Samsung is ready to let you repair your own laptops
Nearly six months after the initial launch, Samsung is expanding its Self-Repair Program to include five new repairable devices.
Joining the likes of the Galaxy S20 and the Tab S7 Plus are the Galaxy Book Pro 15-inch laptop, Galaxy Book Pro 360 15-in laptop, and the Galaxy S22 line which includes the base model, the S22 Plus, and the S22 Ultra.
Samsung is continuing to collaborate with iFixit to provide the repair kits, which are currently available for purchase although the prices are unknown at the time of this writing. At the very least, we can at least look at the prices for the older kits on the Self-Repair Program to get an idea of what users can expect. For example, replacing the charging port on a phone from either the S20 or S21 line costs $66.99. Speculation aside, the prices for the new additions will be available once the repair kit’s respective pages go live.
Step-by-step instruction guides will be available on iFixit’s website.
Repair kit content
The content of the kits differ between smartphones and laptops with the latter getting more spare parts. Galaxy Book Pro owners will be able to replace both the front and rear case, battery, display, touchpad, the power key including the fingerprint reader, and the rubber feet underneath the device. For the S22 phones, the repair kits are similar to those for the S20 and S21. They have a replacement for the display assembly, back glass, and charging ports, but not the battery, which is strange considering that you could on the older phones.
Besides the missing battery replacement, there are two other glaring omissions in the updated program: you cannot repair the 15.6-inch models of either the Galaxy Book Pro or the Pro 360; as of this writing, anyway. We reached out to Samsung concerning the bigger Galaxy Book models and asked several other questions, such as whether users can replace the battery on an S22 phone or if that be part of a future update.
And what about a return label? The older kits came with a free return label so you can ship back old parts to Samsung for proper disposal. This story will be updated if we hear back on the missing information.
It may also interest you to know that Apple recently updated its own self-repair program to now include Mac computers powered by the M1 chip and the Studio Display. Just be aware the prices may make your eyes water. Replacing only the screen on the Studio Display will run you close to $1000.
