iPhone 4 Teeardown

n
Step 1 — iPhon
ne 4 Teard
down

• The all-new
w iPhone 4 features
f upggrades from m the 3GS inncluding:
o A re edesigned glass
g & stainnless steel body
b that shhaves 3.5 mm
m off the width
w and is 3
mm
m thinner thaan the 3GS.
o Cho oice of blackk or white coloring
c
o Retiina display featuring tw wice the pix xel density of
o the 3GS
o iOS S 4 for multii-tasking
o 5 MP,
M 720p cappturing rearr-facing and d VGA fronnt-facing cam meras
Step 2

• The iPhonee 4's design is a dramatic departuree from the aluminum

a aand plastic drenched days
d
that have pllagued the iPhone
i in thhe past.
• The ruggedd stainless stteel bezels around
a the iPhone
i 4's perimeter
p doouble as botth structuraal
supports annd antennas to boost recception.
o Onlly time will tell if they absorb shoc ck as poorlyy as the iPh
hone 3GS.

Step 3

• An iPhone first: Intereestingly enouugh, the stoorage capaciity is not etcched on thee outer case of
the iPhone 4.
• We'd expecct our 32 GB B iPhone 4 to fulfill itss promise annd give us, w well, 32 GB
B.
Unfortunateely it has ann actual cappacity of 29..06 GB.
o Giv ven the fact that 301 MB B of "other"" data is beiing stored inn memory, this
t leaves thet
userr with 28.777 GB of freee space.
• In terms off OS, the iPhhone 4 comes preinstallled with thee newly releeased iOS 4, 4 build 8A2293.
• The iPhonee 4 is Modell A1332. Innterestingly, that's a low wer number than the A1 1337 iPad 3G.
3
Step 4

• Like the iPhhone 3G annd 3GS, therre are two silver Phillipps #00 screw
ws at the bo
ottom of thee
phone.
• In a departuure from thee design of the 3G and 3GS, removing the scrrews releasees the rear case,
c
not the fronnt glass.
• This designn makes swiitching out the
t rear pan nel trivial, but
b unfortunnately means that replaccing
the iPhone 4 front panel will likelly be rather challengingg.
Step 5

• Removing rearr panel gives

g us a prretty good look
l at the iPhone
i 4's innnards.
• Holy batterry! The insidde of this thhing is domiinated by its juice-provvider.
• It's pretty apparent
a thaat real estatee was very liimited insidde the iPhonne 4's 115.2 x 58.6 x 9.3
mm footpriint.
• You can alsso see presssure contactt on the inneer face of thhe rear paneel for what appears
a to be
b an
antenna.
Step 6

• Luckily, thee battery caan be easily removed on nce the backk panel asseembly is ouut of the wayy.
• The 3.7V 1420 mAh Li-Polymer
L b
battery allo
ows for up too 7 hours off talk time on
o 3G or upp to
14 hours onn 2G.
• The batteryy connector is different than the on ne in the 3G
G and 3GS. F Fortunatelyy, the batteryy is
not soldered to the loggic board. Thhis will mak ke battery reeplacementt on the iPhoone 4 fairly
easy to accoomplish.
• The plastic pull tab forr the batteryy says "Auth horized Servvice Providder Only."
Step 7

• No EMI shhield will staand betweenn us and thee innards off this iPhonee 4!
• The EMI shhield comess off after fiive screws are
a removedd to reveal lots of impo
ortant
connectors..
Step 8

• The logic board

b is heavvily embeddded under wires
w and EM MI shields.
• While we'ree not too buusy, let's talkk RAM. Un
nlike the iPhhone 3GS annd iPad, wh hich are bothh
equipped with
w 256 MB B, the iPhonne 4 has a whopping
w 5112 MB!
• The increasse in RAM allows for a larger amo ount of cachhed data alloowing for a smoother and
a
faster user experience.
e
Step 9

• Hiding in thhe corner iss the iPhonee 4's vibrator motor, whhich...well...vibrates.
Step 10

• Removing one of the many

m conneectors on thee logic boarrd.
• In our brieff usage, we did notice that
t the pho one is considderably warrmer on the right side. This
T
makes sensse, as the loggic board iss located enttirely alongg the right siide of the ph
hone.

Step 11

• Behold a beeauty in thee iPhone 4: a rear-facin

ng 5 MP cam
mera with 7220p video at
a 30 FPS, taap to
focus featurre, and LEDD flash.
• This is a huuge upgradee from the 3.2 MP cameera found inn the iPhonee 3GS.
Step 12

• Removing thet lower anntenna/speaaker enclosu ure from thee bottom off the phone.
• The improvved audio chhamber aidss in clarifyinng sounds leaving
l the iiPhone, inclluding callss via
speakerphoone as well as
a music plaayed throug gh the speakker inside thhis housing.
• Apple hasnn't made takiing the iPhoone 4 apart very hard so far: no 5-ppoint Torx bits
b or fragiile
clips to be seen.
s
Step 13

• Removing the
t logic booard.
• The unusuaal shape andd small size of the logicc board show
ws just how
w costly reall estate is innside
this powerhhouse of a phone.
p
Step 14

• Apple has integrated

i thhe UMTS, GSM,
G GPS,, Wi-Fi, andd Bluetooth antennas in nto the stainnless
steel inner frame.
f
• The dual puurpose stainnless steel innner frame/aantenna asssembly addrresses possib bly the two
biggest flawws concerniing previouss iterations of the iPhonne: continuoous dropped d calls and lack
l
of receptionn.
• Apple has gone
g a step further andd tuned the phone
p to utiilize whicheever network k band is leess
congested oro has the leeast interferrence for thee best signal quality, reegardless off the actual
signal strenngth. Early reports
r sugggest this feaature, while buggy in its early stages, will greaatly
improve thee phone's reeliability onn AT&T's frragile netwoork.

Step 15

• With the EM MI shields off,

o we can get a look at a what makkes this beast roar.
• Lurking deep within thhe phone, thhe A4 proceessor, manufactured byy Samsung, is i the
centralized unit that prrovides the iPhone
i 4 with the muchh needed coomputing po ower.
• Replacing the
t Samsunng S5PC1000 ARM A8 600 6 MHz CPU C used in the 3GS, th
he new iPhoone
uses the ARRM Cortex A8 core, much m like its bigger sibliing, the iPad. The iPad
d's A4 is
clocked at 1 Ghz.
• The new Saamsung Waave S8500 smartphone uses the sam me Cortex A A8 core!
• Just to the left
l of the A4A package, the AGD1 is the new 3 axis gyroscope that we w believe is
i
designed annd manufactured by ST T Micro for Apple. Thee package m marks on this device do not
appear to be the currenntly availablle commerccial part, L33G4200D. T The commerrcial versionn of
this gyroscoope is yet too be releaseed — Apple got first dibbs on it.
Step 16

• On the top of logic boaard:

o Sky yworks SKY Y77542 Tx––Rx iPAC™
™ FEM for Dual-Band
D GSM/GPRS
S: 880–915
MHHz and 17100–1785 MHzz bands.
o Sky yworks SKY Y77541 GSMM/GRPS Frront End Module
o STM Micro STM33DH 3-axis accelerommeter
o TriQ Quint TQM M676091
o 338 8S0626

Step 17

• On the backk:
o Sam msung K9PF FG08 flash memory
o Cirrrus Logic 33 38S0589 auudio codec (Apple
( brannded). This iis the same part as in thhe
iPadd.
o AK KM8975 - neewest magnnetic sensor that promisses to improove the perfo
formance ovver
the prior generation.
o Tex xas Instrumeents 343S04499 Touch Screen
S Controller
o 36M MY1EE NO OR and mobile DDR
Step 18

• Wi-Fi, Blueetooth, and GPS are alll provided by

b Broadcom m and locatted beneath EMI shieldds on
the front sidde of the booard.
• Broadcom BCM4329F
B FKUBG 8022.11n with Bluetooth
B 2 + EDR aand FM receeiver.
2.1
• Broadcom BCM4750I
B IUB8 singlee-chip GPS receiver.
Step 19

• Up next wee find the seecond microophone, whiich is used to cut out am
mbient noise and improove
sound qualiity when tallking on thee phone.
Step 20

• The front-ffacing VGAA camera.

• While the 5 megapixell camera onn the rear off the iPhone 4 is ideal fo
for video reccording, thee
smaller cammera on the front optim
mizes use off Apple's FacceTime for mobile-to-m mobile videeo
calls.

Step 21

• The front panel

p comess off withouut too much additional trouble.
t
• The stainless steel boddy left behinnd is quite a marvel of gadget
g engiineering.
Step 22

• The front glass

g panel of
o the iPhonne is reporteed to be connstructed of Corning Go orilla Glass,, a
chemically strengtheneed alkali-aluuminosilicaate thin sheeet glass that is reported to be 20 tim
mes
stiffer and 30
3 times haarder than pllastic.
• Gorilla Glaass holds maany advantaages as the iPhone
i 4's front
f panel, including itts high
resistance to
t wear and increased strength
s from
m an ion-exxchange cheemical stren ngthening
process.
• LED Backllight for thee LCD.
• Unfortunateely, the LCD D panel is very
v securelly glued to the
t glass annd digitizer. It appears that
t
if you breakk the glass, you'll havee to replace the
t iPhone 4's
4 glass, diigitizer, and
d LCD as a
single assemmbly.
Step 23

• Surprisingly, the electrronic home button swittch is attachhed directly to the hom
me button itself.
Step 24

• The 30-pin dock conneector is wheere we woulld usually expect

e it to bbe: at the bo
ottom of thee
iPhone.
• The primarry microphoone is also found
fo at the bottom of the
t phone.

Step 25

• Apple is following in the

t footstepps of the Nex xus One byy using dual microphon nes to help
improve auudio quality and suppreess backgrou und noise.
• Interestinglly, the two microphone
m es are positioned at the two far endds of the pho
one. The
microphonee at the top of the iPhone is most likely
l utilizeed for captuuring backgrround noisee to
be analyzedd by internaal circuitry and
a used to cancel any noise put innto the main n microphonne
other than the
t user's vooice.