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Your Smartphone Doesn't Have To Be Glued Shut!

The was recently featured in a hardware tear-down video by @iFixit

youtube.com/watch?v=RCccpgposh

@purism I really like and want to support concept of being able to repair your own phone, but currently it seems to come at a cost - these phones are not designed to be water proof / water resistant and are more bulky. Without water resistance (or shock resistance), wouldn't these phone be less lasting than their counterparts that are, even if one is able to much more easily repair them themselves?

@chester Nether the Fairphone nor the Librem5, Pinephone or Shift will die when you leave it in the rain so I would say not at all. If you take them in the shower with you they probably wont survive but if I had to guess a replacement battery should revive them :D

@gamey oh haha that's cool to know! It would be really great if they could get a water resistance certification like IPX for us to have a quantitative comparison of the water resistance of these vs the typically self-repair-unfriendly phones on the market. Would be great for the marketing of these phones and general right-to-repair.

@chester @purism While I do know people who use their phones in the shower and prefer waterproof, I also know people who have jumped into pools in years past with non-waterproof phones and dried them out just fine. I've done that in years past.

My phone (until I buy a Librem 5) is a pre-owned Galaxy S3 running Replicant, which was manufactured in 2012. It has no glue and is not waterproof. While I'm not your typical user, I'm not convinced waterproof is actually a necessity.

@chester @purism But I also suspect that you can make a waterproof phone without glue, e.g. by lining the inside seam with an appropriate non-adhesive material and applying pressure with the screws. I'd be curious to know if Purism has considered that as a future option.

@mikegerwitz @purism I totally agree - seems to me that a waterproof phone should be possible without glue, and would be very curious to know Purism's thoughts on the matter! Unfortunately my phones didn't survive jumping with me into the sea and being tossed by my friends along with me into a pool hahaha. But I think an air tight seal might also better protect a phone's vulnerable internal electronics from humidity, and thereby somewhat slow down degradation.

@chester @purism It's possible that you're right; I'm no expert on the matter. Iteration and constant evaluation are important. I _suspect_, intuitively, that a repairable phone will result in a net reduction of waste, but that doesn't mean that it's optimal, and it certainly doesn't mean that my intuition is valid.

So to be clear: I'm not dismissing your concern. It's important for it to be raised and considered.

@purism love that thing. Mobian is so great. It could use way more developers though. Many Debian packages to reinterface for a touch screen.

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