Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

How I Made My Own iPhone in China [video]

youtube.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

31–40 of 143 posts

Re: How I Made My Own iPhone in China [video]

#31

Post by bspn »

nsxwolf wrote: post #24

How many of these parts are genuine? Many of the parts are so specific to the iPhone they can't be generic off the shelf components. Some seem impossible to knock off like the SoC or the touch sensors. If you find a genuine part, that works, is it stolen? Some aesthetic problem? Some defect that doesn't quite render it unusable?

He seems to think a lot of the parts are refurbished from original iPhones, with a mix I imagine of pretty good copies. I've bought some non-OEM replacement parts for Android phones and the copies have been pretty phenomenal, so I'm not sure where the mix falls.

I had to laugh at the hand-drawn logos on the kiosk of the guys who owned the 'Remove Bubble Machine'.

Re: How I Made My Own iPhone in China [video]

#32

Post by mikestew »

aphextron wrote: post #25
nsxwolf wrote: post #17

I've tried to fix the screen on an iPad and an iPhone. In both cases, I destroyed a ribbon cable connector and rendered the devices useless. I tried to follow the instructions, I tried to use proper tools and go as slowly as possible, and in both cases, the delicate surface mount connectors just turned into powder and flaked right off the board.

You must be doing something wrong. I have had my original iPhone 5 since release in 2013. Ive replaced essentailly every part in the phone but the mainboard. I just bought a parts phone on ebay for $20 and completely replaced the digitizer. Battery replacements are $5 and take two minutes. Ive even replaced the entire lightning port assembly for 7$ in parts and an hour of time. Its the most modular easily repaired ph…

I've repaired iPhone 5's, no problem. I've repaired the screen on a 6 and swore I'd never attempt such a thing again. Too many fiddly, delicate parts and screen glass that's bonded to the LCD. If nothing else I'd buy the whole screen and not just the glass. But the fiddly rest of it still puts me off trying again.

Re: How I Made My Own iPhone in China [video]

#33

Post by bspn »

superplussed wrote: post #12
ben174 wrote: post #5

Great experiment, and it looks like a lot of fun. But to be practical, the amount of time + effort + risk required to pull this of would offset any amount of money saved.

The monetization made off of Youtube should offset all of that and then some.

Yeah, I can imagine him turning this into something similar to the "What's Inside" Family" where the goal isn't so much cost-saving vs exploring how things are made.

Re: How I Made My Own iPhone in China [video]

#34

Post by chipset »

nsxwolf wrote: post #24

How many of these parts are genuine? Many of the parts are so specific to the iPhone they can't be generic off the shelf components. Some seem impossible to knock off like the SoC or the touch sensors. If you find a genuine part, that works, is it stolen? Some aesthetic problem? Some defect that doesn't quite render it unusable?

He writes on he's blog that he thinks a lot of parts are recycled

You might wonder why I chose to make an iPhone 6s and not an iPhone 7. I had two reasons...

However, the other reason, which turned out to be far more important, is that iPhone 7 parts are pretty hard to come by in the markets. It’s not totally clear why this is, but I have some ideas. A lot of the parts come from recycled/broken phones, and so it would make sense that there just isn’t that much supply yet.

https://strangeparts.com/how-i-made-my-own-iphone-in-china/

Re: How I Made My Own iPhone in China [video]

#35

Post by justboxing »

chirau wrote: post #23

On top of that 300, add R&D costs, marketing, assembly and shipping and you could very well justify the hefty price we pay for the iPhone. I am actually surprised it cost this much to make custom.

Yep. In the video comments, he says he spent well over $1000. Justifies the $300 price tag by stating that he didn't need the $700+ worth of parts and tools he purchased.

> Strange Parts 4 hours ago

> Thanks for subscribing! I spent well over $1000, but a lot of that was parts and tools I didn't end up needing. I'd say it's probably around $300 worth of parts in the actual phone.

Source: Direct link to comment: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=leFuF-zoVzA&lc=z13bd1eposzxs...

Re: How I Made My Own iPhone in China [video]

#36

Post by esmi »

jjbiotech wrote: post #26
esmi wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Definitely. Apple should add many QA steps filtering out the vast majority of bad parts. First there would be incoming QA on any received shipments. And any well run assembly line contains many check steps to make sure the unit has good constituent parts. This way you don't burn good parts farther down the line on a unit that was never going to pass. Then there is out going inspection and burn in testing. All that te…

QA/QC isn't exclusive to large companies. DIY hobbyists can do the exact same thing.

In theory that's possible true but in practice on an iPhone I highly doubt a DIY can do "the exact same thing". For one there are important ports we can't access, like JTAG testing the SOC. And there is a whole other factory OS which we have no idea what it does and why.

Re: How I Made My Own iPhone in China [video]

#37

Post by [deleted] »

jjbiotech wrote: post #26
esmi wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Definitely. Apple should add many QA steps filtering out the vast majority of bad parts. First there would be incoming QA on any received shipments. And any well run assembly line contains many check steps to make sure the unit has good constituent parts. This way you don't burn good parts farther down the line on a unit that was never going to pass. Then there is out going inspection and burn in testing. All that te…

QA/QC isn't exclusive to large companies. DIY hobbyists can do the exact same thing.

[deleted]

Re: How I Made My Own iPhone in China [video]

#38

Post by oldgun »

Moral of the story is not how cheap YOU can build YOUR phone by $300, but how cheap Chinese electronic parts could mean to the competition and innovation in the whole electronic industry.

My personal opinion (not necessarily correct): it means that electronic industry could no longer only compete on low prices but newer designs and newer technologies, for better or worse, because Shenzhen, China can always catch up with your price fast with its astonishingly cheap parts.

Post reply on HN