Apple’s new HomePod is impossible to repair

The HomePod is finally available at selected markets and this is Apple’s smart speaker that comes with built-in Siri. The cylinder speaker looks quite sturdy but if you intend to fix it, you’re probably out of luck based on ifixit’s latest teardown.

According to ifixit, the Apple HomePod is built like a tank and it has a nice outer fabric mesh that’s designed to be acoustically transparent while keeping dust away. To get started, you’ll need to use a heatgun to remove the top and bottom portion of the speaker.

After removing the logic board which houses the Apple A8 chip, it gets more complicated. To access the rest of the internals, you’ll need to use a cutter to remove the top which will damage the body. It’s clear that this isn’t designed for easy repairs.

Once that’s out of the way, you can remove the rest of the components which are neatly stacked on top of each other. Overall, ifixit rates the HomePod with a repairability score of just 1/10. If you want to fix it officially, Apple is charging US$279 (about RM1,095) for out-of-warranty repairs. A brand new unit costs US$349 (about RM1,370). You check out the step by step teardown below.

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