Galaxy S26 Ultra won't be winning any awards for repairability

Although Samsung’s Galaxy S25 Ultra is one of the best Android phones of last year, it left a lot to be desired in the repairability department. The 2025 phone only managed to earn a measly 5 out of 10 repairability score from iFixit. Now that the Galaxy S26 Ultra is available, did Samsung fix this mistake on its latest flagship? It seems that the answer is a bit of a mixed bag.

The folks over at iFixit have conducted a teardown of the Galaxy S26 Ultra. Like the S25 Ultra before it, the team found that there are both good and bad design decisions.

Starting with the good, it appears there were no issues removing the back panel. Just applying heat and working around the edges with a pick, while being careful around the cameras, was enough to separate the rear glass cleanly from the device. The outlet also claims that removing the battery, USB-C port, rear cameras, and motherboard was about as hassle-free as it could be. Meanwhile, the power and volume buttons were found to be among the “easiest buttons in the business to remove.”

Conversely, the phone’s headline feature — the privacy display — proved to be the biggest headache. Apparently, iFixit was unable to remove the display without damaging it. The outlet even goes as far as to call it “one of the ugliest screen repair paths in a flagship phone.”

Another sticking point was the selfie camera. This camera sits under the motherboard and there’s an overabundance of adhesive keeping it in place. As a result, removing the module with the amount of heat necessary could cause the lens to separate from the sensor, ruining the camera.

In the end, the Galaxy S26 Ultra ended up with the same score as the S25 Ultra. Despite all the good repairability choices Samsung made this year, it seems the bad ones were egregious enough to severely drag down the overall score. This comes in contrast to JerryRigEverything’s teardown, which found the phone to be quite repair-friendly.