iFixit has taken apart the Galaxy S26 Ultra, and the result is a mixed but still pretty telling look at Samsung’s latest flagship. The repair team gave the phone a 5 out of 10 repairability score, which matches the previous-generation model, but it also highlighted one area where Samsung continues to do better than Apple: battery removal.
According to the teardown, the battery pull-tab system on the Galaxy S26 Ultra is easier to work with than the setup used in Apple’s iPhone 17 Pro Max. That’s a meaningful win for real-world battery repair, since battery swaps are one of the most common jobs on aging flagship phones.
iFixit also called out the bottom USB-C replacement process as refreshingly straightforward. If that port fails, the part can be removed and swapped without dragging a pile of other critical components into the repair, which helps keep both labor time and repair cost down.
The story isn’t nearly as friendly once you move past the battery and charging port. The teardown says screen repairs are still cumbersome because technicians have to start from the back, heat the adhesive, and work deep into the phone before they can even reach the display cable. In practice, that means a cracked outer screen still turns into a much bigger job than most people would hope for.
Camera servicing looks tough too. The internal camera layout requires technicians to remove the motherboard before replacing any of the rear sensors, and iFixit specifically said the front camera is especially awkward to remove without risking damage. That’s not great news for long-term Samsung repairability, especially on a device this expensive.
Even so, iFixit believes Samsung could push the phone’s score higher if official spare-parts availability improves. In that scenario, the Galaxy S26 Ultra could potentially move up to a 6 out of 10, which would put it alongside Google’s Pixel 10 series, though still a point behind the iPhone 17 Pro Max. So the phone doesn’t suddenly become easy to fix across the board, but Samsung does seem to be making smarter choices in a few areas that matter most.
