free Data for Life” offer
- Access to T-Mobile’s JUMP! program and Contract Freedom program, where T-Mobile will pay every penny of your ETFs from another carrier when you trade-in your existing tablet at T-Mobile, including Wi-Fi only tablets, and upgrade to your latest-generation tablet of choice at the new lower same-as-Wi-Fi prices.
No convoluted process to get a tablet line added to an account primarily meant for phones. No extra charges simply because it’s a bigger device. No more justifying a $300 premium over the price of the WiFi model simply because it has 4G radios. That’s the kind of stuff that all adds up to make T-Mobile one of the most compelling options in the game (even if their coverage isn’t up to snuff yet).
Like the Simple Starter plan, these changes will be available starting April 12th, and it wouldn’t be a bad guess to suggest whatever tomorrow’s announcement ends up being will be available that day, as well. Circle back for more news on that front as the week winds down.
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