• iFixit tears down the 3G S

    Friday, June 19th, 2009

    Biggs is the East Cost Editor of TechCrunch. Biggs has written for the New York Times, InSync, USA Weekend, Popular Mechanics, Popular Science, Money and a number of other outlets on technology and wristwatches. He is the former editor-in-chief of Gizmodo.com and lives in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn. You can Tweet him here and G+ him here. Email him directly at... → Learn More

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    Here are some comments from iFixIt’s tear down of the 3G S. Theirs also included a girl.

    * Thankfully, opening the iPhone 3G S is as simple as the 3G. After
    removing two Phillips screws, the two halves of the phone are separated
    easily using a suction cup.

    * The iPhone is differentiated externally only by a new model number,
    A1303. The lettering on the back is now shiny, like the Apple logo.

    * The internal physical design is virtually identical to the iPhone 3G.
    A random passerby on the street would not know the difference. Heck,
    even we were struggling to differentiate the two.

    * The new graphics core should drastically improve performance, meaning
    Apple’s serious about the handheld gaming market.

    * There’s still a “Do not remove” sticker above the logic board.
    Naturally, we removed it.

    * Nearly all components have been relocated to the front side of the
    main PCB, including the Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, and Flash memory chips.

    * The battery is 4.51 Watt-hours, or 1219 mAh. That’s about 6% larger
    than the iPhone 3G’s battery. Hopefully the hardware runs more
    efficiently, since increased battery life will not come from the battery
    itself.

    * There is an additional antenna connection near the dock connector.
    We’re not sure what for just yet. However, we do love exploring these
    teasers… Stay tuned!

    * For those who are wondering about the fingerprint-resistant coating on
    their iPhone 3G S screen: The oleophobic, or oil-proof, technology
    evolved from waterproofing. Oil-proof technology is harder to achieve as
    oil has a much lower surface tension than water, so it spreads out
    easier and thus is harder to get rid off. MIT’s solution was to create a
    coating material which creates a layer of micro fibers, but with a much
    larger contact angle between the oil droplets and the fibers.

    Some comments on usability of the 3G S:

    * Camera quality is much improved from the 3G. Close-up shots were
    possible down to about 5 cm, and the brightness adjusted well when
    picking a focus area.

    * The oleophobic screen does seem to clean slightly easier than the 3G’s
    normal screen.

    * Google Earth (duration of the spinning load wheel) (over Wi-Fi): 3G
    S: 4.9 sec; 3G: 22.2 sec. A bit faster than Apple’s claim of 2X speed
    improvement — although we know that one simple test of one application
    means little in the real world.

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