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Apple's HomePod gets a teardown: Two key takeaways

The new smart speaker is built like a "tank," which is good because it's almost impossible to repair on your own, the iFixit team discovers.

Michelle Meyers
Michelle Meyers wrote and edited CNET News stories from 2005 to 2020 and is now a contributor to CNET.
Michelle Meyers
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Yes, it took an actual hacksaw for the iFixit team to get into Apple's HomePod smart speaker.

iFixit

You know something is durable when it takes a hacksaw for the iFixit team to tear it down.

Such was the case for the dissection of Apple's newly released HomePod, a voice-activated wireless speaker and a whole new product category for the gadget giant.

iFixit found all sorts of interesting little tidbits inside, once it finally got in: tweeters and conductive screw posts and a beefy subwoofer, oh my! You can click here for its detailed report.

But here's the gist: First, the device is "built like a tank. Durability shouldn't be an issue," iFixit said. And second, the team gave it a "repairability" score of 1 out of 10, with 10 the easiest to repair.

"Even though it looks like there ought to be a nondestructive way inside, we failed to decode it," the report concludes. "Without a repair manual, your odds of success are slim."

And now we all understand why the repair price for the HomePod is so steep: The device costs $350. Repairing it costs $279.

"This ain't easy, But if we got it wrong, by all means, share the magic procedure!" iFixit wrote.

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