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Getting a look inside the iPhone 4

A teardown of the iPhone i4 by iFixit confirms 512MB of memory, different battery connection, among other iPhone 4 internals.

Brooke Crothers Former CNET contributor
Brooke Crothers writes about mobile computer systems, including laptops, tablets, smartphones: how they define the computing experience and the hardware that makes them tick. He has served as an editor at large at CNET News and a contributing reporter to The New York Times' Bits and Technology sections. His interest in things small began when living in Tokyo in a very small apartment for a very long time.
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Brooke Crothers
2 min read

The iPhone 4 got a timely teardown from iFixit on Tuesday night, confirming that it integrates 512MB of RAM and a new battery connection scheme and revealing the accelerometer/gyroscope hardware, among other things.

Here's a brief overview of what iFixit found in its initial teardown of Apple's newest phone:


Inside of iPhone 4 showing large battery. iFixit

Battery: The inside real estate is dominated by the battery. The 3.7V 1420 mAh Li-Polymer battery allows for up to seven hours of talk time on 3G or up to 14 hours on 2G. "It's pretty apparent that real estate was very limited inside the iPhone 4's 115.2 x 58.6 x 9.3 mm footprint," iFixit wrote. Antenna connector is on the back of the rear case cover.

Battery Connector: "The battery can be easily removed once the back panel assembly is out of the way," according to iFixit. The battery connector is different than the one in the 3G and 3GS: it is not soldered to the logic board. The plastic pull tab for the battery says "Authorized Service Provider Only."

iPhone 4 camera. iFixit

Camera: iFixit reveals the rear-facing 5 MP camera with 720p video at 30 FPS, tap to focus feature, and LED flash, an upgrade from the 3.2 MP camera found in the iPhone 3Gs.

iPhone 4 circuit board with the A4 processor, the same chip used in the iPad. iFixit

A4 processor: The new iPhone uses the 1GHz ARM Cortex A8 technology, like the iPad.

Other items worth noting by iFixit:

  • RAM: iFixit confirmed that the iPhone 4 has 512MB of RAM, surpassing both the iPad and iPhone 3GS.
  • Stainless steel inner frame: This integrates the UMTS, GPS, Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth antennas. The dual purpose stainless steel inner frame/antenna assembly attempts to addresses problems with continuous dropped calls and lack of reception. "Apple has gone a step further and tuned the phone to utilize whichever network band is less congested or has the least interference for the best signal quality, regardless of the actual signal strength. Early reports suggest this feature, while buggy in its early stages, will greatly improve the reliability of AT&T's fragile network," iFixit wrote.
  • Accelerometer/gyroscope: "3 mm x 3 mm STMicro 33DH 3-axis accelerometer: BG7AX." The AGD1 is the NEW 3 axis gyroscope design and manufactured for Apple by STM.