A teardown of the Nokia 8 performed by popular YouTube channel JerryRigEverything ran by Zack Nelson revealed a massive heat pipe found within HMD Global’s first Android flagship, in addition to outing a number of other unconventional design choices made by either the Finnish company or its Foxconn-owned manufacturing partner FIH Mobile. The video that can be seen below details the process of opening the Nokia 8 for the purposes of component replacement or other types of repairs, starting with prying off the display module from the body of the device which features no screws on its exterior. The screen itself is sturdy enough to be pried off with anything that can serve as a lever following some heat gun treatment which softens the adhesive holding the module and the phone’s case stuck together so that it can be cut.
The inside of the device first reveals a frame separating the display module from the motherboard which also houses a 3,090mAh battery powering the Nokia 8, with this particular design choice allowing for relatively simple battery replacements which come with no risk of damaging some of the more sensitive components of the smartphone. The battery itself is stuck to its dedicated frame with adhesive and appears to be somewhat difficult to remove without being deformed in the process, though any attempts to separate it from the other component will presumably be made with the goal of replacing it anyway. Beneath the battery is what Nelson claims is the largest heat pipe he ever saw inside a smartphone spanning almost the entire length of the frame, with the thermal paste applied by FIH Mobile being next to the pipe instead of on top of it for reasons that aren’t immediately clear as the end result of that choice appears to be less efficient than having paste in direct contact with the copper module.
While many of the internal components of the Nokia 8 are modular and hence perfectly replaceable, getting into the phone itself is harder than opening many of its contemporaries including the Nokia 6, Nelson suggested, pointing to over 20 screws that need to be dealt with in the process of disassembling the handset which vary in sizes, with some of them not even being of any standard variety and thus requiring some improvisation to unscrew. The handset still appears to be relatively sturdy and is only lacking a meaningful form of water protection, the author of the teardown concluded.