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iPhone X Teardown

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Re: iPhone X Teardown

#211

Post by psergeant »

JustSomeNobody wrote: post #44
mankash666 wrote: post #2

Truly impressive. Smaller, yet faster than the competition. Surprising how many of the chips are now internal Apple components: 1. CPU/GPU 2. Auxiliary Machine Learning/AI chip 3. NAND controller 4. IR Deapth sensor & signal processing chip 5. Power management IC (surprising that Apple is doing Analog IC design too!) Axiom in the tech world is that "Apple is a software company that builds hardware". Above is ample ev…

Who thinks Apple is a software company? Because they're wrong. Apple started off making hardware and they've always made hardware. They make software to compliment their hardware.

Kind of depends what you mean, doesn’t it?

I buy Apple products because they run Apple software. I like the Apple hardware I have, but if it ran easily and bug free on other hardware, I suspect I’d end up with cheaper knock offs for the hardware itself.

Re: iPhone X Teardown

#212

Post by threeseed »

vilmosi wrote: post #119
valuearb wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Samsung's screens are excellent, but their CPU/GPU performance is a generation (or more) behind Apple. Plus they are way behind in integrated functionality such as motion coprocessor, ai processing, and secure enclave. I don't know how true this is, but I've heard that the Samsung OLED screen on the iPhone X is significantly better than the ones Samsung puts on it's flagship phones, in color fidelity especially. Part…

>>> I don't know how true this is, but I've heard that the Samsung OLED screen on the iPhone X is significantly better than the ones Samsung puts on it's flagship phones I can't believe that. I just can't. All iPhone X reviews mention the screen tech difference, all of them say how they don't notice a difference.

I spent time with the iPhone X today so can comment on the screen first hand.

What makes the screen different is that the colours aren't oversaturated like Android phones. It was identical to the iPhone 8 screen (LED) only significantly brighter.

From what I've read what makes it better are things like the reduced blue-shift that occurs when moving the phone and the significant reduction in burn-in effect. But what most people will think is that it is the colours that make it better. Even though that could largely be software.

Re: iPhone X Teardown

#213

Post by threeseed »

vilmosi wrote: post #141
valuearb wrote: post #134

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most reviewers (and people) don't appreciate color fidelity. Jon Gruber was just talking about how Google spent the time/effort to make the colors of the Pixel display more accurate and natural, and then people complain they don't "pop" and look as good as the super-saturated colors on other android phones.

>>> Most reviewers (and people) don't appreciate color fidelity It's not about "appreciating". It's that it doesn't matter. Everyone talked about retina resolution, then about "true colors". Today we have Samsung making all the screens. The point is, nobody except professionals care.

I very much care.

The colour reproduction on Samsung phones is just awful after spending so much time on MacBooks and iPhones. Over saturated and as you increase brightness it washes everything out.

Re: iPhone X Teardown

#214

Post by agoodthrowaway »

nunez wrote: post #167
marcell wrote: post #160

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> A software company building hardware is Google, and it's Pixel phones show FWIW Google has put a lot of effort in the hardware of their datacenters, and in that sense they're a hardware giant as well. Compared to their datacenter projects, Pixel is a funny hobbby for Google.

Absolutely. The servers in their production racks are nearly 100% custom down to the silicon and involve serious amounts of engineering to make happen.

Sorry but I have to disagree. They are custom but that kind of customization is not all that difficult. Essentially it's using same HW as everyone else in a way that supports their scale better. That's it.

Re: iPhone X Teardown

#215

Post by ggg9990 »

damnyou wrote: post #172
valuearb wrote: post #126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yea, but that OS is everything. They barely make any software outside of it. And it's the best mobile OS by far.

iOS is a toy OS. The notifications alone make it useless for office productivity. The limitations on background processing break, say, Plex or Netflix sync. You can't watch a YouTube video while doing something else. Apps like FB Messenger can't display useful overlays on the screen. You can't even do basic things like set a system-wide default browser. Android O is light years ahead of iOS.

The limitations on background processing are exactly why I prefer iOS. When something is acting funny, the foreground app is always the culprit, and killing it fixes the problem. I don't want to do any more complicated debugging than that on a four inch touchscreen.

Re: iPhone X Teardown

#216

Post by earenndil »

gurkendoktor wrote: post #98
Illniyar wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Axiom in the tech world is that "Apple is a software company that builds hardware". " Is that really a common belief? I know many people who think the opposite - apple is a hardware company. In fact Tim Cook went out of his way several times to remind people that apple isn't a hardware company.

In terms of profits, yes. But many of us don't buy Apple for the hardware, but because we want to stay in their software ecosystem. I'd rather use a Nexus running iOS than an iPhone X running Android, and I'm even more invested in macOS. That Apple builds nice hardware is a bonus for me (but I'd honestly prefer better software right now). I mean, on paper Apple is making more money from hardware than from software, b…

> But many of us don't buy Apple for the hardware, but because we want to stay in their software ecosystem. I'd rather use a Nexus running iOS than an iPhone X running Android

Afraid I'm completely different. I have an iphone but my computer runs linux. The reason I have an iphone is because the hardware is top-notch, and the OS is rather constricting -- I would much rather have an iphone running android than one running ios.

Re: iPhone X Teardown

#217

Post by winslow »

aliasxneo wrote: post #164
marcell wrote: post #160

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> A software company building hardware is Google, and it's Pixel phones show FWIW Google has put a lot of effort in the hardware of their datacenters, and in that sense they're a hardware giant as well. Compared to their datacenter projects, Pixel is a funny hobbby for Google.

As a datacenter technician for Google, this makes me happy to see other people recognize this.

Could you shed some light on why google moved away from their shipping container design to a more traditional yet still custom data center approach?

Thanks!

Re: iPhone X Teardown

#218

Post by incompatible »

Illniyar wrote: post #72
mankash666 wrote: post #2

Truly impressive. Smaller, yet faster than the competition. Surprising how many of the chips are now internal Apple components: 1. CPU/GPU 2. Auxiliary Machine Learning/AI chip 3. NAND controller 4. IR Deapth sensor & signal processing chip 5. Power management IC (surprising that Apple is doing Analog IC design too!) Axiom in the tech world is that "Apple is a software company that builds hardware". Above is ample ev…

"Axiom in the tech world is that "Apple is a software company that builds hardware". " Is that really a common belief? I know many people who think the opposite - apple is a hardware company. In fact Tim Cook went out of his way several times to remind people that apple isn't a hardware company.

Does Apple actually manufacture anything itself? I thought it was all outsourced. That would make them a software and hardware-design company, but not really a manufacturer.

Re: iPhone X Teardown

#219

Post by jchw »

agoodthrowaway wrote: post #214
nunez wrote: post #167

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Absolutely. The servers in their production racks are nearly 100% custom down to the silicon and involve serious amounts of engineering to make happen.

Sorry but I have to disagree. They are custom but that kind of customization is not all that difficult. Essentially it's using same HW as everyone else in a way that supports their scale better. That's it.

Now I really don't know anything about this, but I remember quite a while ago when configuring a Linux kernel build that there was an entire section dedicated to Google's server hardware. If it's really all that normal, why would it be Google-specific/why wouldn't there be other large vendors present as well? Talking about the GOOGLE_FIRMWARE menu.

Re: iPhone X Teardown

#220

Post by solidr53 »

QAPereo wrote: post #207
asteli wrote: post #46

This is an engineering masterpiece. The electrical engineer in me is mind-blown. I love the inter-PCB BGA-style interface. Standoff, connector and shield all in one component. And the component density is stunning. Clean internal layout, relatively serviceable, structured light 3D scanning built in. You can debate whether or not Apple have made good UI decisions, but the hardware design execution here is superb.

I've never seen anything remotely like it... is there anything else like it on the mass market?

they probably got the idea from halt and catch fire :)
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