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Step 1 iPhone 3G Teardown

• Removing the SIM card. Fortunately for the world's paper clips, the iPhone 3G comes with a SIM eject tool.

• Perhaps the least-touted new feature of the iPhone 3G is the flush headphone jack, allowing non-Apple headphones to be used without an adapter. Yay!

Step 2

• For comparison, here's a link to last-year's iPhone disassembly.

• Our predictions:

• Apple-labeled Samsung processor.

• Either some kind of GPS chip, or none at all. If there isn't a GPS chip, then it could be built into the processor. [Turns out it's an Infineon chip]

• Lots of chips with only Apple markings on them. Sometimes we can tell what they are, but most of the time you have to take the chip itself apart first. [correct, but this one's cheating]

• Removing the display!

Step 3

• Rotating the display up.

• Apple used orange stickers to number the connectors to the logic board 1 through 6.

• The camera is located in the upper right corner of the phone. Unfortunately, it connects to the bottom of the logic board, meaning you'll likely need to remove the logic board from the phone to remove the camera. We haven't tried removing the camera, but would assume that like the original phone, the camera can be removed for those wanting to bring their iPhone 3G into secure locations.

• A little birdy has told me that TechOnline will be decapping the chips we can't identify tomorrow, after the US release. They soak the chip in an acid bath to eat away the ceramic coating, then use x-rays and other fancy equipment to examine it.

Step 4

• The display assembly separated from the unit.

• In a significant departure from the first iPhone, it appears that the LCD and glass covering are separate components-- just like the iPod Touch. They were glued together before, making replacement screens very expensive. The glass breaks more than anything else, so this is great news for repairing the iPhone 3G!

Step 5

• We had to remove 6 Phillips #00 screws to separate the glass from the LCD.

• The glass (with integrated touch sensors and chips) is underneath, while the LCD is being removed.

• In the previous iPhone, the display was fairly monolithic. A number of components were connected together via the display assembly-- now the display just connects to the main board. Hopefully this will make obtaining replacement parts easier-- we've had trouble getting quality supplies of iPhone displays to sell.

Step 6

• Behold, the iPhone! Can you see the 3G bits inside?

• The two boards (logic and communications) are now one. Rather than stacking them, as in the last model, they laid it out along the entire length. We're guessing this allowed them to make the battery longer.

• We're not used to taking photos outside our studio, but these pictures are turning out great because of our awesome friends in NZ.

• Props to Andrei Smirnov of Mac Solutions for helping us out. They are a Macintosh sales and support company established in 1998 and based on the North Shore, Auckland. Do us a favor and use his services the next time you're in Auckland!

Step 7

• Just kidding. Look, the battery isn't soldered on!

• Apple actually listens to us! Or something.

Step 8

• Dock and headphone connector.

• The primary antenna is on the other side of this part.

• Once we get the phone completely apart, we'll start posting chip numbers. We'd love help identifying chips from all of you, send us any inside information to iphone3g@ifixit.com. We'll keep it anonymous.

Step 9

• This is where we get excited! We've done our best to identify everything that's on the iPhone board.

• Semiconductor Insights and TechOnline have released the almost-authoritative list of all substantial iPhone chips. They've graciously provided us with their images. We're going through and verifying their results now, but we expect that their accuracy will surpass our own.

• So by our count, here's the chip counts by manufacturer (more important chips are bold):

• Broadcom 1, Infineon 4, Intel 1, Linear Technology 1, Marvell 1, National Semi 1, NXP 1, Samsung 1, Skyworks 1, SST 1, ST Micro 1, Toshiba 1, Triquint 3 (big win!), Wolfson 1.

• Our list undoubtably omits a number of components. Don't freak out if the chip you spent years slaving over isn't mentioned, please! We're happy to update it if you let us know.

Step 10

• And Marvell for the win on the CSR BlueCore Bluetooth + WiFi. This is the same chip as the iPod Touch and first iPhone.

• Toshiba manufactured the flash in both iPhone logic boards we've seen so far. We'll see if this trend holds.

Step 11

• Intel NOR flash in the middle left of the shot: 3050M0Y0CE 5818A456.

• The largest chip in the top left corner is an Infineon 337S3394 WEDGE baseband marked SP836175 G0822.

• Small chip to the right of the NOR: Infineon BGA736 (Tri-Band HSDPA LNA). Just beneath that is an Infineon UMTS Transceiver marked 338S03532Z 60814.

• Skyworks power amplifier SKY77340 (Power Amplifier Module Quad) on the top right:Octopart datasheet

• The chip in the top middle is SMP 3i 6820, Infineon SM-Power3i. From Infineon: the part is "optimized to support modem and data card applications based upon X-GOLD208 and X-GOLD 608, with features ranging from EDGE up to 3G and HSDPA."

• Chips we need to identify: 6475 with M logo (rumored to be Murata IF SAW Filter).

Step 12

• The entire board (the EMI shield is removed from the right side).

• The previous shot is the top right portion of this picture.

• Removing the EMI shielding is tricky, so we're taking our time.

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Step 13

• The other half of the board. Note the Apple-branded ARM on the left and the SIM card holder at bottom center

• Big news: Samsung DDR SRAM markers on the processor again. Looks like they win on the processor front again (not that we were expecting anything different).

• Processor markers: 339S0036 ARM EMC567DB 819 8900B N182F0A3 0825 7511.101 ZPD8163Y, 5974V CKUFBG HE0819 870628 P12 N3. Samsung DDR on the chip (K4X1G163PC-DGC3) is slightly different from the first iPhone, which was K4X1G153PC.

• SST SST25VF040B 1MB SPI Serial Flash to the left of the SIM card, along with a National Semiconductor LM2512AA Display Interface.

• APPLE 338S0506 is a Wolfson WM6180C (We haven't seen Wolfson disguise their chips like this before). APPLE 338S0512 is an obfuscated NXP power management chip.

• The GPS chip is the grey chip in the middle-right side of the board. It is an Infineon PBM2525 Hammerhead II! Rumors that it would be integrated into the processor have been disproved

• The round grey chip to the right of the Apple-logo processor is the ST Micro LIS331 DL Accelerometer.

Step 14

The back of the logic board, after pulling up the metallic shielding.

Step 15

The 8GB NAND flash chip (Toshiba TH58NVG6D1DTG80), revealed after removing a soldered-down cover. This chip was covered by a plastic shield as well, which we've partially removed to see the markings beneath.

Step 16

• The three chips along the bottom are TriQuint Tritium PA-duplexers: TQM616035 TQM676031 TQM666032. Presumably each one works on a different frequency band: "Each highly-integrated module contains a Tx input filter, a linear Power Amplifier, Duplexer, and Coupler."

• This is a big win for TriQuint! Their stock has been doing a bit better since we discovered this.

Step 17

• The rear panel remains. Looks like that leaked shot was reasonably accurate.

• Unlike the metal rear panel on the original iPhone, the rear panel appears to be made from ABS plastic. The coat on the back feels nice and is very reflective, hopefully it's durable as well.

• There doesn't appear to be a serial number on the back panel of our phone. We don't know if that's unique to our phone, or true with all 3G iPhones.

Step 18

• The battery. Put your soldering irons away, they won't be needed! Apple part #616-0372.

• The recycle marker on the battery is blacked out with a sharpie. Suspicious...

• We were all expecting a bigger battery, and I can't verify this, but this page references the part number on the battery and lists a capacity of 1150 mAh, not the 1400 mAh in the original. Can anyone dig up more information?

Step 19

• From top left to bottom right: Display glass, LCD, Main board and EMI shield, Antenna and battery, Back panel.

• That's it! We'll keep updating the chips above, so keep checking back.

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