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Gadgets Apple iPhone Dissected
Anh Tuan Huynh (Blog) - June 29, 2007 11:49 PM
Print E-mail del.icio.us 26 comment(s) - last by Aeonic.. on Jul 2 at 1:40 PM

Apple iPhone: Beneath the Aluminum (Source: AnandTech)

The many layers of the multi-touch screen (Source: AnandTech)
Hours after launch, the iPhone stripped of all parts

Apple unleashed the iPhone on the general public only hours ago and it has already been dissected. With a heat gun and razor blade, tech guru Anand Lal Shimpi was able to strip the Apple iPhone of its brushed aluminum cover and reveal its innards. Inside the iPhone, there are the usual GSM and WiFi antennas, battery, camera and tape.

Apple makes use of two PCBs in a sandwich configuration – each tightly packed with chips. Apple equips the iPhone with Samsung MLC NAND flash memory and an ARM processor. The ARM processor was manufacture by Samsung, but has an Apple logo printed on it. AnandTech believes the Apple branded ARM processor may be the Samsung S3C6400 derived from an ARM1176 core.

The iPhone’s multi-touch screen consists of multiple layers. On the layer closest to the motherboard, Apple lays down faint dots in a grid-like pattern. The dot grid is necessary for the multi-touch screen, apparently.

After dissection, AnandTech was unable to get the phone to function again. Shimpi warns, "While it is quite possible to take apart using easy to find tools we'd recommend against it as it will undoubtedly void your warranty and will most likely mar up the beautiful gadget's exterior."

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Battery
By darkpaw on 6/30/2007 1:10:11 PM , Rating: 5
I find it simply amazing that the battery can't be replaced without returning the unit to Apple. Well I would, except its Apple who loves to screw there users (and their users seem to enjoy it).

A non replaceable battery on a cell phone is one of the dumbest engineering moves I've seen a while.




RE: Battery
By TomZ on 6/30/2007 1:19:23 PM , Rating: 4
It's consistent with Apple's design approach: form over function.


RE: Battery
By Hare on 6/30/2007 2:37:56 PM , Rating: 2
At least it has one positive side. The whole phone is very solid. No squeeky battery doors etc.

I personally would prefer to have a changable battery.


RE: Battery
By BillyBatson on 6/30/2007 5:42:17 PM , Rating: 2
this actually doesn't bug me at all. Every phone I have owned until now has has a replaceable battery and 2 of my phones I even had extra batteries for but I not only never used them but never even came close!!!!!! I now have a Samsung Upstage which also has a battery you can't repalce and I am fine with it and like it was stated aboved at least there is no squeaky door you can lose. Then again my Upstage comes with a hard case with a built in extra battery so.....


RE: Battery
By Oregonian2 on 6/30/07, Rating: 0
RE: Battery
By sxr7171 on 7/1/2007 1:36:22 PM , Rating: 3
Oh yeah just because you bought a $600 phone suddenly you are wealthy enough to have a butler and a chauffeur. Yeah seriously.


RE: Battery
By Ringold on 7/1/2007 3:07:31 PM , Rating: 4
One would have to question an iPhone owner's sanity or financial sense if they'd just bought one without being nearly that wealthy. $600 otherwise buys a lot of food, a good bit of mortgage, insurance, car or utility payments for the average joe, a pretty steep opportunity cost to have a nice looking boondoggle.

Not that I think many people that bought one are wealthy enough that it's a trivial purchase. No.. probably the ones that got it can least afford it :P


RE: Battery
By IceTron on 7/2/2007 2:50:06 AM , Rating: 1
Then go buy your Motorola razor and STFU.


Hurrah for Anandtech!
By plimogs on 6/30/2007 7:32:33 AM , Rating: 2
This bit of iPhone porn really made me smile when I saw it, so cheers to you, dissectors of brand-new, expensive tech!

PS. Just as a side-note (I've been kinda waiting for a news article on Dailytech about Anandtech to formulate this outcry) Why does "http://anandtech.com/" resolve to
quote:
The AnandTech Web Site is currently offline for system maintenance.

Check back occasionally, as soon as maintenance is complete the site will be back online.

Does anybody know? Cuz' I was checking back all week until I tried "http://anandtech.com/default.aspx".

Needless to add that it was a pretty rough week... I heart you Anandtech!




RE: Hurrah for Anandtech!
By ForumMaster on 6/30/2007 8:21:50 AM , Rating: 2
i'm not sure why that happend to you but when i go to "anandtech.com" it loads quickly as usual. now the forum is borked but that's another matter...


RE: Hurrah for Anandtech!
By eek2121 on 6/30/2007 9:35:03 AM , Rating: 2
It did that for me forever, finally one day i held down shift and hit refresh, and the page appeared. Looks like some type of borked cache setting.


RE: Hurrah for Anandtech!
By retrospooty on 6/30/2007 10:16:03 AM , Rating: 2
I have been getting that off and on lately too. Something strange going on at AT's server.


RE: Hurrah for Anandtech!
By siberus on 6/30/2007 10:32:10 AM , Rating: 2
Yeah that was happening to me too. Then just started working again. Was a miracle of computing me thinks lol.


RE: Hurrah for Anandtech!
By RaisedinUS on 6/30/2007 1:08:14 PM , Rating: 1
After dissection, AnandTech was unable to get the phone to function again. Shimpi warns, "While it is quite possible to take apart using easy to find tools we'd recommend against it as it will undoubtedly void your warranty and will most likely mar up the beautiful gadget's exterior."

DOH!


RE: Hurrah for Anandtech!
By Googer on 7/1/2007 12:59:58 AM , Rating: 2
iFixit also goes in to detail on the iPHONE innards.

http://stream.ifixit.com/


Lovin' the Irony
By HaZaRd2K6 on 6/30/2007 9:15:22 PM , Rating: 2
Anyone else spotted the caution messages in the iPhone?

>> "DO NOT DISASSEMBLE"

I find that pretty funny =)




RE: Lovin' the Irony
By Devo2007 on 6/30/2007 11:28:25 PM , Rating: 2
That isn't related to the iPhone of course -- it's for the battery pack itself (all battery packs have that warning).

(...but I'm going to guess you were being sarcastic, in which case my point is irrelevant.


RE: Lovin' the Irony
By marvdmartian on 7/2/2007 10:21:56 AM , Rating: 2
Although, actually, I wouldn't mind seeing Gallagher disassemble one of these with his patented "Sledge-O-Matic" machine!! ;)


RE: Lovin' the Irony
By Aeonic on 7/2/2007 1:37:35 PM , Rating: 3
Personally I like the "Do not throw into fire" warning.

Everyone knows you should walk up and place it gently into fire.


A little bit of proofreading...
By chsh1ca on 6/30/2007 12:07:43 PM , Rating: 3
quote:
With a heat gun and razor blade, tech site Anand Lal Shimpi was able to strip the Apple iPhone [...]


Since when is Anand Lal Shimpi a tech site? Shouldn't that read "tech site Anandtech", or possible be re-worded altogether?




By KaiserCSS on 6/30/2007 3:34:35 PM , Rating: 2
Unless he means Anand himself actually took the sucker apart.


RE: A little bit of proofreading...
By BillyBatson on 6/30/07, Rating: 0
By KristopherKubicki (blog) on 6/30/2007 6:53:38 PM , Rating: 2
We changed it from "tech site" to "tech guru." Our apologies.


Dang.
By budapest on 6/30/2007 8:54:22 PM , Rating: 2
The warning messages inside the iPhone has just foiled my "iPhone cookies" recipe. Dang.




Pics
By Aeonic on 7/2/2007 1:40:11 PM , Rating: 2
Anand needs a better camera, or flash, or something. It looks like he's disassembling it by candlelight. Then again, at $600, maybe he couldn't afford the electricity ;)

But I'm happy to see someone with the balls to rip one of these apart. Just hope ya got 2!




Inside of iPhone
By ereader on 6/30/07, Rating: 0
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