Motorola's new Droid Bionic is not only a top-notch device but the dual-core Android smartphone is also very easy to fix, according to repair specialists at iFixit.
In their step-by-step teardown of the Bionic posted online this morning, iFixit came away impressed by the Bionic's slender frame that measured in at 0.43 inches thick and that weighed 158 grams. The hardware within the phone was strong as well, with a 1-GHz Texas Instruments dual-core processor, 1GB of RAM, 32GB of total storage, an 8MP rear-facing camera and, most important, a 4G LTE SIM card. The device also featured a 4.3-inch qHD LCD display screen with a resolution of 960x540 pixels, which iFixit noted was the same size of Motorola's previously-released Droid X3.
RELATED: Google to unify Android OS by Q4 2011
iFixit gave the Bionic a 9 out 10 in its so-called "Repairability Score" that grades a device on how easy it is to replace key components. iFixit found the Bionic to be particularly easy to repair because it could change both the SIM and microSD cards without using any tools, it could quickly remove the battery and it can replace many important pieces manually since they "are not located on large, delicate ribbon cables." On the downside, iFixit found that it had to take the entire phone apart to replace the LCD panel and it needed to remove a motherboard EMI shield to replace the rear-facing camera.
Motorola's Droid Bionic was released this week and is Motorola's first-ever dual-core LTE Android smartphone running on Verizon's network. The Bionic is the first release in what is expected to be a busy fall for smartphones, as the iPhone 5, the HTC Holiday LTE and Google's Nexus Prime smartphone are all slated to be released in the coming months. The Bionic is more expensive than most smartphones on the market since it sells for $299 with a two-year contract, or $100 more than the iPhone 4's original sale price.
Read more about anti-malware in Network World's Anti-malware section.