After liberating the two T5 Torx screws from their imprisonment, it took a few minutes of diligent work with a plastic opening tool to remove the back cover.

It wasn't particularly difficult to open this device, but anyone attempting it without the proper prying tool will face a lot of frustration.

Right off the bat we notice that the battery is much harder to replace than in the earlier Galaxy Nexus. This could hurt its repairability score, but it's still early!