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

51–60 of 143 posts

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

#51

Post by iamacynic »

nsxwolf wrote: post #30
aphextron wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 just have very bad luck when things get small. I was so proud of myself when I got all that broken iPad glass off cleanly. Then that happened and it was a really dark moment for me. Currently I'm dealing with an out of warranty Apple Watch where the screen just went and fell right off, and apparently you cannot buy the glue strips for it unless you buy the whole screen. Apple figured out how to stop people from get…

they probably bought the company that produces the glue.

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

#52

Post by bjackman »

cr0sh wrote: post #44

I haven't watched the video - but I'm curious where and how he got a 4G LTE module cheaply. I've never found one via Ali Express or TaoBao, but maybe I didn't use the right keywords (or maybe they aren't available as modules?). The best I've been able to find are 3G modules; the 4G ones I have found (from one or two US suppliers) tended to be extremely expensive. EDIT: NVM all - downthread it was explained what this…

Aside from your edit: I have heard (but cannot back up) that there are sometimes things you can buy in person in Shenzhen but not on Taobao. It's hard to believe though.

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

#53

Post by Taniwha »

esMazer wrote: post #6

pretty cool!! more like buying and assembling an iphone from parts tough

He did attempt to build a logic board - there a short montage of his frustration trying to do so, and an interview with a guy who teaches the locals how to build them - I've got a lot of experience soldering at that level, I regularly work under a microscope, and I'd avoid trying to solder the really fine caps (more like dust) on those boards

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

#54

Post by scottyallen »

bspn wrote: post #31
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'.

Hi, Scotty here - the guy that made the video. bspn pretty much nails it. I don't really know for certain, but I think a lot of the parts are used/refurbished from original iPhones, with a couple parts that are really good copies mixed in. Everything is pretty top notch quality as far as I can tell though.

And the screen repair booth art is totally legit. As is their workbench organization scheme.

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

#55

Post by tag2 »

Really well edited video. Shenzen seems like a crazy awesome place. One thing I noticed was how he would never haggle on the price. He would always accept straight up say yep ok. Either the prices were really good...or being an American he's not so used to the idea of having to haggle the price (or maybe he felt order size was too small to warrant a haggle). However when in Asia always and negotiate, otherwise you're just increasing the prices for the rest of the expats :)

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

#58

Post by da02 »

tag2 wrote: post #55

Really well edited video. Shenzen seems like a crazy awesome place. One thing I noticed was how he would never haggle on the price. He would always accept straight up say yep ok. Either the prices were really good...or being an American he's not so used to the idea of having to haggle the price (or maybe he felt order size was too small to warrant a haggle). However when in Asia always and negotiate, otherwise you're…

Are there other consequences? For example: will people think you are gullible and ready to be taken advantaged if you don't haggle?

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

#59

Post by iiv »

tag2 wrote: post #55

Really well edited video. Shenzen seems like a crazy awesome place. One thing I noticed was how he would never haggle on the price. He would always accept straight up say yep ok. Either the prices were really good...or being an American he's not so used to the idea of having to haggle the price (or maybe he felt order size was too small to warrant a haggle). However when in Asia always and negotiate, otherwise you're…

When purchasing electronics haggling isn't really very common. The haggling comes when you buy in bulk. But you're right, if you buy things on a market in Asia; haggle!

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

#60

Post by johanj »

tag2 wrote: post #55

Really well edited video. Shenzen seems like a crazy awesome place. One thing I noticed was how he would never haggle on the price. He would always accept straight up say yep ok. Either the prices were really good...or being an American he's not so used to the idea of having to haggle the price (or maybe he felt order size was too small to warrant a haggle). However when in Asia always and negotiate, otherwise you're…

He has commented on that saying that it isn't very common in the electronics markets, particularly for one-offs or low volume. Apparently you can only really start haggling once you're buying 100+ of something.
Post reply on HN