iFixit completes early teardown of iPhone 4

Posted:
in iPhone edited January 2014
To obtain one of the first iPhone 4 smartphones for teardown, Kyle of the iFixit team flew to Japan with a tent, planning to camp out in front of the Ginza Apple Store. FedEx ended up delivering early shipments to some users two days in advance, making the trip unnecessary.



The teardown posted by iFixit of an early delivery reveals the new model's A4 application processor with 512MB of RAM, the new Retina Display, dual front and rear cameras, a secondary mic for noise canceling, an oversized new battery, and custom gyroscope which along with the accelerometer provides full six-axis motion control.



The two rear exposed Phillips screws now release the back panel rather than the front glass, a design that "makes replacing the rear panel trivial, but unfortunately means that replacing the front glass will likely be rather challenging," iFixit says.



Inside the back panel, the larger new 3.7V 1420 mAh Li-Polymer battery consumes all available space, while the new 5 megapixel still camera (capable of 720p, 30 fps video capture) anchors one corner and the vibration motor holds down the other.







The logic board packs Apple's A4 application processor, a "new 3-axis gyroscope that we believe is designed and manufactured by STMicro" and not yet commercially available, STMicro's 33DH 3-axis accelerometer, and an Apple-branded Cirrus Logic 338S0589 audio codec that is also used in iPad.







Digging deeper into the stainless steel body, iFixit pulled the top mic used for noise cancelation to quiet ambient sounds, the front facing VGA camera used for FaceTime video chat, and the primary mic used in the mouthpiece.







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Comments

  • Reply 1 of 50
    ozexigeozexige Posts: 215member
    WOW



    Have a look at the front facing camera, no wonder FaceTime (whatever) makes you appear as though you swallowed a Helium balloon!



    However, the image sensor on the 5.0M is huge, cool
  • Reply 2 of 50
    solipsismsolipsism Posts: 25,726member
    The logic board is impressive.
  • Reply 3 of 50
    spicedspiced Posts: 98member
    Hey iFixit you guys are kool!



    Gizmodo go fly kite!
  • Reply 4 of 50
    Isn't it beautiful?
  • Reply 5 of 50
    spicedspiced Posts: 98member
    Yes. That's a lot of refine engineering piece of work. Pure art!
  • Reply 6 of 50
    asciiascii Posts: 5,936member
    Everything so tiny... I can't even nicely do the cable management when building a PC, let alone laying all that out so elegantly.



    They really seem to be pushing the limits of current technology with this revision. Maybe it will be 2 years before there's another big redesign. Therefore maybe next year they can focus on the Mac a little more, while they wait for the portable tech to advance a bit. Maybe release OS X 10.7, or have a GUI redesign, or start using SSDs more widely. It will be quite futile trying to improve iPhone hardware for a while.
  • Reply 7 of 50
    ivan.rnn01ivan.rnn01 Posts: 1,822member
    TriQuint and SKYWORKS radio chipset.
  • Reply 8 of 50
    bigdaddypbigdaddyp Posts: 811member
    Ahh very impressive Grasshopper, now to master the art of Apple origami you must rebuild iPhone.



    *Voice off screen giving narration*



    Can you rebuild it? We have the technology. We have the capability to build the world's first bionic phone. iPhone 4 will be that phone. We can make it better than it was before. Better, stronger, faster.



  • Reply 9 of 50
    ozexigeozexige Posts: 215member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by ascii View Post


    Everything so tiny... I can't even nicely do the cable management when building a PC, let alone laying all that out so elegantly.



    They really seem to be pushing the limits of current technology with this revision. Maybe it will be 2 years before there's another big redesign. Therefore maybe next year they can focus on the Mac a little more, while they wait for the portable tech to advance a bit. Maybe release OS X 10.7, or have a GUI redesign, or start using SSDs more widely. It will be quite futile trying to improve iPhone hardware for a while.



    I hope you're right \



    I, on the other hand, am a little more pessimistic, the way things are heading

    I'm beginning to wonder if we'll ever see a new Mac Pro \\
  • Reply 10 of 50
    ozexigeozexige Posts: 215member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by bigdaddyp View Post


    Ahh very impressive Grasshopper, now to master the art of Apple origami you must rebuild iPhone.



    *Voice off screen giving narration*



    Can you rebuild it? We have the technology. We have the capability to build the world's first bionic phone. iPhone 4 will be that phone. We can make it better than it was before. Better, stronger, faster.







    You will and MUST learn the way of The Hoff - small (and often drunk) one



    EDIT: Dumb Ass, it's Lee Majors!
  • Reply 11 of 50
    bigdaddypbigdaddyp Posts: 811member
    Oops! Duplicate post.
  • Reply 12 of 50
    ozexigeozexige Posts: 215member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by bigdaddyp View Post


    Ahh very impressive Grasshopper, now to master the art of Apple origami you must rebuild iPhone.



    *Voice off screen giving narration*



    Can you rebuild it? We have the technology. We have the capability to build the world's first bionic phone. iPhone 4 will be that phone. We can make it better than it was before. Better, stronger, faster.







    EDIT: EDIT: Don't make fun of fat drunk people, they may just knock on your front door one day!
  • Reply 13 of 50
    bigdaddypbigdaddyp Posts: 811member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by OzExige View Post


    Yeah - we know that!



    EDIT: ha ha - beat you to it!



    That is why I love you this forum, every obscure pop culture reference I throw out there you guys and gals get. Like instantly.



    Color me impressed.
  • Reply 14 of 50
    bigdaddypbigdaddyp Posts: 811member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by OzExige View Post


    You will and MUST learn the way of The Hoff - small (and often drunk) one



    EDIT: Dumb Ass, it's Lee Majors!



    How did you know my current condition?
  • Reply 15 of 50
    bigdaddypbigdaddyp Posts: 811member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by OzExige View Post


    EDIT: EDIT: Don't make fun of fat drunk people, they may just knock on your front door one day!



    Funny story. I lived in a old-but nice neighborhood where the homes where very close together and looked very similar.



    At least once every year or two I would have a drunk show up (around 2:30 A.M.) wondering why his key didn't work and what was I doing in his house. They would argue up and down how I was in their house even though the furniture in the front room didn't match. Threatening to call the law would usually sober them up enough to walk away and reconsider.



    Made me a hero with the wife chasing away those "bad" people.
  • Reply 16 of 50
    That is some incredible engineering, almost akin to the innards of a fine watch in some ways being that everything seems miniaturized and placed with such a high degree of precision.
  • Reply 17 of 50
    applebookapplebook Posts: 350member
    SO this is what a LEGAL teardown looks like.
  • Reply 18 of 50
    anonymouseanonymouse Posts: 6,857member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by AppleInsider View Post


    ... The two rear exposed Phillips screws now release the back panel rather than the front glass, a design that "makes replacing the rear panel trivial, but unfortunately means that replacing the front glass will likely be rather challenging," iFixit says. ...



    So, I find it interesting that these clowns made no note of this particular design feature.
  • Reply 19 of 50
    Every time iFixit does one of these tear downs I'm reminded of that Humpty Dumpty nursery rhyme...
  • Reply 20 of 50
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by ascii View Post




    They really seem to be pushing the limits of current technology with this revision. Maybe it will be 2 years before there's another big redesign. Therefore maybe next year they can focus on the Mac a little more, while they wait for the portable tech to advance a bit. Maybe release OS X 10.7, or have a GUI redesign, or start using SSDs more widely. It will be quite futile trying to improve iPhone hardware for a while.



    I'm pretty sure the people that work on the iPhone are not the same people that work on desktop computers, or software.
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