Badge technology blog

iFixit eviscerates iPhone 3GS: what's inside?

The gadget-dismantling (and un-dismantling) site has a go at a new iPhone 3GS. Warning: contains pictures of a disturbing nature if you like your smartphone in one piece, the site that likes taking gadgets apart, has got to work on the iPhone 3GS (photo:

Those wacky folks from iFixit, who can't see a gadget without unpacking their set of screwdrivers and small suction cups (useful for removing touch screens, apparently) have done a teardown of the iPhone 3GS.

Clearly they've never seen the instructions that come with the fabulous (and sadly discontinued) software VisualHub, whose tweakable settings included the warning: "Don't!! You'll screw it all up!" (Actually, ifixit is a very useful resource for DIY repairs on all sorts of Mac kit. Obviously, at your own risk..)

But iFixit isn't deterred by those sorts of fears, and in a detailed teardown it goes at the new iPhone with everything it's got.

The processor is, it seems, still a Samsung ARM. Outwardly, it's almost indistinguishable from the iPhone 3g, except

the 3G is model A1241, while the 3G S is model A1303.

Among notable points:

Apple promises improved battery life with the 3G S. The battery is listed as 3.7V and 4.51 Whr. This comes out to 1219 mAh, compared to 1150 mAh on the 3G. That's only a 6% increase.

Wonder how the battery life will go. We're testing it on the iPhone 3GS we have in the office.


The 3G S offers Voice Control. We're not sure yet why this feature couldn't be added via software to earlier iPhones. Perhaps the voice recognition requires a better microphone than in earlier iPhones or a lot of processing power, or maybe Apple just wanted to differentiate the 3G S.

According to Richard Lei, the "Chinese (Cantonese) voice control works, but took a while to work out the magic words as there is no guide released yet (not out in Hong Kong until early July)"

And finally,

On the iPhone 3G, we see a lot more cracked digitizers than cracked LCDs. Replacing the digitizer is a little more work, and requires breaking out a heat gun or hair dryer.

Once you've deployed the correct set of screwdrivers, suction cups and gentle udging, you'll get the following:

OK? Now do steps 1-16 in reverse. Any parts you have left over were probably surplus anyway. Good luck!

Today's best video