As always, HTC makes a solid phone. They’re easy to take apart and the PCB generally builds into the overall structural composition of the device. You’ll be able to see more of that later.
The first step to taking this device apart is to remove the back cover, battery, and SD card. Once done, you’ll see 4 T6 Hex screws just itching to be twisted. Note that one screw is under a “Warranty Void” sticker 
Fortunately, there are no secret screws here. What you see is what you get, the red plastic frame can now be carefully pried away from the screen assembly. You won’t need any special tools for this.
If you’re looking to investigate or replace a device on the PCB, the shields are easily pried away with a small knife, metal spudger, staple remover or Dr.Wreck’s teeth.
To remove the PCB altogether, you’ll need to remove both the flex clips and 2 Phillips head screws holding it in. The Phillips head screws are self-explanatory. For the clips, you’ll need to use your prying tool to pop up the black cable locks.
And that’s it – the PCB will fall into your lap. Now we get the chance to analyze what pumps blood/electricity through this device.
As mentioned previously, this is our first “Snapdragon” device. We can only assume we’re going to be seeing many more of these in the near future. The QSD8650 found in this device offers similar cores, but additional CDMA connectivity via the baseband platform.
For those not in the know, the applications core (named Scorpion) is behind the amazing GFX and computing capabilities of this device. At 1GHz (the magical power-platform number for both the A4 and Samsung Galaxy Processor) this device isn’t breaking any barriers. We don’t care about that though – it’s all about the application of the technology and how it works with apps and firmware. Fortunately, this IC kicks arse, and creates a wonderful experience on the Incredible. For those not in the know, the GPU core on this puppy is AMD designed under the moniker of Z430.
Across the rest of the device, there are a few surprises regarding memory wins. We don’t often see Hynix or SanDisk managed NAND wins. Here we have both the H8BE8UUU0MCR and iNAND D1N4C2-80 respectively.
On the connectivity front, QCOMM (surprise surprise!) managed a Transceiver win with the RTR6500 which handles Verizon’s bands quite nicely. PA’s are provided by both Avago and Triquint with the FEM-7738 and TQM613029 respectively. WiFi and Bluetooth are managed by the increasingly popular MCP provided by Broadcom – the BCM series 4329EKUBG specifically.
We like that this device has a 1750mAh battery – it’s also relatively small and designed by Seido (BASl17HHRV) this power-pack is assisted by Qualcomm’s wonderful PM7540 PMIC.
Touchscreen controlling is managed by Atmel with the MXT224.
All in all, this is a great device. The PCB is very open, and includes space for a SIM card. Potential rebrand? We’ve seen much tighter designs as of late, but this phone as a whole is fairly thin and light – the PCB provides structure, that isn’t a bad thing.
And there she is, a beautiful device indeed. But does it suffer from converged IC design? Does it do everything as well as it could? OS innovations sometimes mask apparent deficiencies. Are you putting up with slower, less efficient transactions for slick animated navigation? Have you been stranded because the battery on your phone died? Why are these devices aiming for one-day usage? Isn’t this all a step back from where we originated?
I’m sure you all know who is to blame. Food for thought…Howdy, today at Phonewreck we’re bringing you all the gory details regarding the Motorola Cliq XT. For those not in the know, this device is the evolution/alternative to OG Cliq. Differences lie in the lack of keyboard and OA thickness. The XT is just a little bit taller and wider than the original Cliq.
As you can see above, the PCB is INCREDIBLY small. In fact, for a “full” featured and relatively modern smartphone, it’s the smallest we’ve ever seen. More on that design later.
This reveals 6, T6 hex screws holding in the plastic chassis and antennae. Notice the sticker based antennae system at the bottom rear of the device. Remove these screws and take note of the locations of the silver and black-screws. The thread density is different on each, and they’ll need to go in the same place they came out.
Next step is to pry away the black plastic chassis piece which holds the power, volume and camera buttons. This can be done by carefully prying with a fingernail and then pulling away from the clips with minimal force. Don’t break the clips!
Fantastic – the PCB is right in front of you and only held in via a few flex clips. Pop these away with a fingernail/spudger/staple remover.
Now if you have some time, reflect on the size of the PCB. Compare it to your SD, SIM card, the iPhone 4 PCB, or the Galaxy S. Sure these devices are more feature packed but Motorola surely has made a statement about PCB design here.
Warning to the wise: ESD cans are soldered (not soldered AND epoxied thank-God) to the main logic board. They can be loosened/removed with a heat gun/iron. Be careful though… inexperience with these tools can write off the device.
And that’s it. From here you can remove the Antenna block and Screen module via simple pokes and prods. What we’re really interested in is what powers this device. How can the PCB be so small? What kind of integrated mastery is taking place here?
Ahah! It’s the MSM 7200A. Holy moley, we saw this device in the original Xperia! Talk about product line longevity! We assumed this puppy was EOL’d long ago.
That’s not to say it isn’t a solid device. It does a seemingly good job of powering the Cliq XT, a handset we’d consider in the “economy” category when it comes to smartphones.
The Qualcomm MSM7200A integrates GPS and Audio Codec into the Baseband and Applications core. This eliminates ~4 devices off of the main logic board. Is this a good design? Well, the sheer quantity of processing power takes a hit, but it’s a perfectly fine low-cost design decision for the cliq XT.
As we often see, PMIC and Transceiver pairing went to Qcomm with the popular PM7590 and RTR6285 reference design. Why mess with what works?
The memory win went to Toshiba with its footprint friendly TYBC0A111107LC MCP SDRAM + NAND package. this removes three additional IC’s from the board when compared to other, more expensive devices.
Wi-Fi/Bluetooth/FM is handled via Broadcomm with its every popular BCM integrated series, the BCM4325FKUBG on this device to be exact.
Looks like the USB PHY win goes to SMSC with the USB3326 and Motorola tops this device off with its BQ6X 3.7V 1420mAh battery.
That’s it, that’s all – an interesting device, definitely built with economy in mind.
Is reducing the size of a device the current trend? It’s hard to believe with devices like the EVO on market – touch screen interfaces really do work better with bigger screens. One thing for sure, we should see a cost/weight reduction in future smartphones…. well, probably not cost, but definitely in weight
Be sure to leave any questions or comments below!
Keep Wrecking!Believe it or not – one of the easiest Teardown’s we’ve performed to date! The device is built well, and easily disassembled – vast improvements over previous attempts (AHEM OMNIA).
We admit, it hurt a bit to take this thing apart – it’s such a nice device.
First step is to remove the back cover and Battery. This can be done by prying away the plastic at the base of the backside of the device.
Next, grab your trusty and super small Phillips head screwdriver. There are 6 screws to remove here:
That’s about it. Now it’s up to your spudger or staple remover to separate the black plastic casing from the chrome bevel.
Plastic clips keep this all in place. Be careful, if you break them the device will be flimsy and loose upon rebuild. You should now be able to separate the two halves and reveal the PCB!
There’s a variety of flex cables to pry away. These cables keep the PCB in place which we consider a clever design to eliminate the use of metal or plastic fasteners.
And thar she blows! The PCB assembly should drop into your hands.
This device was clearly built with space constraints and weight in mind. Instead of expanding the PCB into the battery section, a separate PCB that houses the SD and SIM card slot is mounted to the top of the ESD shields. These effectively smother the communication devices on the main logic board.
In true fashion, we had to keep digging. The ESD shields can be removed by prying back the small metal tabs shown here.
Once pulled away, the real meat is revealed…
Now, let’s identify what devices are on the board!
My my my, you may notice some significant similarities to the iPhone 4. At the centre of the diagram, the Samsung “Hummingbird” S5PC110A01 applications core reins supreme. There’s been plenty of debate that this is the die hiding underneath Apple’s A4 skin – it’s hard to say. One thing for certain, this device kicks arse. Capable of assembling ~90 million triangles/second, penetration of this processor will only make smartphone gaming a more immersive experience.
Similar to the iPhone, Samsung chose an Infineon baseband. The YYN1N7438A8 to be exact. The baseband wasn’t Infineon’s only win, coming in with the PMB 5703 SMARTi UE transceiver as well.
Not surprisingly, Samsung has kept things consistent with just about every other phone and provided itself with the memory wins. The K4X1G323B, KLM8G4DEDD and K4X2G323PB represent the 1Gb DDR SDRAM, 8Gb Managed NAND and 2Gb DDR SDRAM respectively.
Communications are literally monopolized by Triquint. We’ve got a duplexer (TQM6M26028L) a transmit module (TQM69014), and two power-amps TQM676021 and TQM666022.
Wi-Fi and Bluetooth communications are handled by the same MCP/combo device that we found on the iPhone 4, the Broadcomm BCM4329FKUBG. Broadcomm also has the GPS win with the BCM4751.
Audio Codec goes to Wolfson (WM8994E), Camera Controller to NEC (MC-10170), Touch Screen Controller to Atmel (MX1224) and PMIC to Maxim with the MAX8998.
And that’s all she wrote! If you have any questions, feel free to post them in the comments section! Until next time, happy wrecking!Testing is done, we’re ready to tear this puppy apart.
As with all of our teardowns, pictures are worth a thousand words – we definitely haven’t skimped here!
The device is cleverly built. Sliders are always a little bit trickier to take apart as manufacturers tend to get creative with the placement of their fasteners. The first step to tearing this baby down is to remove the variety of small Philips screws you see underneath the backcover. This will free the PCB from the main chassis.
Unfortunately, that’s not all you have to remove. We’ll admit, we were stumped. After several attempts to pry with our plastic spudger, we started peeling. Turns out, the remaining 4 (hex) screws holding the whole sandwich together are located underneath the keypad.
Once these are removed, you’ll have to do a little battle with the plastic clips securing the central housing. Once those are free, PCB come to me!
The rest is a cinch. The “keypad” is held into the LCD assembly via six philips screws.
On a side note, the antenna for this device is a sticker located on the bottom edge of the exposed back-side of the device. Notice how if you were using the phone under regular circumstances, you wouldn’t touch it? Interesting! Also, note the solid aluminum shields over all IC’s. Sure they’re clip-ons but it’s clear that Sony wasn’t taking any risks.
Now for the Juicy details.
The baseband/app-core win on this device went to Qualcomm with the MSM7227. The ARM 11 core clocks in at a maximum frequency of 600MHz. The device also includes a 400MHz modem, 320MHz DSP, integrated Bluetooth 2.1 +EDR, GPS and a fully stocked mini-fridge – all in a 12x12mm package.
This device is truly remarkable in terms of IC convergence – it’s an effective bare-bones reference design with the exception of a few outliers. Interestingly enough the QCOMM RTR6285 GSM Transceiver and PM7540 PMIC are the very same devices we saw on the BlackBerry 9650. Coincidence? Likely not – it even has the same GSM power Amp (SK77336) from Skyworks.
The memory win goes to Samsung with an undisclosed device – K524G2GACB. Surprisingly, this device only has 128MB of RAM. We didn’t know this until we took it apart – surprisingly enough, the limited memory had no impact during our review!
WiFi is tag-teamed by TriQuint and TI (TQM679002A and WL1271A respectively). The Cypress CY8CTMA 300E -36L wins the capacitive-sense controller.
Touch Screen Controller
That’s all she wrote! This teardown is right in-line with the trajectory we’ve set for mobile phones. The advent of integrated solutions has greatly simplified the design process and is allowed ODM’s to play a little bit more with form-factor design. We’re sure we’ll see more and more devices on these simple, powerful designs running Android in the near future.
Until next time, keep wrecking!
RIM makes a solid device. They come apart easy, everything is modular, held in with a minimal number of well placed and cleverly but not impossible to find screws (a la Motorola Droid). These devices can be fixed although with the new optical track-pad what would you need to fix?
This is a gorgeous device, enough said – it will probably look better disassembled.
Remove the battery and back-cover. There you will see 4 hex screws just waiting for your T6. Remove them.
Here comes the tricky and slightly clever part. You’ll probably notice that the device is still held in the upper (camera level) portion. There are two screws located underneath the ear speaker. This is the same construction as the original Tour, and should come as no suprise. Alas, removing this piece of plastic requires a plastic spudger, patience and a will of steel. You can actually break the plastic tabs holding this portion in – be careful.
Once this piece is removed, you’ll see the missing links. Remove these screws and that’s it – everything – PCB, Antennae, inner and outer shell were held in with these 6 – screws. Simple and extremely effective.
Now for the PCB. Dag-nabbit, RIM is still using solid ESD cans without clips. In the past, we’ve found we can remove the solder with a heat gun of powerful soldering iron. They took this a step further (a la Palm Pre) and tossed in some epoxy as well. Alas, after much deliberation, we settled with a dremel.
Argh!
As a small aside, you’ve probably all heard about the iPhone 4′s antenna issues. You also may have seen Jobs’ jab at RIM and attenuation loss on the hallowed 9700. This device is a perfect example of RIM’s mastery in wireless communication. This PCB, is more secure from ESD and heat then Alcatraz. It’s rare to see such solid shielding as it undoubtedly drives manufacturing costs up. Kudos to RIM on this one – it just makes our job harder!
Since the 9650 is a world-phone, the hardware allows access to the following GSM networks: GSM850, GSM900, GSM1800, GSM1900, UMTS2100. You’ll also get CDMA800 and CDMA1900 support. Hardware wise, there isn’t much difference from the OG Tour I mean Bold I mean, 9630 as you’ll see below:
The 528MHz ARM 11 MSM 7600 reined on the 9630 and we see it’s face again on the 9650 – there’s nothing wrong with the IC, but the 9650 competes with some pretty heavy 1GHz A4 and SnapDragon devices. That said, battery life on this device is fantastic and it seems to handle it’s built in functions well, with little processor lag. Apps? Not so much, it’s not really RIM’s current forte.
Interesting to note is the 256MB of RAM provided by Samsung on the KAT00M NAND + SDRAM MCP. Will this device have enough RAM to run BB OS 6.0? We guess not, seeing the advent and pending launch of the 9780. Worried about your device handling that OS upgrade? Maybe hold out for the 9780 or the other rumoured devices launching with OS 6.0
USB PHY win goes, once again to SMSC with the USB3326, PMIC and RF back to Qualcomm with the PM7540, RTR6500 and RTR6285 respectively. The PA array is courtesy of Skyworks (SK77336-13), Avago (FEM-7758) and TriQuint (TQM613031).
That’s and that’s all! Stay tuned, we’ve got a very interesting device in the queue – looking forward to tearing it apart!
The answer is not as simple as you might think. Different networks and broadcasted TV capabilities mean different IC’s. The phone definitely includes stuff we haven’t seen before – so what are the familiar devices?
SMSC’s PHY is a device we’ve seen before. USB is a standard in any multimedia enabled mobile phone – even the proprietary connectors on these Japanese phones require a USB transaction device.
This device has both an application core and a baseband – a common design decision employed in many American devices. The difference being that the Toshiba app-core in this device is more or less a fixed function “Multimedia Engine”. This engine handles broadcast TV, and various video codecs render natively on the device.
Taking apart the device wasn’t the most fun thing in the world. Sharp’s ODM used a 5 prong screw – we’ll call it a penta-screw. This is very unlike most phones we see, which have hex screws (6 prongs). Unfortunately, it’s hard to find these in North American, we had to order one from overseas.
The PCB had common, clip-in shields that can be easily pried off with a metal spudger or staple remover.
Once the shields were removed, all of the IC’s were covered with translucent shields, that needed to be pried/melted away. The residue left behind had to be cleaned before we could even ID the devices.
The Applications core we mentioned before is worth a quick discussion. This product is designed by Toshiba and is a device we have not seen in any North American market phones. The T5GE devices contain 3 hardware accelerators – a video codec, a 3D graphics accelerator and JPEG codec. These features are common, with the exception of the support for TV reception. The T5GE’s also incorporate an LCD controller that supports LCD display at resolutions up to FWVGA (864 x 480)
This Phone is also a Dual-band WCDMA ( FDD I / FDD XI ) & Tri-band GSM (GSM900 / DCS1800 / PCS1900 ) Dual mode Cellular Phone. These are bands we definitely do no regularly see in North American devices.
So what’s the skinny? We had a hard time ID’ing many of the chips on this phone. If anything jumps out at you, let us know!
Our conclusion is that some of these devices might be knock-off IC’s but it’s hard to say. The fundamental phone architecture remains the same.Our fantastic friends over at 
Apple really has built a fantastic device. From the super durable “strong as crystal” display, to the minimal construction tolerances to the amazing CNC’d Steel “cage” which acts as both core structure and antenna. Once again, they’ve set the standard every other design house and ODM will try to meet. Count our words, we’ll be seeing less fake “metal” surrounding the edges of our non-Apple devices in the near future.
Dr.Wreck really likes the fact that the so-called “bevel” on these things is made of steel. As you probably guessed, he’s hard on his phones. Drop your BlackBerry 8800 + once and you’re sure to see some battle scars.
Steel Bevels, Hard as crystal front and back? Oh man, this thing sounds scratch proof – I wonder how it will withstand drops?
For all your teardown needs, make sure to check out ifixit’s, step-by-step. They’ve snapped some beautiful shots of the process.
Once the EM/Heat shields are removed, We see the surprisingly compact PCB. Compare this thing to the first Gen iPhone and be amazed. Heck, compare it to a current Gen, HTC device – it’s unbelievable. IC integration/convergence has come such a long way.
Of course, the first thing we see is Samsung’s A4 processor. This is the same core we find in the iPad and boy does it hum. Fixed function, software/hardware ecosystems really do work well. Compare this with the 3Gs (S5PC100 ARM A8 CPU) We’ve got nearly double the processing capability. This thing will literally leave the 3G/3Gs iPhone’s in the dust. We’re on Jobs’ side, how can you support the original 2G with so much additional capability and power?
Technical Specifications at a glance:
WiFi, Bluetooth and GPS are all provided by Broadcomm, the BCM4329FKUBG does 802.11n and 2.1+EDR/FM, similar to the 3Gs with added “n” functionality. The separate BCM4750IUB8 does GPS.
Flipping this puppy over reveals the flash memory, looks like Apples big deal with Samsung has held out, this particular model grabs the K9PFG08, yet another proprietary piece. We can’t help but think this NAND has a built in controller.
Bumping along, we see the Cirrus Logic 338S0589 audio codec, the same device that powers iPad’s audio. Compass functionality is provided by AKM8975, Touch Screen Controller is by TI (343S0499) and looks like Infineon brings in the Baseband memory win with the 36MY1EE NOR/DDR.
And that’s it! Hang in there for our review coming in hot over the next few days. Thanks again to ifixit for providing such fantastic photos and working hard to get the device.In the interim of Product Teardowns, Dr.Wreck has decided to call on his vast experience with taking apart and creating consumer electronics. Today we’d like to briefly discuss Foxconn’s new platform featuring Tegra 2 and Android.
Nvidia has done fantastic things with its Tegra platform – recently 
Well for starters, the Tegra 2 is a 1GHz ARM Cortex 9 CPU which is capable of Symmetric Multi-Processing – kind of like your PC. Not only does this thing crunch math like nobody’s business, it includes a low power GPU (details are scarce) that we can only assume takes influence from the lightweight and popular ION/ION2 platform. What this means is that Tegra 2 is effectively an MCP capable of pantsing your netbook in fixed function applications. It’s capable of encoding and decoding 1080p h.264. It’s really hard to put this device in perspective – considering it combines the PC hardware of ~2006 into a single chip package smaller than an after-8 chocolate. Nvidia even claims it’s capable of 140 hours of audio and 16 hours of HD video playback! What size battery would that be?
If you ever find yourself at a trade show and see Nvidia’s booth, make sure and take Tegra 2 for a spin. Then ask yourself why this device isn’t integrated into every facet of your mobile computing life. Is it price? Is it IC politics? Probably a combination of the two – our guess is a similar situation as to why we don’t see ION in more netbooks – Intel supremacy.
One thing is for certain, Tegra 2 packs a lot of punch. Its combined architecture means your PCB requires less. Mobility enabling semiconductors are becoming heavily integrated platforms which can both reduce cost and design effort.
The future is exciting. We can’t wait to grab one of these devices!Here at phonewreck, we’ve found our audience is interested in both phones and other related consumer electronic devices. We’ve been humming and hawing about new devices that we’d really like to play with when the BlackBerry Presenter pretty much landed on our laps.
In the realm of Bluetooth accessories, this thing is by far one of the most complicated we’ve seen to date. With a ~$200 price-tag, we thought it would be nice to take it through its paces and rip it apart to see what makes it beat.
Review after the jump! Make sure to follow @DrWreck on twitter.
Our first impression of the BlackBerry presenter is: Glorious. VGA peripherals are often too light and the heavy gauge cable can make it difficult to place them on the desk (pico projectors etc.). RIM has done a wonderful job of co-designing a hefty device that won’t suffer from this plight. In true BlackBerry form, this device ships with a fantastic faux leather case – complete with magnetic flap. Pulling this baby out at a conference or small presentation is sure to raise some questions – it’s a fairly clever application.
Moving around the back of the device, we can see the VGA, S-video and microUSB ports as well as a NTSC/PAL switch.
Once again, things are solid, minimal and the spacing between ports won’t cause any issues.
The hardware is great – it looks sexy and makes sense. Now, how about its functionality!
Boom. Roasted.
This particular device barely worked. In fact, the team only saw it display a presentation once (in about 15 tries) and we were too disappointed in the quality to take photos. The highest native resolution is 1024×768 – missing out on wide-screen supported resolutions seems like an oversight. That said, most .ppt’s are developed in a 4:3 aspect ratio so it does make sense.
The process of getting this thing working should be simple: Plug it into a VGA or S-video display, plug it into the wall, download the BlackBerry app via some obscure URL you must manually input into your device, load said .ppt onto your BlackBerry, connect to the BlackBerry Presenter via Bluetooth (passkey is on the bottom of the device and displayed on-screen), launch BB app, select Presentation, click your ball/pad and select “present”, receive a connection Error, reconnect Via bluetooth, receive Error, unplug everything, receive Error, reinstall Everything, it works, yay!, receive Error, wonder why you didn’t buy a netbook to “display” your .ppt’s natively using PowerPoint.
Unfortunately, you can’t navigate the presentations without a BlackBerry. There are no nav buttons on the device itself. Can’t get your BB to connect? You’re out of luck.
Now, don’t get us wrong. We’ve seen this device work and we really do like the application. Our impression of the functionality is that the BlackBerry App converts the .ppt to a low quality jpeg, and sends it OTA via Bluetooth to the presenter which caches the content and then displays it. In a way, it seems like an unnecessary step – why can’t we just connect our BlackBerry straight to a presentation device (monitor or projector)? BlackBerry Devices are first and foremost professional grade smartphones designed for business-related applications. Forking out an additional ~$200 bucks for “video-out capabilities” seems overly redundant. Is there an IC that would allow this transaction? Let us know!
In summary, the device looks great but doesn’t work very well. Thankfully (as mentioned before) it’s hefty. It makes a really cool-looking and solid paperweight.
Dr.Wreck’s score: 3 perfectly sized skipping stones out of 10
Now to take it apart!
The underside of the device has a rubber pad. The 4, T7 hex screws holding it together can be found there. Peel it away.
Once these screws are out, the upper portion of the chassis will pull away from the base-plate and logic board.
Don’t pry on the PCB – it’s secured in place via the VGA port. Use pliers or a very small (5mm) wrench to loosen the “screws”.
That’s it! The PCB should fall into your lap! Let’s take a look at what’s on it.
Texas Instruments literally has a monopoly on this PCB. The Digital Media System on a Chip (DMSoC) is a derivative of the historical and popular TMS320 device (DSP). This particular device also known as the DaVinci Video Processor, has a single ARM9 core, 32KB of RAM a hardware accelerator and co-processor. We estimate it’s running at ~220MHz.
The external video ports runs through a TV Encoder manufactured by FOCUS enhancements. This particular device, part of the FS45x family takes digital video or computer graphics and converts to high quality analog video. These devices exist in products that deliver really high quality content – it makes us wonder what the problem was here with the BlackBerry Presenter. Our thoughts are that the images were scaled and compressed to make Bluetooth transmission faster and more seamless. Output resolutions of 480P to 1080i can be achieved with these devices.
The PMIC is also designed by Texas Instruments – the device is actually designed for Lithium Ion Powered Systems but RIM (or its 3rd party designer) found an application in this device.
The flash win went to STMicroelectronics and Numonyx/Micron with an MCP (Multi-Chip package) that includes both memory and RAM. By the looks of it, this is a 1GBit NAND with 512Mbit of DRAM – only 8MB of storage is made available to the user.
Lastly we move onto the most interesting part of the board, the Bluetooth IC. Look like a product from the well-known Bluetooth IC provider CSR. The BC6450A, a member of the BlueCore family has a -90dBm receiver sensitivity and comes in a very small 3.49×3.21 WLCSP (wafer level chip scale package).
That’s it, that’s all! If you have any questions, make sure to contact us!
Being Verizon’s latest touchscreen offering, we gave the Motorola Krave a spin and – of course – a good tearing down. With Motorola dying down so fast, it’s natural to want the now-underdog cellphone giant to succeed. In fact, with this phone, Motorola seems willing to give their Western cellphone lineup a change, incorporating some styling from its Asian counterpart (Motorola MING) and capacitive touchscreens for the touch-hungry Western market. Not only is there one main touchscreen, the cover also contains a capacitive circuit.
How does the Motorola Krave fair in our review and teardown? Find out after the break.
Using the Motorola Krave is akin to sitting in a comfortable canoe with a few holes. You can keep paddling, but eventually you have to either cover up the holes or scoop that water up. There are some greats and gripes, but in the end, the weighted averages sway more to the gripes.
The other really good thing about the phone is that it’s built like a tank. It’s rubbery sides give a really good, comfortable feel to the device, and there’s very little give to it. The cover hinge is solid and feels strong enough to tank anyones robust flips. The interesting thing to note is that the speaker actually hits the screen when its closed. Cheers to hoping it doesn’t actually scratch it.
Finally, sideloading music onto this phone is a breeze. Sure, Verizon’s got this MTP structure harped down people’s throats because it enables hot plug and play, but transferring your music is easy enough (and very quick!) through Windows Media Player’s sync option.
Greaipes
Sure we made up that word, but Motorola seems to embody this awkward word. Being a mix of greats and gripes, we were forced to implement this section. So here it is: the greaipe of the phone, is it’s capacitive touch screen. It generally responds well (as is generally the case with a capacitive screen), but it has its infuriating moments. Menus move along with with your finger, and haptic feedback lets you know your choices as you press them. They’re quick (most of the time) and it works very well with the browser. Dialing is also a breeze with quick thumb touches.
Unfortunately, it’s one of the most annoying things to use. Typing on its landscape keyboard is nigh impossible due to the cover’s awkward placement (seriously, how did they let this pass usability tests?). Also, there are moments when the phone lags like no tomorrow. This is possibly more of an OS and a processor issue than its touch capabilities, but it still harps down on the phone’s usability. Lastly, these guys need to put some coating on the screen. When you first get the phone, a gigantic sticker is put on the phone, which causes the screen to be sticky. Even after a lot of use, the screen never becomes slick like its other famous touch-rivals.
Gripes
Even though sideloading music is great to use, playing the music through its integrated media player isn’t the most pleasant implementation. The buttons are hard to press accurately and that’s a major pain to anyone looking for a pleasant music playing experience. Also, the interface, instituted by Verizon’s team, is truly disgusting. The red and orange colors are not in the least bit interesting, and it’s really a pain to use day after day.
The other major gripe is the phone’s performance. Phone browsing is relatively decent (compared to non-smartphones) on Verizon’s EV-DO network, but everything else is sluggish and annoying to use. Even the general menu screen lags once in a while.
Conclusion
In the end, the gripes and usability issues cause this phone to be a big frustration when used day-to-day by a heavy user. Its not a smartphone by any means, nor is it meant to be; but when the consumer-focused mindset of this device is coupled along with the device’s incapability of texting, limited browser, and limited media capabilities, it really shouldn’t be your first pick of a phone.
phoneWreck Score: 6/10
First thing to notice is the Qualcomm MSM6575 chip used. It’s got an integrated audio codec which feeds signals to the earpiece, dedicated speaker, and headset jack. Qualcomm also seems to have several design wins with this phone, since its entire RF and power management ICs are all Qualcomm marked. It’s got a separate receiver and transmitter (RFR6500 & RFT6150 respectively), which is a little bit odd considering the board space that two ICs use. The Krave’s power is managed through Qualcomm’s PM66508. It’s also got a MediaFLO receiver, Qualcomm MBP1610, for all that streaming video goodness.
The Krave uses a Cypress Semiconductor part for its West Bridge components, which explains the quick music sideloading noted earlier. A quick Google search on its part number: CYWB0124AB brought up interesting articles on how its West Bridge parts independently route data from the USB interface onto a MicroSD card.
Next thing to notice is the two capacitive sensor ICs, both from Quantum Research Group (QRG 6G4670 for the main screen & QRG BF7741-1 for the cover). As noted earlier, the nigh-invisible mesh on the cover senses the location of the touch. There is also one on top of the main LCD screen (Samsung).
