Welcome to Gadget Kings! Today, we are disassembling the Samsung Galaxy S23 FE and comparing it to its predecessor, the Samsung Galaxy S23. If you're interested in more teardown videos, make sure you subscribe and click on the notification bell to be notified whenever we upload a new video. Additionally, if you need any tools for this process, check out the links in the description.

Step 1: Remove the SIM Tray

To start the disassembly, the SIM tray needs to be removed. This is the first step in accessing the phone's internal components.

Step 2: Heat the Back Plate

Apply heat to the back plate of the phone to loosen the adhesive underneath. This makes it easier to pry off the back plate using a plastic pry tool. Here's a closer look at the glass back plate. The glass camera lens covers can be replaced by applying heat and gently prying them off, so you don't need to take apart the entire phone for this specific repair.

Step 3: Remove Screws

Next, we need to remove 20 Phillips screws. This will give us access to the wireless charging coil and NFC antenna, which are important for the phone's functionality. There's also some graphite film to help with heat transfer.

Step 4: Disconnect the Battery and Cables

At this point, the battery cable can be disconnected, followed by the rest of the cables. Here's a side-by-side comparison between the S23 and the S23 FE. The top earpiece speaker is located behind a plastic cover.

Step 5: Examine the Main Board

Looking at the main board, we can see a 12-megapixel ultrawide lens, a 50-megapixel primary lens, and an 8-megapixel telephoto lens. The main and telephoto cameras are the only ones with optical image stabilization (OIS). There's a secondary microphone on the top corner and the LED flash is located here. The SIM reader is located on the back, as well as a proximity sensor or ambient light sensor. The camera connectors can be disconnected by simply popping them off.

Step 6: Remove the Graphite Pad and Thermal Paste

Once the graphite pad is peeled back, we can see thermal paste on top of the RAM, which is seated on top of the processor. Here's a better look with the thermal paste cleaned off.

Step 7: Front-Facing Camera Removal

As for the 10-megapixel front-facing camera, it's glued in place with a cure-in-place gasket. To remove it, you'll need to use an X-Acto knife or a razor blade to gently and carefully cut the glue or used iphones gasket, then pry out the camera.

Step 8: Bottom Speaker Assembly and Vibrator Motor

This is the bottom speaker assembly. On the S23 FE, the vibrator motor is not included in the speaker assembly. This flex cable connects the main board to the subboard, as well as the screen. If you need to replace the screen, you'd have to remove the back plate, the screws on the bottom speaker assembly, and the speaker assembly itself. Then, you can disconnect the flex cable connecting the screen to the main board and gently pry off the screen flex cable from the frame. Heat up the front of the phone where the screen is to loosen the adhesive, pry the old screen off, apply new adhesive, reapply the new screen, and reassemble the phone.

Step 9: Disconnect Fingerprint Reader and Subboard

Moving on, the flex cable for the fingerprint reader also needs to be disconnected from the subboard. There are now two Phillips screws holding down the subboard. The primary microphone is located next to the charger port, which has a red rubber gasket.

Step 10: Examine the Battery and Vapor Chamber

Here's a look at the other side. The vibrator or haptic feedback motor is located here, held in place with adhesive, and the same goes for the fingerprint sensor. Moving on to the battery, there's an adhesive pull pouch to help pry it off. Compared to the S23, the pull tab on the pouch is located on the right side versus the left side. This is a 4,500 mAh battery. Now that the battery adhesive pull pouch has been peeled back, we have a look at the decently sized copper vapor chamber, which runs underneath the battery as well as the motherboard.

Step 11: Power Button and Volume Keys

This is the flex cable for the power button and volume keys. If you need to replace those, you'd have to gently lift up and pull out this metal bracket, which is seated inside the frame. There's also a rubber gasket and mesh filter over the speaker opening on the frame, as well as both of the microphone openings. So, on this phone, if you were ever worried about puncturing the microphone or damaging it by inserting your SIM ejector tool in the wrong hole, you won't need to worry, since both the microphones and the filters are seated above the holes and won't get damaged.

Step 12: Repairability Score

One thing I wanted to point out on this frame which stuck out to me is this cutout on the top corner. It looks like there was possibly originally a plan for a front-facing camera located on this side instead of the top center, or maybe two front-facing cameras. I'm really not sure, but from the looks of it, you can tell there was a camera cutout here in the frame that was later abandoned. For the repairability score on this phone, I give it an 8.5 out of 10.

Step 13: Reassembly

Now it's time to put the phone back together. Once everything's back in place, apply new adhesive and reapply the back plate. Flip over the phone, power it on, and you're done.

If you're looking for professional phone repair services or want to start your own phone repair business, check out our website Gadget Kings. We offer detailed repair guides, high-quality tools, and a comprehensive phone repair course to help you get started. Thanks for watching, and I'll see you in the next video!