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Motorola‘s Razr 2023 foldable, also known as the Razr 40, is the latest phone to go through a teardown at PBKReviews, the YouTube channel known for tearing apart new smartphones to show their internals. This follows a teardown of the Samsung Galaxy S23 FE where we saw the device’s impressive cooling system.
Razr 2023 battery replacements aren’t easy
The Razr 2023 is one of the two clamshell foldables Motorola launched this year. The Razr+, aka Razr 40 Ultra, is the other, with a bigger cover screen on the latter being a key difference. PBKReviews tore apart the former to show it inside out. As usual, the teardown begins with removing the SIM tray and peeling off the back panels. Heat is applied to soften the adhesive so that a pry tool can easily cut through it.
Motorola has applied a graphite film on the underside of the back panels to help transfer the heat from the phone’s body. The internals of the phone are held together with 14 screws. The YouTuber notes that the screws aren’t of the same size, so people dissecting the phone at home should be wary of it. The battery, wireless charging, and NFC cables have a metal bracket on top.
Once the cables are disconnected, we can lift off the sub-board of the Razr 2023. The board comes with the phone’s USB-C charging port attached to it. This paves the way for removing the bigger battery.
However, Motorola hasn’t provided pull tabs here. That means you must use isopropyl alcohol to dissolve the adhesive and use a pry tool to carefully detach the battery from its housing. The same applies to the smaller battery at the top.
The cover display comes off fairly easily with a pry tool. The main board, meanwhile, has a cover on top of it with seven additional screws holding it in place. The cover also has a cable attached to it. Once it goes off, we can see another layer of graphite film on top of the main board. It extends over to the secondary battery. The board now comes off with a graphite film under it.
The new Motorola foldable is quite difficult to repair
Removing the Razr 2023 display involves a similar process as the back panels. Overall, the new Motorola foldable is quite difficult to tear apart and repair. A soldered charging port, the lack of battery pull taps, and a complicated internal structure mean PBKReviews awarded it a repairability score of just 6 out of 10. You can watch the full teardown and re-assembly of the phone below.