Apple iPhone Dissected

Conch writes "Only hours after the launch, the Apple iPhone has been dissected. The good folks at AnandTech violated one of the first iPhones to still our curiosity about whats inside the aluminum shell. '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.'"

Comments

What's that?

[Whiney Mac Fanboy]

That noise - as if millions of fanbois suddenly cried out in shock and were suddenly silenced. I fear something terrible has happened....

Joke's aside - the thing I really noted from TFA was:

The big yellow thing in the middle is the iPhone battery; you're definitely not replacing this thing on your own

More planned obsolescence. Pity. I'd like to see Apple go a little greener. A non-user replaceable battery limits the life of a device substantially.

Re:What's that?

[Anonymous Coward]

More planned obsolescence. Pity. I'd like to see Apple go a little greener. A non-user replaceable battery limits the life of a device substantially.

I've had three mobile phones in my life, each of them for about 4 years. I have never replaced a battery in any of them.

Granted, at the end of the 4 years I might need to charge them every three days instead of every five, but that's not a problem for me. And by the time I get rid of the phone it's usually because it has failed in general - broken clamshell joint or broken charger connection, for example.

Most likely Apple has made the battery non-replacable because they have better uses for the space required for a replacable battery; and because user replacement of batteries is a fairly unusual thing.

Just my $0.02

Re:Wow

[Rosco P. Coltrane]

Obviously you can't change the battery yourself, but from those pictures it looks like even Apple couldn't change it. That can't be so, can it?

You know, I have the feeling people who buy high-tech, flashy gadgetry such as the iPhone aren't likely to invest in it for the long term, with a value-for-money approach to buying and owning the product. The battery will probably last long enough for the owner to have another "oh shiny!" purchasing moment and relegate his iPhone to the bottom of some drawer...

The battery is not replaceable by design.

[Cordath]

Have you ever changed the battery in an iPod? It's possible, but a royal nuisance. Anyone who has done so probably realizes that Apple never really intended it to be possible. With the iPhone they've taken it a step further by soldering the battery directly to the board. I think that says it all. The only question is whether or not the battery will live up to daily use long enough to last out the contracts people are signing themselves into.

From the pictures on anandtech, it appears that the iPhone uses a Li-poly battery. That's an interesting choice, but a concerning one. Those typically do not last for as many charges as a plain old lithium ion battery. Apple is probably counting on the fact that the people who will lay out the kind of money the iPhone costs are the sort who won't try to nurse a device on for years, but rather, are the sort that will bin said device as soon as the next greatest thing (Hopefully the next generation of iPhone) comes along.

I suppose in this light it's not really planned obsolescence. Apple just built the iPhone to the minimum specs of the fickle trendy gadget crowd.

Re:The battery is not replaceable by design.

[DarkVader]

So it takes a soldering iron to change the battery. That's not exactly making it a challenge for most people on Slashdot, right?

And it's not like we're going to have any real trouble sourcing a battery either, all the usual iPod battery suppliers will have them.

I'm really not sure why people keep whining about the battery thing. That's really the least of the iPhone's problems as far as I'm concerned.

My list of why I won't buy one now, and maybe not ever:

1. I don't know if it will tether. If it won't, dealbreaker.
2. EDGE - I have an EDGE phone now. It's too slow. If 802.11 worked where I needed my phone to access the internet, I wouldn't need my phone to access the internet.
3. Javascript is not an SDK.
4. Not enough storage capacity to be useful as an iPod. I wouldn't mind at all having a hard drive in my phone, I want 80GB, not 8.
5. I don't do 2 year contracts.
6. This thing is useless without activation. If I decide I don't want Cingular, it's not even an ipod, it's a doorstop.

I don't hate Apple, I make Apple computers work for a living. I'm typing this on an iBook. But it looks like my next phone will probably be a RAZR v3xx, not an iPhone. And if the iPhone would do what I want, I'd be all over it.

Non-replaceable batteries are Greener

[Jeremy_Bee]

More planned obsolescence. Pity. I'd like to see Apple go a little greener. A non-user replaceable battery limits the life of a device substantially. The Apple strategy with non-replaceable batteries could actually be considered the greener option.

I still have a pile of the various PDA's and cell phones I have had over the years. Most used undersized batteries that reduced the initial cost of the unit (even though most cost about the same as today's iPhone), but also didn't last. This required me to purchase new batteries, extra batteries, and bigger, add-on batteries and battery packs. All of these batteries are in the same pile, waiting for me to find appropriate green disposal (some day).

I would argue that most people eventually just chuck these things away and that they end up in a landfill somewhere. Also the fact that the batteries are generally crap means that the average user goes through more batteries for a non-Apple "replaceable battery" product than they do for the Apple product.

The fact that Apple offers a low-cost, no-hassle, battery replacement option means that the majority of iPod and now iPhone), battery replacements happen through Apple instead of the consumer, and thus the batteries all get properly recycled instead of just being dumped. The main cause of battery pollution from iPods for instance is whatever portion of the populace that does not return them to Apple for replacement or recycling and just chucks the item away when it's dead. That is the consumer's fault, not Apple's.

The only thing that could be done better is that Apple could take back the old iPods so as to alleviate even the worst acts of the consumers of their products. They already do this in a limited way and have announced recently a goal of doing a take-back on every product they make.

How much more green could they possibly be right now?

Re:The software

[quickbrownfox]

I haven't yet worked out whether the iPhone will be a big success or a massive flop. What I do know though is that it will only be bought by people who buy based on hype rather than featureset. So the equation comes down to how many Apple fanboys are there with buckets of cash who will buy something purely because Apple tells them to.

So I guess the revolutionary interface doesn't count as a "feature"? I saw several women and teens in line at my local Apple store - not your typical Apple fanboys. I think these people respond to the iPhone because Apple designed it for them. They didn't design it for you. Just ignore it if you don't want one, but don't accuse the people who are interested in it of being gullible simpletons. Apple has built their reputation on simple, elegant, intuitive interface design. And, whether you care about it or not, that is an important feature to a lot of people.