Yes, it took an actual hacksaw for the iFixit team to get into Apple’s HomePod smart speaker.
iFixitYou know something is durable when it takes a hacksaw for the iFixit team to tear it down.
Such was the case for the dissection of Apple’s newly released HomePod, a voice-activated wireless speaker and a whole new product category for the gadget giant.
iFixit found all sorts of interesting little tidbits inside, once it finally got in: tweeters and conductive screw posts and a beefy subwoofer, oh my! You can click here for its detailed report.
But here’s the gist: First, the device is “built like a tank. Durability shouldn’t be an issue,” iFixit said. And second, the team gave it a “repairability” score of 1 out of 10, with 10 the easiest to repair.
“Even though it looks like there ought to be a nondestructive way inside, we failed to decode it,” the report concludes. “Without a repair manual, your odds of success are slim.”
And now we all understand why the repair price for the HomePod is so steep: The device costs $350. Repairing it costs $279.
“This ain’t easy, But if we got it wrong, by all means, share the magic procedure!” iFixit wrote.
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