iPhone teardown reveals better-than-iPod construction (photos)
A disassembly of the iPhone immediately after its public launch has revealed small, but useful, information about the Apple handset's assembly.
Technicians at iFixit have dissected the device from front to back, explaining its construction and already identifying specific parts.
Opening the casing is a "little bit tricky," the company says. The black trim at the back of the phone is a plate that both creates a clear signal and detaches cleanly from the rest of the case. Completely removing the back panel, however, requires disconnecting the headphone jack's cable.
Inside, the battery is said to be "huge" relative to the size of the phone, and is a 3.7-volt lithium-ion polymer battery. The pack is soldered to the phone's logic board but is removable. Rear panels hold both the SIM card slot and the headphone connector. There is very little at the front of the logic board: the screen, speaker, and touch sensor connectors are the only real protrusions.
The logic board is also currently a source of mystery. It splits into two sections, but the largest portion -- which contains the flash memory, processor, and other chips -- is currently difficult to view without damaging the board proper.
Construction as a whole is particularly tight. A full 16 screws, including 10 just along the edge alone, hold the phone's components in place -- "unlike many iPods," the technicians say. An iPod nano, for reference, uses only three. Even the antenna wires are glued to the phone at strategic points despite the scarcity of room, indicating that the iPhone's creator leaves very little to chance.
"One has to imagine that Apple was extra-paranoid about reliability on this phone," iFixit says. "They've certainly learned their lessons from the iPod."
iPhone teardown photos provided by iFixIt
iPhone teardown photos provided by iFixIt
iPhone teardown photos provided by iFixIt
iPhone teardown photos provided by iFixIt
iPhone teardown photos provided by iFixIt
iPhone teardown photos provided by iFixIt
Technicians at iFixit have dissected the device from front to back, explaining its construction and already identifying specific parts.
Opening the casing is a "little bit tricky," the company says. The black trim at the back of the phone is a plate that both creates a clear signal and detaches cleanly from the rest of the case. Completely removing the back panel, however, requires disconnecting the headphone jack's cable.
Inside, the battery is said to be "huge" relative to the size of the phone, and is a 3.7-volt lithium-ion polymer battery. The pack is soldered to the phone's logic board but is removable. Rear panels hold both the SIM card slot and the headphone connector. There is very little at the front of the logic board: the screen, speaker, and touch sensor connectors are the only real protrusions.
The logic board is also currently a source of mystery. It splits into two sections, but the largest portion -- which contains the flash memory, processor, and other chips -- is currently difficult to view without damaging the board proper.
Construction as a whole is particularly tight. A full 16 screws, including 10 just along the edge alone, hold the phone's components in place -- "unlike many iPods," the technicians say. An iPod nano, for reference, uses only three. Even the antenna wires are glued to the phone at strategic points despite the scarcity of room, indicating that the iPhone's creator leaves very little to chance.
"One has to imagine that Apple was extra-paranoid about reliability on this phone," iFixit says. "They've certainly learned their lessons from the iPod."
iPhone teardown photos provided by iFixIt
iPhone teardown photos provided by iFixIt
iPhone teardown photos provided by iFixIt
iPhone teardown photos provided by iFixIt
iPhone teardown photos provided by iFixIt
iPhone teardown photos provided by iFixIt
Comments
Otherwise apple is going to piss off a shit load of people.
YOU MONSTER! HOW COULD YOU DO SUCH A THING!
I want to shout BLASPHEMY! but those pictures are really cool. and it's only a phone.
that i don't have.
As for the bent back case, they can just sell the battery with a brand new case!!!!
It doesn't make any sense to me at all why they would solder the battery wires to the logic board. That isn't any more reliable that using a connector. If the battery were to move around a bit, then at least you'd be able to plug the battery back in with the connector. With solder the wires would just come loose.
It looks to me that there is enough wire to flex.
Looks like they bent the back panel. Hope there is a better way to get into the thing if the batteries die as fast as the 1st gen ipods.
Otherwise apple is going to piss off a shit load of people.
Particularly those who are stupid enough not to read the manual/terms and never heard of Apple's Support and Service policies.
TS couldn't take theirs apart without ruining it, it looks like 'ibeakit' didn't.
I can understand why people are interested in these deconstructions, but if you're going to destroy the product (as thinksecret clearly did), why not test its durability first? Turn it on and drop it from varying heights, "spill" some liquid over it...etc, see what kind of abuse the phone can take and then take the thing apart.
I can understand why people are interested in these deconstructions, but if you're going to destroy the product (as thinksecret clearly did), why not test its durability first? Turn it on and drop it from varying heights, "spill" some liquid over it...etc, see what kind of abuse the phone can take and then take the thing apart.
Because if they did that, they couldn't get their pre-mature ejaculation money shots online before someone else did.
A disassembly of the iPhone immediately after its public launch has revealed small, but useful, information... ]
Small information? As opposed to 'big information' presumably...
The radio stack is based on http://www.skyworksinc.com/products_....asp?pid=11365 which doesn't support 3G.
What theory? It was the deluded raving of madmen
It wasn't totally outlandish, just unlikely. We've already seen one stealth "hardware" upgrade but that doesn't diminish the claimed reasons that Apple put off 3G capabilities. With the n upgrade, the idea is that the drivers weren't ready, with the iPhone, the available chips supposedly weren't ready.