Motorola Droid 4 Teardown

Geschrieben von: Walter Galan
Veröffentlicht: 12/02/12
  • Kommentare: 25

Motorola Droid 4 Teardown

Veröffentlicht: 12/02/12

Teardown

Einleitung

It's the dawn of a new year, and 2012 brings another update to the line of Droid smartphones by Motorola.

Will this be the best Droid to date? Will it fall completely on its face? Will it blend?

The only way to find out is to scroll down and check out the teardown. We didn't have a blender handy, so we'll have to wait until the good folks at Blendtec get their hands on a unit.

By the way: do these teardowns blow your mind, and you can't get enough of them? Follow @ifixit on Twitter to stay up to date with the latest teardown shenanigans.

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    • Here's the Droid 4 in all its glory. It's a bit bigger, shinier, and packs more features than the original, but the essence of the Droid 1 is preserved.

    • Tech specs:

    • Android 2.3.6 OS (Gingerbread)

    • Dual-Core 1.2 GHz processor with 1 GB dual-channel RAM processor

    • 16 GB internal storage and up to 32 GB microSD external storage

    • 4" 960 x 540 qHD display with Corning Gorilla Glass and a water-repellent nanocoating

    • 8 MP rear-facing camera with 1080P HD video capture and an "HD" front-facing camera

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    • Motorola seems to have gifted us with some literature. Looking for a good read this afternoon? The Droid 4 comes with four different manuals!

    • Motorola has also graced us with this mysterious little gem, which initially looks like a SIM card eject tool complete with the Motorola logo and high-tech ultra-light design.

    • However, after scanning through the four included manuals (that's right, we do read the manuals), we discovered that the object is actually a rear panel removal tool! For the first time in the history of our teardowns, a device manufacturer has actually included a tool to help take apart their device -- although it's for a procedure that shouldn't require a tool to begin with.

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    • The slide-out keyboard on the numerically-named Droids is often the biggest selling point on the phone, filling a niche market for users who prefer the kind of physical response that only a tactile keyboard can deliver. After all, how are you going to send secret texts from under the table unless you can feel the keys you're touching?

    • The keyboard on the Droid 4 features the same offset key layout as the Droid 2 and the dedicated number row like the Droid 3.

    • Unlike previous versions, the Droid 4's upper display assembly envelops the entire lower half of the phone -- there's no lower lip on the bottom half anymore.

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    • With a little coaxing, the rear panel easily pops off. Chalk one up for repairability!

    • In case you suddenly forget how to put the case back in, Motorola has graciously included instructions for reinstalling your rear panel.

    • The first thing we observe on the innards of this Droid is a large sticker covering the battery. It contains identifying information for this phone, as well as several statements telling the user that the battery is not removable.

    • O RLY? We'll see about that "non-removable" battery.

    • This is a huge (negative) departure from earlier Droids, where the battery was always user-replaceable.

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    • Before we tackle that dastardly sticker, we bust out a spudger to remove the micro-SIM cover.

    • You could also use your fingernail to accomplish the same task, but spudgers are more scientific.

    • Alas! A liquid damage indicator cleverly placed below the micro-SIM cover thwarts our hopes of a Droid 4 deep-sea excursion. Sorry little buddy, looks like you're going to have to sit this one out.

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    • Time to tackle the "non-removable battery" dilemma.

    • Removing the sticker reveals the Droid 4's large battery.

    • Our assumptions are correct: the Droid's battery is a lot larger and more troublesome to remove than last year's model.

    • Did we say "more troublesome?" We meant to say "more exciting!" The addition of two T5 Torx screws holding the battery in place allows us to use one of our favorite tools, the 54-piece bit driver kit.

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    • The battery is held on by a wonderful surprise: Copious amounts of adhesive! ...grumble grumble...

    • We don't get deterred by simple things like sticky batteries.The battery comes out without fuss after a little elbow grease and a spudger.

    • It's actually pretty difficult to remove the battery without a pry tool like the spudger. The adhesive is so strong that you may accidentally bend the battery too much (and cause it to possibly ignite) if you try removing it with just your fingers.

    • The Droid 4's 3.8 V Li-ion battery reports 1785 mAh, a 5 mAh upgrade over the Droid RAZR, and a whopping 245 mAh upgrade over the Droid 3.

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    • And then we encountered a small stumbling block. With the battery out of the way, very little held the rear bezel in place -- yet it didn't want to come off.

    • After what felt like years of poking, prodding, and prying the rear bezel, our spudgy-senses suddenly tingled when we looked at the plastic piece covering the battery and LED.

    • Sure enough, two screws were hiding underneath the cover. Sneaky!

    • Removal of these screws proved to be the trick for freeing the rear bezel from its gluey prison.

    It should say "a plastic bit covering Camera and LED"

    Roman -

    This particular step will most likely ruin the special adhesive done at the factory. Once the plastic piece(the one that says HD/1080P on it) is removed, a complete adhesive mess is left behind. This is one of the few steps along the way that made me say to myself that this project is not worth it.

    Rick Green -

    The photos make it look easy, but this took me a while. I destroyed the blue lining instead of removing the entire panel by digging into the screw on the left side of the camera lens. The right screw was already exposed by prior damage.

    Susan -

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    • Luckily, the plastic chassis holding the motherboard in place is held by nothing more than a handful of screws -- no more of that adhesive funny business.

    • This plastic frame also houses the headphone jack, speaker, and LED flash.

    There is a small version thing wire like... That comes from it off the hole near charging ports and where you screw battery in...

    I need to know where this goes how to fix or what and where it goes

    Savannaha -

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    • With the rear chassis removed, we are free to begin taking out the motherboard.

    • Our spudger makes quick history of the connectors holding the motherboard in place, and off it comes.

    • Unlike last year's Droid, the Droid 4's keyboard pressure sensors are attached to the back of the motherboard.

    • Cool! The keyboard letters are printed on raised rubber atop the pressure contacts. Our guess is as good as yours as to why Motorola chose to go that route—there's no benefit we can see from having the letters printed on the rubber.

    The letters on the white light guide membrane are used for backlighting the graphics on the keypad from the LED's under the black film. The etched areas will illuminate allowing for a uniform amount of light under each key.

    Marklar vonDeburg -

    If you're looking to replace the keyboard/keypad-good luck. I finally figured out how to replace the keypad after about 30 long minutes of contemplation. It was a complete nightmare. It takes a lot of patience and determination and finesse to remove the existing OEM keypad. You have to push and prod and wiggle it out. I will tell you that the keypad is removed best from the front side of the phone. I used a thin, sharp knife blade to start the peeling away process which helped a little.

    If you want to purchase a new keypad, look no further than www.cellulardr.com(part#38014223001)This is a Motorola OEM XT894 DROID 4 QWERTY keypad. This is NOT a knockoff by any means. Cost: $22.95+ shipping.

    Rick Green -

    Thank A for the lead, bought a bricked D4 off eBay for $20 (even). I'm canabalizing it in hopes of restoring the factory installed BACKLIT physical keyboard.

    Adam -

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    • Calling upon the help of our little friend, the plastic opening tool, we remove the rear-facing camera.

    • Like last year's Droid RAZR—and what seems to be the standard-issue in smartphones nowadays—the Droid 4 sports an 8 MP camera with 1080P video recording capabilities up to 30 frames per second.

    • The back of the camera sports a cryptic code: 84014789. We can tell you with confidence that this is a Revision A camera unit, as opposed to any other letter.

    • The side of the camera (not shown) reads SA2539 1XH00 0101650 7001 SH.

    84014789 is very likely the Motorola Mobility part number for either the camera's flexible PCB, or for the camera subassembly.

    Robert Reed -

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    • Interesting: The microSD card slot is not soldered onto the motherboard, but instead held in place by two screws.

    • The slot connects to the motherboard via some pressure-sensitive pins, as well as a rectangular multi-pin connector.

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    • Peeling back the rubber keyboard to reveal the keypad contacts.

    • Motorola definitely understood the importance of designing a good keyboard for this phone. From our limited txt-testing, it appears to be the best Droid keyboard yet. The same shows in its internal construction.

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    • Time for our favorite part, chip identification!

    • Samsung K3PE7E00M-XGC1 8 Gb LPDDR2.

    • Hynix H8BCS0QG0MMR memory MCP containing Hynix DRAM and STM flash

    • Qualcomm MDM6600 supporting HSPA+ speeds of up to 14.4 Mbps

    • The Qualcomm PM8028 chip works in conjunction with the Qualcomm MDM6600 to provide wireless data connection to the phone.

    • Motorola T6VP0XBG-0001 LCM 2.0 LTE baseband processor.

    • ZE55431140KHD, which appears to be the RAM sitting atop the main processor.

    • How do we know the processor is lurking beneath? Check out the chip package-on-package goodness in the second image. The processor is the orange chip beneath the RAM.

    If both the RAM and FLASH are off-chip, what is the top package on the CPU PoP?

    John Kelley -

    It seems unreasonable to me that main processor sits beside to LTE baseband processor.

    Steven -

    Note the USB connector is held down to the MoBo with 4 solder tabs at the sides (in addition to the microscopic connector pins). If this jack is funky, use a magnifier to check for one or more fractured solder pads. YOu may be able to improve the reliability of this crucial charge connection by carefully resoldering the tabs with a very small iron and good quality solder, while using a spudger to press the jack casing down tightly against the board. Be careful. If the connection pins are broken loose, you are out of luck.

    videoterry -

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    • Infineon 5726 SLU A1.

    • Skyworks 77483 700MHz LTE PA module.

    • Avago ACPM-7868 quad-band power amplifier.

    • Texas Instruments WL 1285C WiLink 7.0 single-chip WLAN, GPS, Bluetooth and FM solution

    • ST Ericsson CPCAP 6556002 System on a Chip

    • 5100 1582005 19A35DW

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    • The back of the board is largely devoid of chips, save for one:

    • The same SanDisk SDIN5C1-16G flash memory that we found in the updated Droid Razr also graces the interior of the Droid 4.

    • As its name suggests, this package provides the 16 GB of memory that comes with every Droid 4.

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    • Moving on, we delve deeper into the Droid to access its display.

    • In order to complete this feat we have to remove some Torx screws and separate the keyboard top from the rest of the phone.

    I encountered torx screws that were smaller than T5 at this step. T5 was the smallest screwdriver I had so I was unable to proceed. The tools required list should list whatever this step requires, ie, T4 or T3 whichever.

    harbinjosh -

    The torx needed for this step 17 and 18 looks to be a T3.

    elplebe17 -

    T3 is what I used.

    John Kinsella -

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    • A couple more screws and the front panel is off!

    • Good news: the LCD is not fused to the glass display. This means users won't have to purchase both the glass and LCD (which is significantly more expensive than just the glass) if they shatter their screens.

    • Not-so-good news: they will have to replace the touchscreen controller when replacing the front display glass, which will add a bit of cost to the repair.

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    • But what touchscreen controller does the Droid 4 sport, you may ask? The underside of the front panel reveals an Atmel MXT224E touchscreen controller, which we've found in several other phones in the past, including the Droid 3.

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    • The Motorola Droid 4 earns itself a not-so-stellar repairability score of 4 out of 10.

    • The lack of security or proprietary screws is a welcome sight.

    • The LCD is not fused to the glass, which will save money to anyone who is unfortunate enough to drop their Droid.

    • The battery is user removable, but a significant amount of effort is required compared to earlier Droids.

    • Keyboard contacts are located on the motherboard, making keyboard replacement costly and difficult.

    • Tons of glue adheres the glue that is securing the glue to the glue that holds the phone together.

    • You have to take apart the entire phone to get to the front glass (which is most susceptible to fracture), and you'll have to replace the touchscreen controller in addition to the glass when performing the repair.

Tinte & Feder

Walter Galan

685541 Reputation

11 Kommentare

I need a replacement rear panel or battery cover for my Droid 4. Anyonbe know a source?

thx

Gulfsurfer -

Thanks this gave me the info I needed to replace my battery. It is alive again.

Sad that Motorola bad decision on this type of battery and taking 10 months to update the Android system makes this the LAST Motorola phone I will buy.

Micheal Weinfurtner -

Thanks!

Very simple to replace the non-consumer replaceable battery (no adhesive, just double-sided tape). Phone would shut itself off. Sometimes it would charge other times it wouldn't, Some times it would boot other times it wouldn't. Battery felt like it was getting hot. Let see if it works!

lusk -

On the front and back of the motherboard, and in the photo of the touchscreen controller, I see these white rectangles with three red x's on them. Are those more wet indicator strips, or is the only wet indicator strip on the phone located near the Micro SD slot?

Lynn -

Has anyone figured out where the motion sensor is on this board? I did a full tear down and rebuild to replace the ear speaker, and after replacing part short of the LCD and motherboard, the motion sensor no longer works... I am stuck in landscape mode! Help!

Brian Applegate -

Great teardown but it would seem the same person could do a guide for replacing the ear speaker or other things since they did this much. I just tore mine apart to replace the rattly ear speaker. I forgot how nice it sounds without a rattle! And for the $3.78 I paid on Ebay for the replacement speaker, I figured why not. Came out great. For the above poster (Brian) you may want to check your slide-out keyboard. Anytime it is slid out, the phone is in landscape. If you slide out your keyboard and then turn the phone over and look at the top of the track on the left side you will see a little gold tab. My little tab was actually sticking up in the track so the thing wouldn't slide closed all the way. I had to take it apart again (luckily I hadn't gotten very far) and bend that little tab back into place. Me thinks that little tab has something to do with telling the phone that the keyboard is shut so it's okay to go back to accelerometer mode so it moves when you turn it.

Michael -

Does one have to remove the digitizer in order to replace the ear speaker? I just bought a speaker for my dad's droid 4 as his sounds muffled and blown. Hopefully I don't have to separate the glass in order to change it out.

Mat Holland -

any ideas of what is it for the four contacts connector on one side of the battery above the USB connector??

rbinternet -

Those 4 contacts are for the wireless charging backplate that was an optional accessory.

Howard Chu -

Where the metal slider part is my ribbon is not one ribbon but two and one piece popped out. The screen no longer responds to touch and when I slide the keyboard out that piece of ribbon sticks out from underneath. How do I remove the sliding metal part to attempt to repair the ribbon? (Step 17 Picture 2 is what I'm talking about)

Tom Florczak Jr -

The entire thing was non-functional, so I was planning on using this as a guide to tear it apart to get stuff to fit into other phones, such as the SIM card

I tore it apart, cleaned the parts, and decided to put it back together just for turds and giggles, and it STARTED WORKING AGAIN. thanks so much you are a lifesaver! That phone has years of data on I it!

Minater 247 -