Samsung will charge $45 to replace a damaged battery on the Galaxy S6 and Galaxy S6 Edge after the one-year warranty period that comes with the purchase of either device expires.
This was confirmed by a Samsung spokesperson speaking in an interview with PCMag. The spokesperson said battery replacements for both Samsung flagships can be done in one business day and cost $45, not including the cost of shipping the device to the nearest Samsung repair center and having the repaired smartphone with the new battery shipped back to the customer.
Samsung also has a couple of walk-in repair centers in the U.S., one in Los Angeles and another in Plano, Texas. Customers in the areas can have their battery replacements done while waiting in these centers to save up on shipping. The spokesperson also says Samsung plans to put up more repair centers in other areas.
The $45 fee is more expensive than the $30, exclusive of shipping costs, that Samsung charges for replacing a damaged battery on the Galaxy S5. It is, however, cheaper than the $80 Apple charges to replace an old battery with a new one on the iPhone.
Samsung's $45 fee covers the cost of having its repair technicians open up the device, take out the multiple components burying the battery, and carefully extract the battery, which is glued to the motherboard, as discovered by iFixit.
The teardown and repair website gave both the Galaxy S6 and Galaxy S6 Edge low repairability scores because of the need to remove everything else simply to get to the battery, which is one of the most common smartphone components that need some repairing or replacing after a certain period of time.
With the Galaxy S5, customers can simply order a new battery from the Samsung website and swap it in for the old battery on their device, but a battery concealed by various components is simply one of the compromises Samsung had to make to develop the premium look and feel of devices that cost $700 and up.
The Samsung spokesperson stresses that the $45 battery replacements are only for customers who are not covered by the one-year warranty for both the Galaxy S6 and Galaxy S6 Edge. For customers still under the warranty - and right now, that includes everyone - they can have their battery replaced for free, although shipping is still shouldered by the customer.
To be eligible for a free replacement, customers will have to ship their smartphones to Samsung, which will verify if the battery's maximum capacity has dropped below 80 percent of its original capacity. If it has, Samsung will open up the device, take out the old battery, and put in a new one, at no cost to the customer.
For screen replacements, Samsung charges $199 for both the Galaxy S6 and Galaxy S6 Edge despite the fact that it might be harder to replace the curved display on the Galaxy S6 Edge.
Photo: Maurizio Pesce | Flickr
