iFixit's iPhone X Teardown Reveals Two Battery Cells, 'Unprecedented' Logic Board (macrumors.com) 89
iFixit has posted its teardown of the iPhone X, revealing a new TrueDepth camera system, stacked logic board, L-shaped two-cell battery pack, and Qi-based inductive charging coil. Mac Rumors reports: Like every other model since the iPhone 7 Plus, the iPhone X is a sideways-opening device. A single bracket covers every logic board connector. iFixit said the miniaturized logic board design is incredibly space efficient, with an unprecedented density of connectors and components. It noted the iPhone X logic board is about 70 percent of the size of the iPhone 8 Plus logic board. The extra room allows for a new L-shaped two-cell battery pack rated for 2,716 mAh, which is slightly larger than the iPhone 8 Plus battery. iFixit's teardown includes some high-resolution photos of the iPhone X's new TrueDepth camera system that powers Face ID and Animoji. For those unfamiliar, a flood illuminator covers your face with infrared light. Next, the front-facing camera confirms a face. Then the IR dot projector projects a grid of dots over your face to create a three-dimensional map. Last, the infrared camera reads this map and sends the data to the iPhone X for authentication. Like the iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus, the inside of the iPhone X's rear shell is affixed with an inductive charging coil based on the Qi standard. iFixit gave the iPhone X a so-called repairability score of six out of a possible 10 points. It said a cracked display can be replaced without removing Face ID's biometric hardware, but it added that fussy cables tie unrelated components together into complex assemblies that are expensive and troublesome to replace.
Wow (Score:4, Interesting)
Iâ(TM)m an EE and Engineering Design Firm owner with over 20 years of experience and 200+ Leading Edge Wireless Cellular/WiFi/Microwave/Satcom Product designs under my belt and I have to say WOW. This is very, very impressive. They would have spent months on the PCB design alone! Applause to Appleâ(TM)s Engineers!
Re:Wow (Score:5, Funny)
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Re:Wow (Score:4, Interesting)
I agree that the engineering is impressive. TFA shows the front of the PCB, and here is the back [wefixitservices.com]. More than half the real estate is covered in BGAs. Anyone know how many layers were used? It even looks like it has a removable battery.
My wife has one on order, but, alas, I don't think she will let me disassemble it.
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https://www.theregister.co.uk/... [theregister.co.uk]
Apple is the first to market with new, dense circuit board design called Stacked SLP, often referred to misleadingly as a "stacked logic board". Today's phones use 10 layers of copper on the PCB. Stacked SLP uses 20. This permits for a higher density of components in a given surface area. The iPhone X had also been tipped to have a 10-layer AP board, eight-layer RF board and two layers of interposers.
Even The Register is impressed. That must mean something.
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Re: Wow (Score:2)
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I'll just assume that it helps to have a multi-billion dollar research budget...
Bringing this to a prototype-stage is one thing - getting it into volume-production is something completely different.
Does Foxconn also make the PCBs - or do they just assemble them?
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I wonder how robust the board will be with those large BGA packages on it.
We have already seen some models falling when stressed by bending as the large ICs come away from the PCB. Samsung had that issue years ago and solved it by switching to smaller packages, and making their phones less bendy.
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But do you earn $50,000 a year in Silicon Valley?
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Can you survive on $50,000 per year in Silicon Valley? I've got single friends who complain about surviving on $80,000.
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This is very, very impressive.
I have to agree. I happily shit on Apple every chance I get, but the main PCB sandwich gave me a huge metaphorical (and partially literal) stiffy.
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Certainly that is an precedented (and partially unwarranted) level of detail.
yawn (Score:1)
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Re:yawn (Score:5, Funny)
Mine has a headphone jack.
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That's stupid. It should ship with a real one.
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Think of all the other possibilities of using usb-c instead of 3.5mm jacks.
breaking a guitar amp in 1.2seconds with the usb-c when you could have use the 3.5mm jack with an adapter.
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It has Qi wireless charging, so you don't need the lightning connector to charge...
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I'll try and remember that on the commute home, in the bus with USB ports and nary a wireless charging pad.
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Oh my... you still use wired headphones when you're out and about?
Re: yawn (Score:2)
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Interesting, but what do you think about the state of haberdashers these days?
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Re:Did they find the pure-strain gold? (Score:5, Interesting)
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I suspect that the price tag will provide for artificial scarcity for a while.
For the rest of us, they will act as a convenient douche alert.
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Indeed. Anyone shitty enough to think that people who buy nice things are douches are simply projecting, and should be avoided at all costs. Or killed in as painful a manner as can be contrived under the circumstances. Because, face it, you have no redeeming qualities at all.
Re: Did they find the pure-strain gold? (Score:2)
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which have very limited usage in large quantities
Gold is a noble metal, diamond is one of the hardest substances on the planet. Both have incredibly vast uses in high quantities.
I think what you meant was in large single sizes. There's little use for a single large diamond, but the same weight in diamond dust you'd think would be worth it's weight in ... diamond. Whereas in fact it costs so little that we use it expendebly. Gold likewise finds its greatest utility in its smallest thickness rather than its biggest chunk.
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I think what you meant was in large single sizes. There's little use for a single large diamond, but the same weight in diamond dust you'd think would be worth it's weight in ... diamond. Whereas in fact it costs so little that we use it expendebly.
We manufacture that diamond dust. Why would you think it would be expensive?
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We can also manufacture large diamonds for a fraction of what they actually sell. Point is, these materials are only worth excessive amounts in very specific forms. The raw materials are significantly cheaper in different forms and yet insanely useful.
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True, but the manufactured diamonds are often 'too perfect' to be natural diamonds. So a mechanism for documenting a diamond's provenance has been developed. It is claimed that it is to protect victims of oppression in the diamond mining business, but really it's to shore up the idea that 'natural' diamonds are more valuable than cheaply produced 'synthetic' diamonds.
The synthetic diamonds may be easy and cheap to produce, but their existence messes with the pyramid scheme that the diamond jewelry busines
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It sort of strange that gold and diamonds, which have very limited usage in large quantities, are considered intrinsicly valuable, while a pocket computer with thousands of man-years of effort behind it, and craftsmanship down to the nanometer is thought of as something that should be dirt cheap.
The answer is simple. It's supply and demand. The why is complex and requires more time and effort to fully understand:
The total quantity of gold that has ever been mined, which is somewhat less than what remains today in human hands, wouldn't fill the volume of an Olympic sized swimming pool and yet, because it was scarce, easy to recognize, hard to counterfeit, portable and resistant to corrosion it served mankind as a primary monetary commodity for millennia. The present value of gold is closely intertwi
Re: Did they find the pure-strain gold? (Score:2)
187000 tonnes of gold has been mined through time at 19000 kg/m^3 is 9842 m^3 of gold. An Olympic swimming pool is 2500m^3 or about 4 pools worth.
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Because those devices are cheap. You can get a phone that is 99% as good as the most expensive models for a few hundred bucks. In fact the cheaper one night be better, having a headphone socket, SD card and USB-C.
part of it is irrational (Score:2)
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It should be dirt cheap because its value will drop to 0 in a few years. I don't mind paying $1000 for a device I can use for 10 years. Expecting me to buy another in 2, on the other hand, is taking the piss. When the phone maker and everyone who writes software for it treat the device as disposable, it better have a disposable price tag.
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Why would you get rid of an iPhone after only 2 years? Are you that clumsy? Or are you a piece of shit with nothing better to do with your life than complain that "someone" makes you get rid of a perfectly good phone?
Re: Did they find the pure-strain gold? (Score:2)
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That's Apple's own expectation.
You're the new FakeTimCook apologist. I feel bad for you, you come across as pathetic.
And it isn't Samsung's expectation?
At least Apple will still be offering regular OS Updates for that phone for 5 years or more. They are still supporting the iPhone 5s, FFS, and up to a few weeks ago, even supported the 32 bit iPhone 5. But now that they are 64-bit only, I suspect that support for the 5s and up will continue for at least a few more years.
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That's Apple's own expectation.
No it isn't. https://www.cnet.com/news/apple-expects-people-to-use-their-iphones-for-3-years-on-average/ [cnet.com] 3 years is - and then they fully expect you to habd it to somebody else to use it for some more time.
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It has been my observation that 2 year-old phones are often unusably slow when trying to run the latest OS (which you need for the security updates), or they're abandoned altogether. Maybe this is more prevalent in the Android world, but has made me wary of spending a lot of money on a phone.
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That depends on who your friends are ...
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I don't know about your friends, but with mine it would only earn you ridicule for being duped into buying an overpriced, overhyped cellphone.
Re: Did they find the pure-strain gold? (Score:2, Interesting)
What do you think the appropriate price for this phone is? And the correct amount of hype?
Re: Did they find the pure-strain gold? (Score:2)
What is the maximum price youâ(TM)d pay for a pair of shoes or a bottle of whine? Does luxury start immediately at âoemore expensive than the cheapestâ?
Whatâ(TM)s $1000 for something you will use 50 times a day every day for years? If you can afford it? I donâ(TM)t get the hate, even if I wonâ(TM)t buy this thing.
Re: Did they find the pure-strain gold? (Score:2)
To make iOS 11 Slashdot friendly (because they're not joining the 21st century any time soon) go to Settings -> General -> Keyboard -> Smart Punctuation and turn it off.
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That doesn't really make iOS 'Slashdot friendly.' Because the line-noise phenomena that iOS 11 creates when somebody running it posts on Slashdot is a useful function for identifying 'leading edge' Apple Gadget users. It helps us suss them out and aids in evaluating what they post.
And no, Slashdot isn't joining the particular flavor of '21st century' that Apple promotes. Thank goodness.
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So we're talking about a piece of fashion or bling rather than a cellphone?
Ok, now it starts to make a lot more sense. I thought it's supposed to be a tool, but instead it seems only the one using it is one.
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Do you live in a ghetto? Perhaps you should move to a better neighborhood, where people don't impress others with an Apple logo. I guess it's better for your ego, though, to hide in your cloud of smug. I mean shit.
Meh. (Score:2)
Stand by for my Western Electric 2500DM teardown.
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I love the two-tone design of the 2500 DM, especially on the beige variant but the two-tone green looks great as well.
I wish though that the buttons were not all grey but followed the overall design of the device.
A big plus however that the buttons are double-shot moulded thick ABS and not some cheap pad-printed crap like on low-end phones -- or with no legends at all like some company that used to make good computers.
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I am saddened that my 2500 sets are now, for the moment, unusable in my home. I need to find an affordable VOIP solution to plug my entire house full of extension phones into so I can restore the 2500 sets' use. CenturyLink can rot in hell, of course.
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when red phones were used for direct communication lines to rival government leaders
In mythology and the movies only. The actual 'red phone' was a teletype.
On a related note: Many years ago, I helped a friend wire in an extension phone. On the little paper tag for the phone number, I wrote "KREMLIN HOTLINE" (with a backwards R). It remains there to this day.
YES! (Score:2)
Please do one. I haven't seen one of those in years, but I think the last one I saw I did dissemble.
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I'm going to wait for a serious internals review. Like "will it blend?".
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Some suprises (Score:2)
In other words (Score:1)
With the fluff stripped, still impossible to repair sensibly and still a battery you can't replace.
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Getting at the battery doesn't look so bad. Clearly it's not supposed to be user serviceable, but it *is* serviceable without serious risk of damaging the phone.
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Getting at the battery doesn't look so bad. Clearly it's not supposed to be user serviceable, but it *is* serviceable without serious risk of damaging the phone.
Your right. Sometimes one needs to hard boot a phone by removing the battery, it takes me 14 screws just to see it. https://d3nevzfk7ii3be.cloudfr... [cloudfront.net] (Pix used by Ifixit.com). I'm not a happy camper.
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I've never had that experience with an iPhone, and I've used most models for development work, which tends to do the screwiest things to devices. Perhaps you should be using a better class of phone, if that's really a problem for you.
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I've never had that experience with an iPhone, and I've used most models for development work, which tends to do the screwiest things to devices. Perhaps you should be using a better class of phone, if that's really a problem for you.
Misspoke, a hard reset not a reboot.
Right now my phone has lost showing the time out of the pocket, a hard reset or to turn off and remove the battery for awhile would fix that. Never owned an Apple phone.
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In theory, yes. In practice, does the system detect the change and brick the phone if it's not been done by a techpriest that has been blessed by the Adeptus Mechanicus?