€1,200 for a smartphone screen: the Pixel 9 Pro Fold is much less repairable than expected

Freshly announced last October, the Pixel 9 Pro Fold embodies what Google does best. Foldable screen, tinkered with photo modules and Android 15. Its price reflects its ultra high-end positioning, since the mobile is still sold between €1900 and €2100.

But more than its gross selling price, it is above all the price of its spare parts which is frankly striking. On his French storeiFixit is in fact marketing the interior screen block of the mobile at an extraordinary price: €1199.95.

To put it another way, for the price of a Pixel 9 Pro Fold screen you can buy an iPhone 16 Pro (within €30), a Galaxy Z Fold 5 or pay 85% of a minimum wage to the person of your choice. A situation that is ludicrous to say the least.

A price well beyond the recommended threshold

This is not, a priori, any greed on the part of iFixit. On most other spare parts, the DIY specialist is not really more expensive than elsewhere. Since 2022, iFixit has also partnered with Google to sell official spare parts directly from the factory.

It therefore seems that the price of this screen is just extraordinarily expensive, which is not without significant problems. Indeed, despite the great promises made by Google two years ago and its nice 7.6/10 on the French repairability index, as it stands, the Pixel 9 Pro Fold is not exactly a device that one could call it repairable.

Indeed, as Ademe recalled in 2019there is a price threshold above which the general public prefers to buy a new product rather than repair a damaged product. This threshold is around 33% of the price of the new device. Suffice to say that at €1,200 per screen, the Pixel 9 Pro Fold explodes this threshold, since the part alone is worth more than 60% of the price of the new device.

The cost of repair (and therefore intrinsically that of spare parts) is cited first and foremost in the reasons for not repairing our smartphones. by a 2019 study, once again conducted by Ademe.

Dismantability, price and availability of parts

It is therefore difficult to qualify the Pixel 9 Pro Fold as a repairable device. If Google has made an effort on the disassembly of its device and on the availability of spare parts, the price of the latter is so daunting that it almost renders the rest of the efforts made null and void. Let us recall that “the repairability ecosystem » can only flourish properly if a manufacturer pays attention to these three main criteria. If just one is neglected, the whole house of cards collapses.

To be exhaustive, it should still be noted that the rest of the parts cost much less and that their price is each time below the fateful threshold of 33%. The battery costs, for example, 67 €, the exterior screen around 200 and the triple photo module a little over 250 €. Unfortunately, the interior screen is precisely the part that is likely to be damaged the fastest due to mechanical wear due to the daily folding and unfolding of the device.

And despite all the efforts made on the durability of the screen, it is certain that it will one day end up giving out. And faced with a repair costing more than €1000, it is almost certain that no one will try to give their device a second life. Promises of sustainabilityGoogle is taking a big hit.