After Apple confirmed that the lost iPhone 4G prototype is really theirs and that they want it back, Gizmodo continues its love affair with the device, at least for a few more days. Their most recent initiative was taking the handset apart, for a closer look at its components. It was a tough task, as you’ll learn from the following lines…
It all starts with the unscrewing of the bottom two screws, just like in the case of the iPhone 3GS, so a suction cup came in handy. The first thing they noticed when taking the phone apart, was that the battery takes up around 50% of the case space, which is pretty impressive and could provide a very decent functioning time for the device.
The next step in the process gets tricky, as you’ll find around 40-50 screws inside the unit to mess with, all positioned at frustrating angles. Imagine that people in the Chinese factory working for Apple do this every day… Components had to be removed and detached from other components, but without a manual, the going gets even tougher.
Gizmodo mentioned that the main logic board is not as large as the one on the iPhone 3GS, actually being 1/3 its size. Too bad that they couldn’t access the brains of the device, since the board was encased in metal, so there was no way to tell what CPU was at the core of the handset. It would have involved breaking the case and permanentely damaging the device.
Another thing that needs to be mentioned is that the back of the screen, the inside part looks like a shiny mirror, so it can be scratched easily, also scratching its front side, just like a CD. The conclusion of this teardown (that took hours) is that this is a final product and there’s no room for extra components, but some can be taken out if necessary.
Also, the iPhone incorporates shrunken components, in order to make the handset thinner and its battery is 19% bigger than before, for a couple of extra hours of life, we suppose.
[via Gizmodo]
