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
We have only had the phone for a few hours but we needed to get inside its casing, what follows is our dissection of the Apple iPhone. Please note that we're doing this so you are not tempted to on your recent $500/$600 expenditure, 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. Do whatever you wish to your iPhone, but do so at your own risk :)
This is the iPhone that most of Apple's customers will be seeing:
Special thanks to Olivia Marsh and Manveer Wasson for help with the disassembly and photographs for this article
And this is one of ours, on the operating table:
Chances for survival? Slim
The first step to disassemble the device is to remove the lower black plastic piece; heating it up and squeezing a razorblade in there made it not only possible, but easy:
Then came the process of removing the brushed aluminum cover, which wasn't nearly as easy. After a lot of bending, pulling and other unfathomable things one would do to a brand new iPhone we were left with this:
Ignore the slightly bent iPhone casing, we swear it came this way
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p1agu3 - Wednesday, August 5, 2009 - link
The reason I know anandtech is one of my favorites on the web:It's 2009. I see a news article: http://www.dailytech.com/article.aspx?newsid=15880">http://www.dailytech.com/article.aspx?newsid=15880
I began wondering about the internals of an iPhone, as it had dawned on me that I'd never actually seen their guts before. So I immediately googled (to the right of my address bar...in Firefox) "iphone internals" and clicked on the first result. It brought me here...back to Anandtech again. Good job, guys and gals, and especially Anand: your hard work in consistent journalism is paying off. Thank you! :)
p1agu3 - Wednesday, August 5, 2009 - link
My bad, I neglected to mention I saw said news article from its mention in an anandtech article. whoops, haha. anyways, hopefully now that makes sense.alora222 - Monday, February 2, 2009 - link
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mikeepu - Friday, July 13, 2007 - link
Just a little FYI on iPhone BatteriesFrom Jason Snell's Article "The truth about iPhone battery lifespan":
"A true statement, as far as it goes. Batteries die. But many media reports this week have gone further. Take, for example, CNET’s review of the iPhone, which states that “Apple is estimating one battery will last for 400 charges — probably about two years’ worth of use.”
Two years of use, the review says, and your iPhone dies. Or disappears in a puff of smoke, like those old tape recordings on “Mission Impossible.” Sounds pretty awful, right?
Too bad it’s completely wrong.
Apple estimates that the iPhone will lose 20 percent of its capacity — a darn sight less than 100 percent — “after 400 full charge and discharge cycles.”
“Sadly, there are some inaccurate reports out there,” Apple marketing vice president Greg Joswiak told me today during a brief phone call from New York City. Joswiak isn’t quite sure where the story went off the rails — David Pogue’s initial New York Times review of the iPhone mentioned the battery issue, but Pogue got it right: “Apple says that the battery starts to lose capacity after 300 or 400 charges.”
Somehow, though, things got lost in translation. And follow-on reports started claiming that 300 to 400 charges would be the end of the line.
“After 400 complete cycles, the iPhone’s battery still has 80 percent of its charged capacity,” Joswiak said. “And by a complete charge cycle, I mean completely draining the battery, a full chemical cycle.” In other words, using a little battery and then putting your iPhone back in its dock doesn’t count as a charge cycle. If you use a quarter of your iPhone’s battery and then re-charge it, Joswiak said, that’s the equivalent of a quarter of a charge cycle.
“If you top it off, you’re not wasting a charge cycle,” Joswiak said."
http://www.macworld.com/weblogs/macword/2007/07/ip...">The Truth about iPhone Battery Lifespan
CptanPanic - Thursday, July 5, 2007 - link
Has anyone seen a dissection of the dock? I want to see if there is any electronics in there. There is supposed to be some sort of authentication chip to tell iphone that dock is iphone compatable.Roy2001 - Tuesday, July 3, 2007 - link
So, are you able to put all parts back and make it work again?Xenoterranos - Monday, July 2, 2007 - link
I can think of 4 things you didn't do in this tear down, and all of them involve the battery...gregor7777 - Monday, July 2, 2007 - link
Wow, the non-user changeable battery is a real problem methinks.Apple is set to make a lot of money on that deal. The customer has to go without their phone for an unspecified period of time, foot a relatively hefty bill and then probably repeat the process a year later.
Model 2 has a user replaceable battery? Let's hope so.
EODetroit - Monday, July 2, 2007 - link
I remember when it was a one-man show. Now just hope for a blog update... maybe an update on the value of the iPhone next?Googer - Monday, July 2, 2007 - link
Engadget has confirmed the iPhone's processor.http://www.engadget.com/2007/07/01/iphone-processo...">http://www.engadget.com/2007/07/01/iphone-processo...
http://www.arm.com/products/CPUs/ARM1176.html">http://www.arm.com/products/CPUs/ARM1176.html