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Video Overview

This teardown is not a repair guide. To repair your Nexus 6, use our service manual.

  1. Nexus 6 Teardown, Nexus 6 Teardown: step 1, image 1 of 3 Nexus 6 Teardown, Nexus 6 Teardown: step 1, image 2 of 3 Nexus 6 Teardown, Nexus 6 Teardown: step 1, image 3 of 3
    • Nexus 6 Tech Specs:

    • 5.96" display with a resolution of 1440 x 2560 pixels (493 ppi)

    • 2.7 GHz Quad core Krait 450 CPU (Qualcomm Snapdragon 805 SOC) + Adreno 420 GPU, with 3 GB RAM

    • 32 or 64 GB of internal storage

    • Android 5.0 Lollipop

    • 802.11ac 2x2 (MIMO) + Bluetooth 4.1 + NFC

    • 3220 mAh "non-removable" battery

    • 13 MP rear-facing camera with Optical Image Stabilization + 2 MP front-facing camera

  2. Nexus 6 Teardown: step 2, image 1 of 3 Nexus 6 Teardown: step 2, image 2 of 3 Nexus 6 Teardown: step 2, image 3 of 3
    • The Nexus 6 has a central rear-facing camera that looks like it might have some interesting flash action hidden alongside.

    • More on this later...

    • The top of the phone is decked with a 3.5 mm headphone jack and a seemingly out-of-place nano SIM card slot.

    • The bottom houses the Micro USB port, along with the obligatory FCC markings, leaving the back of the phone jargon free.

  3. Nexus 6 Teardown: step 3, image 1 of 2 Nexus 6 Teardown: step 3, image 2 of 2
    • Begun, the Clone War has.

    • Three companies produce two phablets and we hold them up in the same hand to compare their size. Thanks to a thinner bezel, you get more screen real estate with the Nexus 6, with only a slightly larger chassis.

    • Nexus 6: 82.98 mm x 159.26 mm x 10.06 mm

    • iPhone 6 Plus: 77.8 mm x 158.1 mm x 7.1 mm

  4. Nexus 6 Teardown: step 4, image 1 of 3 Nexus 6 Teardown: step 4, image 2 of 3 Nexus 6 Teardown: step 4, image 3 of 3
    • With no visible screws on the rear cover, we resort to opening picks to pry or slide our way in.

    • The bad: No simple clips on this cover, looks like your fingernails won't be enough for this job.

    • The good: The adhesive securing the cover is relatively mild, once the pick sneaks into the seam, the cover can be peeled up.

    • The ugly: Removing the rear cover still doesn't provide access to internal components. At least we now have visual confirmation of screws, a whole legion of them.

  5. Nexus 6 Teardown: step 5, image 1 of 3 Nexus 6 Teardown: step 5, image 2 of 3 Nexus 6 Teardown: step 5, image 3 of 3
    • Time to take out the (oh-so-many) screws. 22 T3 Torx screws present themselves, and silently await our precision driver.

    • We've spotted a secret door! With a secret connector!

    • We've learned to check for these, and disconnect them in advance, just in case.

    • A shiny copper coil catches our eye through the holey midframe. We'll be sure to investigate that once we get it cracked...

  6. Nexus 6 Teardown: step 6, image 1 of 2 Nexus 6 Teardown: step 6, image 2 of 2
    • The Nexus is finally ready to reveal its secrets. Looks like that mystery connector belonged to the battery!

    • With cables decoupled, it's suddenly delightfully apparent why there were so many screws in the midframe. The Nexus 6 practically falls apart into two halves; the midframe/battery assembly, and the display/motherboard assembly.

    • Thanks to loads of screws, we don't have to deal with any adhesive, or even any tricky plastic clips.

  7. Nexus 6 Teardown: step 7, image 1 of 2 Nexus 6 Teardown: step 7, image 2 of 2
    • Would you look at that! The shiny copper from before is an inductive charging coil! (Maybe this'll catch on after all).

    • Quick inductive charging refresher: an inductive charging station drives an alternating current through a coil. The current moving back and forth in the base coil generates and collapses a magnetic field, which induces a current flow in the coil in the device. This AC current is then rectified into DC power to charge the battery.

    • Peeling the coil off lets us get a look at the 3.8 V, 3220 mAh (12.2 Wh) battery.

    • That's a step above the iPhone 6 Plus's 11.1 Wh, but it looks like the Nexus battery life doesn't benefit much.

    • For a "non-removable" battery, that wasn't so hard.

  8. Nexus 6 Teardown: step 8, image 1 of 2 Nexus 6 Teardown: step 8, image 2 of 2
    • As we continue our trek, we get to investigate that flash assembly a bit closer.

    • The Nexus 6 takes the dual LED flash in a different direction—two different directions, really.

    • The circular camera lens cover acts as a light guide for two flanking LEDs, mimicking a ring flash. Neat!

  9. Nexus 6 Teardown: step 9, image 1 of 3 Nexus 6 Teardown: step 9, image 2 of 3 Nexus 6 Teardown: step 9, image 3 of 3
    • First peek at the motherboard brings back memories of the Moto X; big, green and lots of tiny EMI shields.

    • We easily pluck out the rear- and front-facing cameras with a pair of tweezers.

    • The Nexus 6 is certainly no slouch when it comes to cameras. The 13 MP rear-facing camera sports a Sony Exmor IMX 214 CMOS image sensor (Also found in the OnePlus One).

    • The Nexus 6 also features optical image stabilization, just like the iPhone 6 Plus, which makes for sharper photos.

  10. Nexus 6 Teardown: step 10, image 1 of 2 Nexus 6 Teardown: step 10, image 2 of 2
    • After freeing the motherboard from the display assembly, we spy a lone IC:

    • Atmel MXT640T CCU 1424D TW QLR64 Touchscreen Controller

    • And that's it! The display assembly is bare and free of extra components, after a fairly easy jaunt to the center of the Nexus.

    • Even though it was easy to get here, the display is still fused to the digitizer glass—it won't be a cheap replacement part if you crack your screen.

  11. Nexus 6 Teardown: step 11, image 1 of 1
    • Finally, the part we've all been waiting for! Let's identify some of the ICs that power this Nexus:

    • SK Hynix H9CKNNNDBTMTAR 24 Gb (3 GB) LPDDR3 RAM, with Qualcomm Snapdragon 805 SoC layered underneath

    • Qualcomm PMA8084 Power Management IC

    • SanDisk SDIN9DW4-32G 32 GB eMMC NAND Flash

    • Qualcomm MDM9625M LTE Modem

    • Qualcomm WTR1625L RF Transceiver

    • Qualcomm WFR1620 Receive-Only Companion Chip

    • Texas Instruments TMS320C55 Digital Signal Processor

  12. Nexus 6 Teardown: step 12, image 1 of 2 Nexus 6 Teardown: step 12, image 2 of 2
    • Even more ICs:

    • Qualcomm SMB1359

    • Broadcom BCM4356 802.11ac + Bluetooth 4.1 IC

    • RF Micro Devices RF7389EU F14NRC2 Envelope Tracking Power Amplifier

    • Speaker Grille RGB LED

    • For some reason, Motorola decided to keep this LED a secret.

    • NXP TFA9890A Audio Amplifier

    • Qualcomm QFE1100 Envelope Tracking IC

  13. Nexus 6 Teardown: step 13, image 1 of 2 Nexus 6 Teardown: step 13, image 2 of 2
    Tool used on this step:
    Rotary Tool
    $49.99
    Buy
    • But wait there's more! Motorola is touting its Turbo Charger, boasting enough charge for 6 hours of use in just 15 minutes of charging.

    • Compatible with Qualcomm's new Quick Charge 2.0 tech, the Motorola Turbo Charger lists three different output options: 5 V at 1.6 A, 9 V at 1.6 A, and 12 V at 1.2 A.

    • Sounds like there's nothing snailish about this Turbo, but really there's only one way to find out...

    • ...And that's by slicing our way in with a rotary tool!

  14. Nexus 6 Teardown: step 14, image 1 of 2 Nexus 6 Teardown: step 14, image 2 of 2
    • On the one side, amidst wads of epoxy, we find a transformer surrounded by some plain jane capacitors, voltage regulators, and a USB port.

    • On the other side, amid a sea of solder and surface mount components:

    • A bridge rectifier, responsible for converting AC to DC

    • Dialogue iW1760B Power Supply Controller, clearly the brains of the operation

  15. Nexus 6 Teardown: step 15, image 1 of 2 Nexus 6 Teardown: step 15, image 2 of 2
    • Motorola Nexus 6 Repairability Score: 7 out of 10 (10 is easiest to repair).

    • Pressure contacts and cable connectors make the modular components (cameras, buttons, headphone jack) easy to replace.

    • The Nexus 6 uses a single kind of screw, although it's a fairly uncommon size (T3).

    • Many many screws hold the midframe in place—this makes its removal somewhat tedious, but also means no clips or adhesive are needed to secure it to the front panel.

    • The glued-in battery is less accessible than we'd like, but it can be replaced.

    • Several components (vibrator, SIM slot, speaker, USB port) are soldered directly to the motherboard and will be more difficult to replace than if they were connected by cable.

    • The digitizer is fused to the display, increasing repair costs for a cracked screen, but it is easy to get to the bare display assembly.

42 Comments

Step 12, the chip above the orange one, Broadcom BCM20795 NFC controller chip.

Frank Chen - Reply

So is it possible to put back the back cover or it need some kind of glue ?

th3d3vi0us - Reply

It's still pretty sticky, so it ought to go back on and stay without any additional adhesive.

Andrew Optimus Goldheart -

I'm struggling to stick mine back on, what adhesive can I use?

Zaidoun Haddad -

Is it possible to upgrade to upgrade the storage?

Collin Corcoran - Reply

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