Nexus One Teardown

Geschrieben von: Walter Galan

Veröffentlicht: 06/01/10

Kommentare: 68

Nexus One Teardown

Veröffentlicht: 06/01/10

Teardown

Einleitung

Well, we went for it. After forking out a bank-account-devastating $530, we have the Superphone in hand! Keep your eyes peeled as we tear this baby apart.

After all was said and done, we made a video slideshow of it as well. Enjoy!

Werkzeuge

Schritt 1

The Nexus One, manufactured by HTC, is the latest and greatest Android phone. It sports:
A 1 GHz Qualcomm (QCOM) Snapdragon processor.
A 3.7" 480x800 widescreen WVGA AMOLED display.
A 5MP digital camera w/ LED flash that also records .mp4 video.
802.11n wireless capability for when you can't depend on 3G.
7 hours of 3G talk time from a removable 3.7V, 1400 mAh lithium battery.
The box's color scheme kind of looks like Google's.
Pawning apps on the clear plastic protective sleeve? Guess the app store really is that desperate.

[PLAGIARISM WARNING!!]

sina.com.hk has stolen pictures from your report

and made its own water print logo on them!!

http://mobile.sina.com.hk/cgi-bin/nw/sho...

got your permission yet? I don't think so!!

alanbird -

Did you save the carrying pouch it came with? I lost mine. I'll pay $10 for a new one...

RoohBear -

Schritt 2

Droid, meet Nexus One. Anyone else see the transition from Terminator to T-1000?
iFixit's Android family. Darwin would agree that progress has been made.

Schritt 3

The unbelievably easy task of removing the plastic rear cover gives access to the replaceable battery. Hey Apple, take notes!
Inside the battery compartment you can see:
The 5MP camera lens
LED flash bulb
External speaker
The warranty-killing VOID sticker

Thanks for the IMEI! I'll be cloning your phone now :)

WillyDavidK -

Schritt 4

Warranty = VOID. No turning back now.
This phone is very nicely put together. After removing three screws and prying with a plastic opening tool, the battery tray comes right out.

Schritt 5

The upper circuit board is held in place by another Phillips screw.
After removing the screw, maneuver the upper board past the two metal clips holding it in place and lift it out of the phone body.
The large black-coated foil section is the data connection between the two main circuit boards.

Schritt 6

After some trying moments with a few tools of destruction, we figured out the bottom cover can simply be popped off with a plastic opening tool.
Guess what? We found more screws.
This phone uses many foil antennas attached to the several plastic internal frame pieces.

If the antennas are on the bottom, the reception would be reduced everytime the phone is grabbed.

Just like the iPhone, when you grab it the hand reduces the reception thus the iPhone has bad reception.

Inino -

The copper foil isn't antenna, that's shielding to fix a sensitivity issue :)

pookey5 -

The phone looks like it is better designed than the iPhone 3GS by Foxconn, good job HTC.

Willyau -

Zitat von Willyau:

The phone looks like it is better designed than the iPhone 3GS by Foxconn, good job HTC.

Your right, when seen from disassembly, but for assembly I guess otherwise. Still an amazing job.

It good to see that manufactures and designers and are willing to spend time to do some quality in their works.

lord anubis -

how easy/hard is it to remove the camera from the board? is it only by de-soldering>?

Eysham -

I wonder how hard it would be to change out the antenna? That's what's stopping AT&T 3G freqs.

scottricketts -

I'm assuming you're referring to the T-Mobile version of this phone. No, it's not just the antenna that's different, but the radio as well. They both have to be matched.

Mike Trieu -

Zitat von Inino:

If the antennas are on the bottom, the reception would be reduced everytime the phone is grabbed.

Just like the iPhone, when you grab it the hand reduces the reception thus the iPhone has bad reception.

it's done out of consideration because but throat cancer is much easier to manage than a brain tumor is...

TheQuestion -

Is it easy to get that bottom cover back on after popping it off?

Curt Mercadante -

Can you see where the 3 copper points on the bottom go to? there is a hole rather then a 4th and I'm wondering if those points are for power only or if there's audio/something else.

Curt -

Zitat von Eysham:

how easy/hard is it to remove the camera from the board? is it only by de-soldering>?

I need to know this!!! No cameras at work :(

seakintruth -

Zitat von Inino:

If the antennas are on the bottom, the reception would be reduced everytime the phone is grabbed.

Just like the iPhone, when you grab it the hand reduces the reception thus the iPhone has bad reception.

The human body doesn't attenuate reception much at the frequencies used by mobile phones. By placing the antennas at the bottom, it reduces interference with hearing aids, because the antennas are farther away from the electronics in the hearing aid.

There may be other reasons, but those are the ones I know of.

Jonathan Moore -

Zitat von pookey5:

The copper foil isn't antenna, that's shielding to fix a sensitivity issue :)

Can anyone tell me exactly where the GSM/3G HSDPA antenna is located in this teardown? I know the cellular antenna on the nexus is located in the bottom of the phone. but where EXACTLY is it on these pics? its not totally clear or labelled anywhere. Thanks.

Roger Podacter -

Zitat von Roger Podacter:

Can anyone tell me exactly where the GSM/3G HSDPA antenna is located in this teardown? I know the cellular antenna on the nexus is located in the bottom of the phone. but where EXACTLY is it on these pics? its not totally clear or labelled anywhere. Thanks.

Look carefully at Step 7, second picture. The piece in the technician's hand contains the antenna. It is a black, flat metal piece riveted to that small module, with white writing on it. A similar style of antenna is used in the T-Mobile G1. The little round connector is an antenna connector. If I had to guess, there's probably a connector on the underside of that module to connect it to the antenna connector on the board.

Jonathan Moore -

Zitat von Jonathan Moore:

Look carefully at Step 7, second picture. The piece in the technician's hand contains the antenna. It is a black, flat metal piece riveted to that small module, with white writing on it. A similar style of antenna is used in the T-Mobile G1. The little round connector is an antenna connector. If I had to guess, there's probably a connector on the underside of that module to connect it to the antenna connector on the board.

OK thank you, that makes total sense. there are many complaints about poor reception on the nexus when you cover the bottom of the phone, which makes sense since you are covering the antenna. i've learned to spread my pinky about 1 inch apart, leaving this exact area open, and the signal pops right back up. this picture confirms it is located EXACTLY in that spot. good work!

Roger Podacter -

Schritt 7

With a quick pry of the plastic opening tool, we found that the black plastic frame slightly envelops the lower side of the logic board.
And just like that, the plastic frame snaps off, revealing the lower logic board.
It's quite a colorful phone on the inside. We've got oranges, greens, yellows, dark grays, and all sorts of fun stuff!

You can see the three internal contacts that line up with the external contacts of the bottom of the phone. Does anyone know which of those two is for charging. Ones has to be 5V and another Ground.

garfnodie -

Zitat von garfnodie:

You can see the three internal contacts that line up with the external contacts of the bottom of the phone. Does anyone know which of those two is for charging. Ones has to be 5V and another Ground.

Never mind, found the info.

If anyone else is interested in the same thing, just check out this thread over at XDA.

http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthre...

garfnodie -

Schritt 8

We had to take care of one more Phillips screw.
After that, the logic board assembly slowly-but-surely slid out from the rest of the phone.
The camera and headphone jack are both soldered directly to the main board.

I wonder if you can tell where is the rattling noise come from?

http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/an...

Joe Lin -

No, I'm almost certain the rattling noise comes from the camera autofocus mechanism. You can hear it when you use any camera/barcode application.

Mike Trieu -

Schritt 9

The Nexus features a 3.7-inch (diagonal) widescreen WVGA AMOLED touchscreen.
This is the second device we've taken apart with an OLED display. The Zune HD we took apart last September also featured a Samsung-branded OLED display.
The Nexus display features a resolution of 480 x 800. That's a few less pixels than Motorola's Droid (480 x 854), but far more than the iPhone 3GS (320 x 480).

Have you further disassembled the front housing part?

How are the icons beneath the screen lit?

It would also be interesting to see the maschined aluminium part from the inside.

Nemo -

Is that an I2C connector? Wonder if you can attach a different screen to this :)

Lou Granger -

Schritt 10

Here's what looks to be the Synaptics (SYNA) touchscreen controller.
The chip is labeled T1007A, 2 0927, AMP08P. It controls the ClearPad 2000 series capacitive dualtouch sensor used in this phone.
We haven't been able to find any specifics on this chip. If you can help out with details, let us know!

The Nexus One uses a ClearPad 2000 series capacitive dualtouch sensor.

Alex Daves -

Does someone know the information and specification of the resistors which are over the chip? RP4-RP7

Evgeny -

Schritt 11

A list of the chips we've identified so far:
Samsung 943 KA100O015M-AJTT
Skyworks (SWKS) SKY77336 GSM power amplifier (labeled SKY77336-21 3888833 1P 0940 MX)
Qualcomm (QCOM) PM7540 power management chip (labeled PM7540 AH43510 C4944001)
The TI (TXN) TPS65023 integrated Power Management IC (labeled TPS65023 TI 9AJ P675 G4)

Do you think those other PA's next to the Skyworks part are from Avago? Who does the PA's for t-mobiles 3G?

PhoneGuy -

The small black chip at very right side is AKM AK8973 Electronic compass chip.

AK8973 product page

KelvinChen -

Zitat von PhoneGuy:

Do you think those other PA's next to the Skyworks part are from Avago? Who does the PA's for t-mobiles 3G?

The 77191 next to the SKY77336 is another Skyworks part, a WCDMA/HSDPA power amp:

http://www.skyworksinc.com/Product.aspx?...

UKA -

Any information about the camera or lens?

Steve -

Schritt 12

Qualcomm (QCOM) appears to be the big winner on the Nexus. We've found at least three of their chips in here already.
On the left is a RTR6285 RF transceiver.
The large chip on the right is the nexus of the Nexus. It's a Qualcom (QCOM) QSD8250 "Snapdragon" 1 GHz ARM processor.
The small chip between the two Qualcomm (QCOM) chips is an Audience A1026 voice processor, including ambient noise cancellation.

The chip at the upper right corner of the Snapdragon is an Atmel Mega88, microcontroller. Spec sheet describes it as an 8-bit AVR RISC microcontroller w/ 8K programmable flash memory.

Seth G -

I can report that the Audience chip does its job quite impressively. With the last two phones I've had (BlackBerry Bold 9000 and Sony-Ericsson W810i), talking in my loud car on the freeway with a wired headset (with omnidirectional mic) resulted in people telling me to call them when I arrived at my destination because the noise was too overwhelming for them to hear me. Yesterday I called those same people from the freeway and they said I sounded totally clear. Good work, Audience!

iDiaz -

Zitat von Seth G:

The chip at the upper right corner of the Snapdragon is an Atmel Mega88, microcontroller. Spec sheet describes it as an 8-bit AVR RISC microcontroller w/ 8K programmable flash memory.

Seth - The Atmel chip is most likely used for the cap touch buttons along the bottom of the phone, and possibly for other touch features such as haptics, light sensors or other cap sense user interface features.

Of course I could only verify this if someone sends me one to play with ;)

John -

Schritt 13

What have we here?
It's a plane, it's a bird, no... it's smaller than a dime? What are you?
It's the LED flash.

Two contacts, strange shaped copper fills. Antenna, probably 2.4GHz.

pookey5 -

It would help to see the other side of this board, that side is just the connecter side.

Yorik -

Nope, just the LED flash

Pins 2,4,6,8,10 to one side, 1,3,5,7,9 to other side of LED through multiple via's.

fred -

Schritt 14

The Bluetooth and 802.11n wireless is provided by a Broadcom (BRCM) BCM4329 chip.
The 802.11n capability gives the Nexus an advantage over the iPhone 3GS, which only has 802.11g connectivity. The Broadcom (BRCM) chip in the Nexus is the same chip we found in Apple's newest (3rd generation) iPod touch.
The package is labeled BCM4329EKUBG CD0942 P21 937322 SEA

Technically speaking, the chip DOES support 802.11N, but it is NOT supported by the supplied driver.

Alex Daves -

Schritt 15

Three more chips.
Unfortunately these were located underneath soldered EMI covers. For the sake of science and gadget lovers everywhere, we had to be a little forceful to get these covers off.
Using the Nexus One post-teardown just became very iffy. Previous to this step, we felt good about its functionality, but no longer...

Animals, your just animals. Some gentle heat from a blow-torch and you'd have the screening cans off quicker than Tiger in a nightclub.

bcsyn -

Zitat von bcsyn:

Animals, your just animals. Some gentle heat from a blow-torch and you'd have the screening cans off quicker than Tiger in a nightclub.

Exactly what I was thinking... made me cringe a bit

tony -

just look at page 3, and find something interesting. On the left most is Capella CM3605 light and proximity sensor. It's Taiwan based IC design company.

terry -

Any idea which chip used for audio driver? Thx

Dan -

did you kill it?

Gery -

Schritt 16

There you go, folks...
Hopefully our kryptonite wasn't too much for the Nexus "Superphone" One.

so my question is...will the trackball get dirty and look ugly/gross like all those blackberrys i see around?

krobinson5 -

Just wanted to give some feedback about this a couple years later. Nope, it doesn't look gross in the slightest and this is after HEAVY, real-life, everyday use/abuse. It's still as optically pristine as the day I unboxed! it :)

Mike Trieu -

Zitat von krobinson5:

so my question is...will the trackball get dirty and look ugly/gross like all those blackberrys i see around?

Feels just like a BlackBerry trackball, but only time will tell...

Miroslav Djuric -

Zitat von krobinson5:

so my question is...will the trackball get dirty and look ugly/gross like all those blackberrys i see around?

The great think about trackballs it that they can be replaced pretty easilly, the one in my blackberry comes out with by popping the little metallic ring that surrounds it off, than it just falls out, and the ball itself, and rollers are a seperate assembly than the electronics, and light making for easy(er) replacement, but there wasn't much detail here about this trackball in the nexus, but it looks similar to the one in my blackberry.

Chris Green -

Zitat von Chris Green:

The great think about trackballs it that they can be replaced pretty easilly, the one in my blackberry comes out with by popping the little metallic ring that surrounds it off, than it just falls out, and the ball itself, and rollers are a seperate assembly than the electronics, and light making for easy(er) replacement, but there wasn't much detail here about this trackball in the nexus, but it looks similar to the one in my blackberry.

And after some inspection, the ball/roller assembly looks similar, if not identical, to the one in my pearl, and may be a universal part.

Chris Green -

So maybe it's just me, but the board in this picture (top row, second from the right) definitely seems to resemble a miniature Android.

Jeff -

Zitat von Chris Green:

And after some inspection, the ball/roller assembly looks similar, if not identical, to the one in my pearl, and may be a universal part.

I pretty sure after looking at the pictures from the teardown that it looks like the trackball from the blackberrys. Although, there doesn't look like there is an easy way of getting it out easily from the looks of it.

Zitat von Miroslav Djuric:

Feels just like a BlackBerry trackball, but only time will tell...

That is true. Hopefully good cause I really want this phone. It looks awesome.

krobinson5 -

Zitat von Jeff:

So maybe it's just me, but the board in this picture (top row, second from the right) definitely seems to resemble a miniature Android.

HA it totally does! Nice!

krobinson5 -

Is the screen glass like the iPhone or plsatic?

Alex Neil -

Zitat von Alex Neil:

Is the screen glass like the iPhone or plsatic?

Sorry - I just registered to add my own 2 queries, then the Add Comment window disappeared, so hopefully my 2 questions seen here:

1) Screen glass: I wondered if it was the tough 'Gorrila glass' reported by Engadget as used in the Droid and dell Adamo ?

2) The Broadcom Radio chip has integral FM Radio (Rx & Tx), which the Nokia N900 uses to allow streaming of music to a Car Radio or your home hi-fi. the iTouch also uses same chip. Why is this hasn't his phone got FM Radio listed in the spec ? Radio is v. useful for getting local info when travelling out of range of 3G. Does anyone know whats needed to get the FM Radio to work ?

will2 -

Zitat von will2:

Sorry - I just registered to add my own 2 queries, then the Add Comment window disappeared, so hopefully my 2 questions seen here:

1) Screen glass: I wondered if it was the tough 'Gorrila glass' reported by Engadget as used in the Droid and dell Adamo ?

2) The Broadcom Radio chip has integral FM Radio (Rx & Tx), which the Nokia N900 uses to allow streaming of music to a Car Radio or your home hi-fi. the iTouch also uses same chip. Why is this hasn't his phone got FM Radio listed in the spec ? Radio is v. useful for getting local info when travelling out of range of 3G. Does anyone know whats needed to get the FM Radio to work ?

The only other Android phone that supports FM radio is the HTC Tattoo so this is a good question. I'm not sure but I don't think FM support is currently part of the core Android build and might just be something that HTC have developed and are reserving for their own HTC Sense powered phones

Paddy -

Zitat von will2:

Sorry - I just registered to add my own 2 queries, then the Add Comment window disappeared, so hopefully my 2 questions seen here:

1) Screen glass: I wondered if it was the tough 'Gorrila glass' reported by Engadget as used in the Droid and dell Adamo ?

2) The Broadcom Radio chip has integral FM Radio (Rx & Tx), which the Nokia N900 uses to allow streaming of music to a Car Radio or your home hi-fi. the iTouch also uses same chip. Why is this hasn't his phone got FM Radio listed in the spec ? Radio is v. useful for getting local info when travelling out of range of 3G. Does anyone know whats needed to get the FM Radio to work ?

Dutch Daun -

Zitat von will2:

Sorry - I just registered to add my own 2 queries, then the Add Comment window disappeared, so hopefully my 2 questions seen here:

1) Screen glass: I wondered if it was the tough 'Gorrila glass' reported by Engadget as used in the Droid and dell Adamo ?

2) The Broadcom Radio chip has integral FM Radio (Rx & Tx), which the Nokia N900 uses to allow streaming of music to a Car Radio or your home hi-fi. the iTouch also uses same chip. Why is this hasn't his phone got FM Radio listed in the spec ? Radio is v. useful for getting local info when travelling out of range of 3G. Does anyone know whats needed to get the FM Radio to work ?

FYI The Nokia N78, 79 and 97 all have a very good FM transmitter on board. This item could be a reason for me to switch to the Nexus as i use it very often.

Dutch Daun -

I assume you guys just got the phone to take it apart, and since you're done, i'll take it off your hands for further testing xD....... but in all seriousness..........will it blend???

DUSTmurph -

Any chance of you guys tracing the audio path back to the DAC and posting some ID? It would be fanschmastic to grab some I2C or something.. or even just bypass the usual iddy biddy liddew caps. =]

ruZZ -

Tinte & Feder

Walter Galan

685540 Reputation

11 Kommentare

Anyone know if there's a chip from Dialog Semiconductor in there?

Dan -

Can anyone help me with the details of the antennas used inside?

nikineil -

Walter -- nice breakdown!

I'm a disabled guy and I'm trying to find someone to help mod the screen on off switch on nexus 1. Are you interested in doing freelance work? Or do you know someone who does? Shoot me an e-mail -- Randy123SD@yahoo.com

randallsd -

Zitat von Dan:

Anyone know if there's a chip from Dialog Semiconductor in there?

There is one in the IPAD.

rburnettcpa -

Very helpful, I made a unit from 2 broken ones. Thanks

Ricardo Malagon Jerez -

The tools section says to use T4 bit. But I had to use a T5 bit.

billism -

WARNING!!!!!!!!TUTORIAL IS INCOMPLETE. Don't try it unless you are professionals. They are a lot of small details to take care . You can damage your phone

nickmb -

WARNING!!!!!!!!TUTORIAL IS INCOMPLETE. Don't try it unless you are professionals. They are a lot of small details to take care . You can damage your phone!

nickmb -

It is stated that this is a teardown, and not the full disassembly instructions.

Ocean Ko - 10/06/15

Excellent instructions. Fixed my camera, flash and proximity sensor. due to ribbon cable that joins the sub board to the main board. as soon as I pulled the board apart the ribbon cable header just fell out of its socket. You need to add remove the other ribbon cables as well otherwise some novice may inadvertently damage the connectors.

Dave -

Hi guys, just to clarify that the Torx screwdriver needed should be T5 not T4.

Jason - 26/07/15