Apple's iPhone Dissected: We did it, so you don't have to
by Anand Lal Shimpi on June 29, 2007 10:17 PM EST- Posted in
- Smartphones
- Mobile
The iPhone's Motherboard(s)
The motherboard in the iPhone is very compact; it is actually composed of two separate PCBs that are sandwiched together.
The upper left hand corner of the picture is the PCB sandwich that makes the iPhone tick; the black slot you're seeing here is for the SIM card; the cable port on the lower left of the motherboard appears to be the LCD interface.
The topmost PCB appears to have the 802.11b/g wireless controller as well as most of the other microprocessors necessary for the cell phone aspects of the iPhone:
Note that we've removed the EMI shield from the top of this PCB layer in order to show off the individual components.
The lower PCB layer features the 4GB MLC NAND Flash (made by Samsung), as well as the iPhone's main processor. Two of the chips on this board have Apple logos on them, the larger of the two appears to be the iPhone's ARM processor manufactured by Samsung.
We suspect that it may be Samsung's S3C6400 based on the ARM1176 core, however some readers have written us stating that it's more likely to be the S3C2460; judging by the model numbers on the chip itself, the ARM processor may be a part of a multi-chip package that includes 1Gbit of system memory, for running the iPhone's OS. The K4X1G153PC-XGC3 is a Samsung part number, indicating a 1Gbit memory device, but it is placed on the same package as the ARM processor itself.
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michael2k - Sunday, July 1, 2007 - link
No sarcasm intended, sorry. A $59 battery replacement doubles the life of an iPod, as opposed to buying a brand new player from whole cloth.$59 for a new batter vs $249 for a new iPod or $229 for a new Zune.
Makes $59 downright affordable, no?
mikeepu - Saturday, June 30, 2007 - link
In regards to the screen: Excerpt from David Pogues' Review of the iPhone from the New York Times"... The glass gets smudgy — a sleeve wipes it clean — but it doesn’t scratch easily. I’ve walked around with an iPhone in my pocket for two weeks, naked and unprotected (the iPhone, that is, not me), and there’s not a mark on it"
Regarding Battery, I read on Pogues' and others reviews that the battery is replaceable by bringing it in or sending to Apple for replacement.
On a side note, I read somewhere (completely forgot where and now I can't seem to find it) that when you bring it in for a battery replacement that they (apple) will provide you with a "loaner" iPhone for a fee .
DaveLessnau - Saturday, June 30, 2007 - link
Where would someone take the phone to get the battery replaced? Some generic store that sells the phones or to an Apple store? Not every place has an Apple store anywhere nearby and there's no way anyone could afford (time-wise) to send their phone away for a couple of weeks just to change the battery. I can't believe anyone would make a phone where the most commonly replaced part (the battery -- mine usually last about a year) has to be replaced in the shop.
mikeepu - Saturday, June 30, 2007 - link
I understand your point that not EVERY place might not have an apple store to bring it into but I would assume that if one somehow went out of ones way to acquire an iPhone then it wouldn't (or maybe shouldn't?) be too much trouble to send it/bring it in for replacement.And besides we don't even know the details on the battery replacement program yet so it might be a bit unfair to say that it would take a couple of weeks for turnaround time. But then again you might be right. We'll just have to wait and see.
DaveLessnau - Saturday, June 30, 2007 - link
From http://www.apple.com/support/iphone/service/batter...">Apple's iPhone Out-of-warranty Battery Replacement Program FAQFrom what I can see, the standard warranty on the iPhone is 90 days. So, unless you have some kind of extended warranty, normal battery replacement will cost you $85.95 and three days (I guess they're overnight-mailing things).
jonp - Thursday, July 5, 2007 - link
Given it's almost $100 and three days to get the battery replaced by Apple, and given how hard is was for Anandtech to get the thing apart, and that it comes back brain dead -- all personal data lost; it seems plausible that Apple simply sends a new phone in replacement and trashes the one the customer sends in. If that's what they plan to do; not very "green" of them.TA152H - Saturday, June 30, 2007 - link
Again, I don't know anything about cell phones except they triple your chances of getting brain tumors (unless you use a headset), but isn't this kind of expensive? Do they normally charge this much to replace cell phone batteries? Also, $60 a month for 450 minutes seems really expensive, and that's only 15 minutes day. That seems like a lot to me as well, especially when the person that will own it is female and is not allergic to blabbing.Overall, it seems like a lousy deal, or am I missing something?
mikeepu - Saturday, June 30, 2007 - link
I guess it kinda depends on the manufacturer and model of the phone?
I bought a second battery for my Motorola Q (sprint) for about around $70 from the sprint store (i could have bought a cheaper one through ebay but didn't want to risk getting a faulty battery).
Also bought backup battery for my LG Fusic for i think the same price as my Q battery. But my friend was able to get a replacement battery for her Motorola RAZR for like 30 Bucks or something like that. But i agree that 450 minutes seems really low, but at least it has unlimited data (internet). lol ohh and the visual voicemail thingy is really cool.
strikeback03 - Monday, July 2, 2007 - link
Another dumb decision by Apple just to make something "pretty" though. There are still people who carry multiple batteries because they can go through more than one. Obviously not an option with the iPhone.