Two teardowns of the Pixel 9 Pro XL consistently show that the battery is harder to remove this year.

According to JerryRigEverything today (and iFixit yesterday), the “battery is extremely well bonded to the body of the Pixel 9 Pro XL.” The included tear-off mechanism fails to cut through the adhesive, which has been a common complaint in years past. Removing the adhesive required a lot of isopropyl alcohol and strong prying.

Looking at the rest of the disassembly, Google’s move to a new design language is evident in a few changes, such as the use of “less common T4 screws around the cameras and charging port,” as well as “hidden screws concealed under random pieces of black tape.”

Finally, “none of the screws are the same size, making reassembly extremely difficult if they are not kept in an orderly fashion during disassembly.” This disassembly also notes a “significant amount of small, annoying clips,” with iFixit breaking/bent an unknown clip.

Given the proximity, some people might press their SIM eject tool into the microphone. Fortunately, this shouldn’t cause any damage:

You will notice that the gold box for the microphone is mounted on the top of the board, while the recording hole is on the bottom of the board.

If we look at the place where the outer microphone hole meets the inner sealing mesh, we can see that the membrane is on the side of the stem and that no matter how hard or deep the SIM tool penetrates, this membrane can never be damaged – not even with a very small tool.

As Google develops this new design language, there is clearly room for improvement and optimization.

More about the Pixel 9: