OnePlus touts the Nord 4 (now available on Amazon in the EU) as the first 5G smartphone with an aluminum unibody - which features little screws on either side of the USB-C port, as the vlogger PBKReviews found on preparing for its teardown.

You might think that the throwback would make it the best device in terms ofindependent repairfor 2024 thus far - however, it seems the opposite just might be the case. The vlogger claimed that it was exceptionally difficult to pry the chassis up with the usual plastic picks, necessitating the use of metal tools instead.

Unfortunately, metal is metal, and metal scrapes, meaning that it might be very difficult to take a Nord 4 apart without damaging its housing. In addition, it poses a 2-stage teardown in any case, as the phone still has a glass insert over the cameras that also has to be pried up as it hides some of the device's many Philips-head screws in any case.

On the other hand, the Nord 4 might be much less prone to destruction than the average glass-sandwich smartphone, as itsOasis Green aluminum shell proved very resistant to bending despite its slim design, and an IP65 rating conferred by gaskets or rubber rings around parts such as the charging port.

In addition, the 4's 5,500mAh battery was also equipped with an adhesive pouch for relative ease of removal. Furthermore, it might be possible to remove and replace its high-end Aqua Touch 120Hz AMOLED display - just watch out for the ribbon connector in the lower left corner.

Nevertheless, having claimed to have spent a disproportionate amount of time ("almost an hour" on the rear camera cover's removal alone) on this teardown, PBKReviews awarded a reparability score of 4/10 on the Nord 4 - even less than the CMF Phone 1 from an earlier video.