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iPhone X Teardown

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Re: iPhone X Teardown

#301

Post by manojlds »

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…

Wasn't it always like Apple was a hardware company doing software for its hardware, while Microsoft was the other way around?

Re: iPhone X Teardown

#302

Post by kogepathic »

BinaryIdiot wrote: post #51
pkulak wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Unfortunately, no.

Hmm, this is what I thought as well. Just like if I have a splitter plugged into the wall and two USB cables attached I can charge those two devices as fast as if there was one item plugged in. So why wouldn't this be faster?

> Just like if I have a splitter plugged into the wall and two USB cables attached I can charge those two devices as fast as if there was one item plugged in. So why wouldn't this be faster?

Because with your method you are doubling the power.

Imagine you have one charger with a fixed output of 10W (2A @ 5V). Now you have a USB splitter cable which allows you to plug two devices into the same charger.

What happens? Most likely both devices will charge at 1A (5W) instead of a single device charging at 2A (10W). The power output of the charger doesn't magically increase to 4A (20W) because you plugged in a USB splitter cable.

Increasing the number of battery cells is equivalent to adding more splitter cables to the charger. The input power doesn't change, but the power to each cell (device) is decreased proportionally to the number of cells (devices) drawing power.

Re: iPhone X Teardown

#303

Post by pyvpx »

kuschku wrote: post #227
j-walker wrote: post #208

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's a lot of openly available networking hardware on the Open Compute Project.

Sure, but that's not even close to the "every board and switch is custom designed" story.

there isn't as much exotic "stuff" as you might think. they have the same ODMs build switches and line cards to their specifications, with chips from the same vendors (Broadcom, Cavium, etc) only they can easily hire a team and sign the NDA and write/optimize/perfect the forwarding plane and control plane implementations.

hell, the IS-IS implementation in Quagga is usable because of Google :)

Re: iPhone X Teardown

#304

Post by igravious »

yodsanklai wrote: post #299
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'm just wondering, how does it compare to let say a samsung galaxy S8 in terms of engineering? on paper, they seem to be pretty similar devices but Samsung doesn't get nearly as much praise. Is Apple really ahead there?

https://www.ifixit.com/smartphone-repairability

Check out all their in-depth guides.

Props to the Fairphone 2 for receiving a 10/10 for repairability.

Re: iPhone X Teardown

#305

Post by cjsuk »

ianhowson wrote: post #297
cjsuk wrote: post #204

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No you are completely 100% wrong. This was one that came with a MacBook Pro from the Apple Store actually in the sealed box when I bought it. Don't assume I'm stupid. I'm actually a qualified electrical engineer and I know switching power supply topologies and design very well. Don't assume that because 90% of the charger is well designed, the rest of the 10% is. There is no or insufficient inrush protection in the c…

> There is no or insufficient inrush protection in the charger There's at least a PFC chopper and fuse. I'd be surprised if there were no series inductors, though I can't spot them on http://www.righto.com/2015/11/macbook-charger-teardown-surpr... It's a reasonably complex pre-rectification stage for a consumer device. It's certainly not AC->rectifier->DC cap. I can't explain the burn marks in the image -- stunning f…

PFC is required under EU law and is a good idea anyway from an efficiency and harmonic reduction POV. It doesn’t however establish or change startup currents.

There’s sparking when you plug it in and there’s this which is like a small explosion. Either way the sparking is entirely avoidable as well with a trivial. Little startup circuit or a couple of NTCs.

I’ve tried it on a sample of three chargers now (we have three MBPs in the house of differing ages and original chargers) and they all have it.

I’ve got a Lamba 12v 5A unit here as well which isn’t much bigger with a chopped off IEC lead on it. Nothing when you plug it in at all.

Re: iPhone X Teardown

#306

Post by cjsuk »

nixgeek wrote: post #263
cjsuk wrote: post #205

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No from the Apple store. See my other post. This is poor design, regardless of where it came from. There should be a hefty NTC or inrush current limiter in the charger.

Have you looked at an 87W USB-C charger to see if this was addressed with the latest generation of laptops?

Not yet. I’m not due for a hardware refresh for about a year yet. I’ll probably head in the direction of Lenovo then.

Re: iPhone X Teardown

#307

Post by legulere »

karpodiem wrote: post #197

I've owned various iPhones (starting with the 4 in 2010) and I'm going to take a serious look at the Pixel 3 in 2018. Performance is a feature, and I don't see a compelling reason why I should upgrade my 6S. I have a suspicion that Apple will keep the '6' chassis they've stuck with since the release of the 6 (6/6S/7/8) at 2GB of memory, and will continue to do so with the 9 next year. Pixel 2 performance with 4GB of…

If new devices don’t give you anything new you want, maybe you should just keep using your phone as long as it keeps working?

Re: iPhone X Teardown

#308

Post by andmarios »

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.

The LG V30 teardown is pretty impressive too. I watched it first, a couple weeks ago, so the iPhoneX teardown didn't do much for me. If I had watched them in a different order, maybe I'd find the iPhone one more impressive.

Though most impressive ever for me was a Panasonic cassette player (walkman style) in the 90's. The thing was barely larger than a cassette itself. My young mind was blown out.

Re: iPhone X Teardown

#309

Post by vanderZwan »

igravious wrote: post #304
yodsanklai wrote: post #299

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm just wondering, how does it compare to let say a samsung galaxy S8 in terms of engineering? on paper, they seem to be pretty similar devices but Samsung doesn't get nearly as much praise. Is Apple really ahead there?

https://www.ifixit.com/smartphone-repairability Check out all their in-depth guides. Props to the Fairphone 2 for receiving a 10/10 for repairability.

Typing this on a Fairphone 2 right now and I'm a pretty happy customer. It's like the phone equivalent to a thinkpad design where everyone else is using ultra books. It's interesting to see how these phones prioritise different things.

Their service is pretty good too by the way. I had a broken bottom module and when I contacted them was sent a new one the same day. Took a week to get here because international shipping but that's hardly their fault. Repairs really was just power down, open phone, unscrew component, put in new one, fasten screws, boot up phone. Took me fifteen minutes, which felt awesome.

I'm not going to deny that the newest iPhone is both more advanced technology wide and just gorgeously designed, but in all honesty, smartphones hit a level of "good enough" a few years ago and it will take quite a fundamental leap in features for me to really want and upgrade.

The only issue is that the camera in this thing is still frustratingly sluggish to the point where it feels like a downgrade compared to my iPhone 5s. Maybe the software is partially to blame, I've been looking on fdroid for replacement apps but none seem faster.

Re: iPhone X Teardown

#310

Post by lucaspiller »

acchow wrote: post #223
dzhiurgis wrote: post #122

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But how does it work while travelling? Yes you can buy roaming packs, but local SIM cards are as low as 5$ for unlimited LTE.

It would be great if you could attach service providers to your iPhone in iTunes or your Apple account page or something. You could set up service in another country before you even arrive and it will "just work" when you land.

Technically this is already supported via the GSM standard. For example here is a Lithuanian company that lets you roam while there on their network without changing your SIM or paying your providers roaming fees:

https://widerfi.com/

The issue is that getting phone providers to co-operate is basically impossible. Not just politics, but everyone has their own way of doing things, so you need a custom implementation for each provider.

(Source: I used to work at an company who ran an SMS gateway)

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