Bottom line: This week, iFixit reviewed the reparability of the Playdate -- the upcoming retro handheld panel from Panic. Overall it seems to exist a fairly repairable machine with some squeamish surprises inside. iFixit expressed some nitpicks in its review only no serious issues. It still worked later on having been completely taken autonomously and reassembled.

iFixit admits its grading scale isn't well suited to the Playdate, calling it a category all its own, simply nonetheless gave it a vi out of ten, with ten meaning easiest to repair. Some of the main positive points are that you tin can get into the device with regular flathead and Phillips screwdrivers, and that the battery isn't hard to remove. The main drawbacks are that the controls can't be swapped individually, and Panic soldered the USB-C port to the chief board.

The biggest pleasant surprise iFixit found is that one of the Playdate's defining features, the crank, likely won't wear down or dethrone, which means users probably won't somewhen run into problems similar the globe-trotting associated with the PlayStation 5's DualSense controller or the Nintendo Switch'south JoyCons.

iFixit discovered the crank works by rotating a cylindrical magnet which contacts a sensor. Co-ordinate to iFixit this is an elegantly simple blueprint, with no wiper, spring, or surface to habiliment out.

iFixit's biggest issue with the Playdate is that its screen is firmly glued onto the front one-half of the outer shell. Because of this, replacing the screen would probable mean replacing that whole part of the enclosure. "Probably non expensive, but not platonic," iFixit wrote. The headphone jack is modular though. iFixit as well writes that the battery is fairly easy to unplug with a pair of tweezers.

The Playdate doesn't start shipping until late this year, but the entire initial batch of 20,000 units sold out in minutes when pre-orders went upward concluding calendar month. Panic promises more Playdates in 2022.

At $179, the arrangement will take 24 games which will be rolled out weekly at no additional cost. Panic does plan to release an SDK at some betoken for gratis and so potentially anyone can brand a game for it. And yes, someone already got Doom running on it last year.

All images taken from iFixit's teardown.