phoneWreck

Amazon Kindle 2 – Global Wireless, Teardown/In Depth-Analysis

Dr. Wreck — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 04:57:11 +0000

I know what you’re thinking… “Dr.Wreck? Why take apart a Kindle? Your specialty is mobile phones!”

Virginia Woolf

The Kindle 2 with Global Wireless technology pretty much is a mobile phone. It’s just missing a few features and functions that smartphones have – such as the super high resolution LCD screen, phone capabilities, palm-sized form factor, calendar, push e-mail service and countless time-consuming “productivity” apps.

Ahem.

Well ugh, even if the device doesn’t function as a mobile phone, the important thing is that we had a feeling the hardware was similar – and well, we just wanted one to play with.

Without further ado, we bring you, the Kindle 2 – Global Wireless Teardown!

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The Kindle is a great device. Everyone has been raging about the E-ink display and with good reason – the display rocks. The images are sharp, high resolution and everyone of Dr.Wrecks 3 friends (including Ms.Wreck) exclaim with joy when they see it.

That said, the device does feel sluggish especially when you consider it’s pairing with some fairly powerful hardware… we’ll get to that later. Also, what’s with the lack of .pdf zoom? Have a big 100MB .pdf file you’d like to sideload onto this baby? Prepare to wait.

Those minor quips aside, the device is a great book replacement. It’s not much larger then your favorite hardcover and it can store roughly 1500 of them! Unfortunately, textbook publisher’s have been a little slow on the uptake, but when you find the right content, the Kindle delivers a very rewarding experience.

The Kindle is fairly easy to disassemble. It’s actually built much like a first generation iPhone, and requires you to use a spudger or similar tool to pop off the matte grey piece on the top of the backside of the device to reveal some screws.

We have to commend lab126 on their simple yet elegant hardware design. The screws are all hidden, it requires a little bit of ingenuity to figure out how its assembled. Once you remove the gray cap, things are easy. The aluminum cover is held in by two small Philips screws that drive parallel with the length of the device. Once these are removed apply a little bit of downward pressure to pop off the cover and reveal your Kindle’s guts.

With it’s rear-end revealed, there isn’t much to see until you remove the some odd 20 Philips screws holding in the plastic chassis. There is a big difference with this Kindle from the countless others we see on the net. This baby includes a SIM card, and can connect in over 100 countries over any GSM network (thanks to AT&T). Keep in mind, there are cost overages on international use. In Canada for example, Dr.Wreck is able to download books with an additional $1.99 fee. Moreover, sending data to the device (via the native xxxx@kindle.com e-mail address) costs $0.99 where in the US this service is free. Don’t worry though, Canadians can still use the “experimental” web browser for free.

In the above image, we can see the 1530mAh battery, SIM and “network card”. That card is actually the part that interests Dr.Wreck most. Underneath those oh-so-hard-to-remove ESD shields lie a hardware design not unlike modern mobile phones.

Here’s the device with the plastic cover removed. Here we can clearly see the SIM, and network card still connected to the main PCB. Unfortunately, all of the goodies are covered by ESD shields. No matter, Dr.Wreck is used to pulling, prying, cutting and melting.

As you can see, the hardware design of the Kindle 2 – Global Wireless edition is much like that of any modern cell-phone. There’s a fairly fast application core, coupled with a baseband to handle network communication. In this case, baseband is handled by the 12mm x12mm QSC6270 which handles WCDMA, HSDPA 3.6, GSM, GPRS and Edge networks. The QSC is located on the network card, which must be removed and de-shielded before you can find it. In fact, the K5E1257ACM DRAM + Flash chip can also be found on the network card along with all of the purple items (power amps) show above. For reference, a QSC device (QSC6085) was recently unearthed in the Motorola Droid Hardware Analysis.

You might be asking yourself, “Dr.Wreck? Why the heck would they put these circuits on a separate card when there is so much room on the PCB?” The answer as it seems is probably so that Amazon/LAB126 can swap out these network cards to work locally on CDMA networks, or for this global edition – GSM networks. It makes sense, previous teardowns of the non-global Kindle 2 revealed a missing SIM and different looking network card.

Top of "Network Card"

Another part worth mentioning here is the TQS 7M5012 Power Amp. We’ve seen this device before in a few of our teardowns (including the Sony Xperia X1). It’s apparent that TriQuint is branching out into other applications – not just focusing it’s products on the smartphone market. The bottom of the card features two more of the infamous Avago power amps.

Bottom of "Network Card"

So, the “network card” is a self contained unit that handles Amazon’s patented WhisperNet technology. It can be easily swapped in and out, depending on the market of sale.

The Main PCB houses the SIM card, USB PHY (SMSC USB3311), PMIC (FreeScale MC13783VK5) E-Ink Controller (Epson D135211B3), Samsung NAND (2GB) and 32 MB Samsung SDRAM.

The FreeScale MC13783VK5 is the same processor we saw on the original US Kindle 2. It features a 532MHz Arm11, processor core – packed into a 14mm x 14mm package. The associated FreeScale PMIC (MC13783VK5) contains both Audio Codec and USB Transceiver. The USB PHY is once again brought to you by SMSC with the USB3311.

E-Ink is making waves in the industry. We’re starting to see some solid Kindle competitors and even watches breach into various technology blogs. One thing for sure, this technology is perfect for the Kindle. Battery life is astounding and text/image clarity is phenomenal. Dr.Wreck is sure we’ll see a touch screen kindle in the near future – perhaps even colour E-Ink? What about a Kindle that plays movies? Haha.

That’s all for the Amazon Kindle 2 – Global Wireless Edition folks. Stay tuned for more wrecking action!

-Dr.Wreck

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Motorola Droid Teardown Analysis!

Dr. Wreck — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 00:31:39 +0000

Yesterday’s teardown received a lot of hype. We’re glad we could cater to what many of our readers obviously enjoy! We’ve been working hard with “our friends in high places” to really figure out what makes this thing chug.

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The device PCB is covered in what we call “cans” which provide ESD, heat and RF interrupt protection. In order to see what’s on the board, Dr.Wreck has to carefully remove each one by melting away the solder points. This is not an easy process as we try our best to keep the device in fully functional order.

On that note, many of you have actually challenged us to reverse yesterdays directions and put this thing back together! This is an entirely possible feat, had we not fully removed the shields. Even so, we’ll be putting this device back together (shields and all) in an attempt to prove that you can ENTIRELY disassemble a device to bare IC’s and logic board and still re-assemble for full functionality.

We also wanted to take a moment to talk about the progression of mobile devices (note that in this image the Droid’s PCB is fully naked!). On the right side of this photo we have an old “nameless” Nokia device. Back in the day, a devices size was limited by the PCB and the allocation of it’s parts. On the Droid, there is so much integrated functionality that the PCB is actually one of the smallest parts on the device. Of very interesting notice, the screen on the Nokia device is smaller than the PCB. The absolute OPPOSITE is true on the Droid.

Dr.Wreck has that wistful glean of the past in his eye…. sigh…

Here we have the functional Block Diagram put together by Dr.Wreck for the Motorola Droid.

This device isn’t that much unlike the Palm Pre. The OMAP 3430 is a very promising platform that features the same Imagination Technologies POWERVR SGX graphics core. However, when fully considered there really isn’t much that compares in terms of full scale integration.

Strangely enough, the device backed by one of Verizon’s largest ad-campaigns as the iPhone killer only has 256MB of RAM and 256MB of integrated NAND storage. How will the Android platform ever contend? Well, Dr.Wreck is currently working on his review… stay tuned for that insight. In the case of the Droid, both memories are provided by Japanese Toshiba. The RAM is stacked on top of the OMAP Applications Core.

Here we have the top of the logic board. Unfortunately, it is difficult to identify many of the larger IC’s on this side. Thankfully, Dr.Wreck has X-ray vision and the ability to feel an IC in order to determine it’s functionality.

We can see the TI TWL5030 PMIC which offers integrated USB, Audio Codec and control over that big 1420mAh BP6x battery. We also see the RF multiplexer’s – one from both AVAGO (FEM7758) and Triquint (TQM613029).

Unfortunately the WiFI/Bluetooth chips are unmarked. If any readers have industry knowledge or an opinion of what these chips might be, feel free to share – that’s what it’s all about!

The underside of the PCB reveals a fairly big surprise – the fairly rare QSC6085 BaseBand with integrated GPS and transceiver functionality. We also see the location of the OMAP processor, cleverly buried underneath the un-distinguishable Toshiba RAM. Not only did Motorola not want us to take this device apart, they didn’t want us to find out what makes it run!

Another really interesting tidbit that pops up on the underside of the board is the Toshiba memory with hand-written markings. More interesting is that these markings appear to say “s”, “2″ and “p”! Here at phonewreck, we’ve been contemplating this phenomena and have come to the conclusion that Sanjay (Co-CEO of Motorola) must have personally signed each chip that went into the Droid. More or less a mark of approval we suppose.

In all seriousness though, this is probably the marking of a sample part. Why in the world is Motorola releasing production devices with sample IC’s? This is only conjecture, but the Droid is supposed to do a multi-million unit run. Hopefully there aren’t quality issues relating to device longevity! Am I right?! Am I right?!

Droid antenna, PCB and Camera Module

This last image shows a close-up of the devices sliding mechanism.

And that’s it! Thanks to everyone who e-mailed in with their support from yesterday’s entry!

Be sure to check out Dr.Wreck’s Twitter and subscribe to the RSS in order to get the update on the newest entries!

Until Next time, KEEP WRECKING!

Motorola Droid Teardown Images!

Dr. Wreck — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 19:16:46 +0000

Ladies and Gentlemen, the moment you have all been waiting for has arrived. Dr.Wreck has fully dissasembled his Brand New Motorola Droid from Verizon.

Stay tuned to his Twitter, and RSS feed for all the details as they come out! We’re currently in the process of identifying all of the devices on the logic board. Keep it locked on www.phonewreck.com!

Process

Taking this device apart is NO EASY TASK! Motorola has worked wonders to make this thing as suprising and delicate as possible. Dr.Wreck loves challenges, thus he commends you oh, motorola engineers!

The first thing you’ll need to do is remove the back cover and battery. Grab your trusty T6 and remove both the silver and black screws from the rear of the chassis. The silver screw holds the PCB in place. The Black Screws hold the back plate on the screen portion of the device.

Finding the next set of screws was a challenge. Dr.Wreck noticed a small wedge under the plastic piece above the google label at the very back of the phone. Here you’ll need a pin or very small prying device to get underneath and lift it away.

It’s important to be careful with these steps as these plastic pieces tend to be slightly brittle. Once you pull this piece away you will reveal another two T6 screws. Remove them.

Now to find the other screws… Where could they be?!

Aha, there’s another one placed underneath the google label and camera lens cover! Very sneaky Motorola.. Very sneaky indeed…

Now comes the most frustrating part…

The final 3 screws are located underneath that faux gold grating that covers the bottom of the battery door. Use a pin, wedge or staple remover to pry this up. Remove the 3 final and amazingly disguised T6 screws to free the Droid’s PCB.

Now, use your wedge the pry out the clips on the back part of the frame.

Tada!!!

Unfortunately, we’re far from done. There is still one more silver T6 locking the logic board in place. Remove that.

Now we need to pop off those flex cables that connect the device to the screen.

You can now flip away the PCB. And remove the remaining flex cable.

Now that the PCB is free, all that’s really left to do is remove the screen and slider mechanism. This can be done by pulling at the black plastic frame that creates the upper border for the device.

And that’s it! Interestingly enough, the sliding mechanism is essentially just two rails that are imbedded within the screen portion of the device – this is the simplest sliding mechanism we’ve ever seen! Stay tuned for the review to see what Dr.Wreck and Dr.Phone actually think about it!

BlackBerry Tour 9630 Teardown and Analysis

Dr. Wreck — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 01:44:18 +0000

Ah yes the BlackBerry Tour 9630 – RIM’s answer via Sprint and Verizon to the very successful Bold (available on GSM networks).

Design wise, the Tour shares similarity with all 3 of the current and very successful BlackBerry devices available on the market. It’s got the shape of the storm, the screen of the 8900 and the keyboard of the Bold. In Dr.Wreck’s humble opinion, this device takes all of best physical design features from the current roster tosses them in a pot and mixes up a delicious cup of chowder. This device has good weight, good size and good functionality (screen, keyboard, software).

Alot of you have had difficulties with the trackball. Luckily RIM has disbanded this gosh-forsaken mechanically unstable and frequently unreliable piece of junk for the new optical trackpad we see on the Gemini and the newly announced 9700. Gone are the days of blowing on your trackball in hopes that a gust of bad breath can fix it!

Dr.Wreck has gone ahead and ripped this thing apart to perform a full teardown and analysis. Click through for all the juicy details!

The first step to taking your Tour apart is to remove the battery cover and battery. There you will see 4 hex bolts embedded in the plastic frame. Grab your T6 for the best fit. Remove all 4 screws but take note, the screw about midway up the right side of device has a white sticker covering it.

After you remove the screws, you are NOT ready to pull this cover off. Don’t pull, pry push or break.. There are six screws holding the device together – the top two are hidden and getting to these can be somewhat difficult.

To get to these well hidden monsters, you need to pry away the plastic piece with the BlackBerry logo and earpiece grating. Dr.Wreck uses a staple remover for all of his leveraging needs – he recommends you do the same.

This piece is adhered with double sided tape. Pry it away but be careful not to crack the plastic!

Voila! Now use your T6 to remove the screws you just found underneath – pull away the rear cover and reveal the PCB!

It’s important to keep in mind that your PCB won’t look like Dr.Wreck’s. In order to identify all of the integrated circuits we had to remove all of the “cans” (Metal shields) that provide heat and ESD shielding. Removing these shields is a bit of an art, we’ll keep that secret to Dr.Wreck’s dainty hands!

You can now pop off the flex cable tabs like Dr.Wreck is in the image above. These connectors are fairly robust however – delicacy should be practiced. You will also need to pop off the antenna which is located at the top right of the PCB.

You should now be able to flip the PCB vertically to reveal the underside (where the real brains are!). There are 3 flex cables attached to the PCB. These are used for The LCD, Trackball and keyboard. Pop them off to fully remove the PCB!

This is a good point to discuss the design of this device further. RIM has opted for a “floating” PCB design. This both saves money and makes these devices MUCH easier to take apart and service. The drawback is with the trackball (which we will see/discuss in a moment).

As soon as you pry away the chrome, face-plate and device border, the keyboard and track ball fall apart. This is where the design flaw lies that has created a massive warranty issue for the carriers. On the bold, the entire track-ball module clips into the PCB via a small malleable metal frame. This piece was totally discarded on the tour and consequently the ball more or less floats inside of the device.

If your trackball stops working, put a thumb on either side of the module and press firmly and evenly across the front of the device. This should reset everything and temporarily let you use the device again.

The Bringer of Pain

Now – for the reason you’ve all been reading – the Teardown Analysis. What devices make this puppy tick?! Check out the functional block diagram below.

At the core we once again have the Qualcomm MSM7600 which provides both the Baseband and Application management functionality. Not surprisingly, this is the very same core that resides in the current BlackBerry Storm. As a matter of fact, when we look further we see many other shared ICs from the same Qualcomm reference design. These include the Qualcomm PM6658 for Power Management, the RTR6500 Dual-Band Transceiver and RTR6285 RF Transmitter.

It looks as if RIM went away from CSR for bluetooth with it’s decision to use the Samsung BTTM53C2RA chipset. This ia not entirely the case. Delving into our resources reveal the same CSR core, disguised in a Wafer-Level-Chip Scale Package.

Looking even further we see the same USB Phy from SMSC coupled with the now BlackBerry standard MicroUSB port.

Unfortunately the 9630 falls a fair amount short of the mark in the memory category. Sporting the ever-common Samsung MCP K5W2G1, we note that it only has a 2Gb OneNAND coupled with the 1Gb SDRAM. This falls short of the Storm however the phone really does perform admirably well – under almost every benchmark test we could subject it to (with the exception of sideloading).

And that’s all she wrote! Any comments, or questions – feel free to pop them into the comment section below! Dr.Wreck is going to be spending some time with two new devices over the next few days. Stay tuned for lot’s of data!

-Dr. Wreck

BlackBerry Roundup: Bold vs. Storm vs. Tour vs. 8900

Dr. Wreck — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 00:05:38 +0000

Dr.Wreck loves his BlackBerry devices. So much so, he’s rounded up every one money can currently *legally* buy (and is worth actually buying).

Our BlackBerry Bold vs. BlackBerry storm review from last Fall was a smashing success. We figured we’d one up it and review the whole darn shootin’ match!

What we’ve got here is the current purchasable flagship BlackBerry devices:

BlackBerry 9000 Black (Bold)

BlackBerry 9530 (Storm)

BlackBerry 9630 (Tour)

BlackBerry 8900

In keeping with tradition, we’ll stick to the facts and start off with a pure technical comparison between all of the devices.

Technical Specifications

As we mentioned before, the lack of inclusion of WiFi within the storm and Tour are well documented as mandates from the carriers rather than the RIM itself. It’s easy to tell – I mean in this day and age, why would anyone hoping to launch a device with competitive technical specifications even hope to remain in the heat without wifi?

It’s simple really – WiFi on a BlackBerry is useless without a dataplan – most apps require a direct connection with RIM’s NOC (Network Operation Centre) to even consider allowing you to use it.

We’ve seen many devices before on Qualcomm’s MSM 7600 platform (Storm) using WiFi, there’s no excuse. Thanks to rave reviews from consumers though it looks as if WiFi will be present on the all new and much approved (Dr.Wreck got to play with one!) Storm 2.

Winner: Tour(ish)?

Browsers

BlackBerry devices to date have not been very well known for their browsers. I mean, the browsing experience is OK, but nothing to write home about and the one thing that ALL of your iPhone toting friends always BRAG about. We took the liberty of putting each BlackBerry through a tests with some of our favourite and most visited websites.

Bold – 4.6.x

Storm – 4.7.x

Tour – 4.7.x

8900 – 4.7.x

Web Browsing Benchmarks

The results are pretty bang on with what we expected. Unfortunately alot of the network speeds rely on the provider – we can’t really officially comment on what technology/provider we think is best but this chart makes a pretty solid point. It’s also hard to contend the 8900 as it really is only a 2.5G device. We’ve heard rumours and seen benchmarks that show the improved 8900 browser as being capable of near 3G BlackBerry speeds. Unfortunately, this table does alot to disprove those previous theories.

Note: Please keep in mind the disclaimer attached to this benchmark. These devices were all connected to active networks and the attempt was made to ensure all tests were in full-bar/full-coverage atmospheres.

Winner: Bold – 3G on AT&T

Camera

We know the Bold camera is a little bit sloppy. The storm is well known to produce decent pictures. At a glance:

Bold – 1600x 1200

Storm – 2048 x 1536

Tour – 2048 x 1536

8900 – 2048 x 1536

The details should be in these numbers. If you want high quality photos, stay away from the bold.

Loser: Bold

Sideloading

Dr.Wreck HATES waiting for his stuff to load. Let’s put his issue in perspective:

You use your device as an media player. That means, on the commute to work you listen to music/watch movies, at work you listen to music/watch movies (…), when you work-out you listen to music, and when you commute home you listen to music/watch movies. The device plays a massive part in your productivity and energy for the day. Now let’s say you just purchased/borrowed some new music/movies and your morning schedule is so efficient that you have only a few seconds to load up the new medias. It’s amazing how much speed difference there is between these devices. In fact, the sideloading speed of a device is the most MANDATORY decision making criteria for our beloved Doctor.

Let’s see how these thangs stacked up:

It’s no surprise the Bold performed well and the Storm – not so much. We weren’t expecting the Tour (our new device) to have Storm-esque performance as well. As we already new, the 8900 kicked butt.

Dr.Wreck is fairly puzzled by this phenomena. The GSM devices COOKED! What’s holding up the CDMA platforms?!

Winner: Bold & 8900 (Tie!)

Keyboard/Typing

Dr.Wreck has extensive experience with the Bold keyboard – it’s his weapon of choice. That said, before the Bold was the curve – so the keyboard on the 8900 feels great in his hand.

RIM makes a solid PHYSICAL keyboard. We’re not even going to talk about the storm here – we’ve tried it – it’s terrible, RIM has fixed it. End of story.

The Tour is something kinda new though. At first glance, it looks like a Bold keyboard, but when compared side to side it’s significantly smaller. Dr.Wreck’s massive thumbs quivered with anxiety when he first noticed this.

BALLER Keyboard

HOWEVER, the keys are actually separately lifted so it actually feels MORE natural than the Bold! Within 5 minutes of texting Dr.Wrecks massive quantity of 5 friends (Ms.Wreck, Momma Wreck and Poppa Wreck included) he was cooking that PCB with intense speed! IF you want a physical keyboard, nothing compares to the BlackBerry Tour.

Winner: Tour

Media Playback

It goes without saying, the Javelin and Tour share the same screen. They are bright vibrant and of the highest pixel density.

That said, no external speaker matches the Bold. Now with THAT said, most people using these phones for media playback or handsfree use them in conjunction with the BlackBerry headset that is shipped with the device. Dr.Wreck’s audiophile ears could hear little discernible difference from the audio codecs.

RIM has come a long way with it’s built in media player on the BlackBerry products.

Conclusion

BlackBerry currently has some great devices on the track with some even cooler ones in the stable (Bold 9700, Storm 2 included). Which one is best for you? The decision comes down to your usage habits. The overall size of these devices is similar but the compact and delicious design of the Tour (which will be discussed in our soon to launch Tour Teardown) make it the device for Dr.Wreck.

Look at those backsides!

That’s about it for this cat! Stay eloquent and until next time Keep on Wrecking!

-Dr.Wreck

T-Mobile (Sharp) Sidekick LX Teardown Analysis

Dr. Wreck — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 00:45:28 +0000

The phone itself (in it’s fully functional and intact form) got a mediocre review at best. We’re wondering if it was due to limitations in the OS/form factor or if it was a larger issue stemming from economy hardware.

Of course, we didn’t really wonder for very long – we ripped it apart!

As you can probably see from the above diagram – this is not a very complex phone. Sharp really made use of the features embedded within Qualcomm’s renowned 7201A core.

The 7201A is a 15×15mm CSP chip that performs as a Baseband and Applications core and supports WCDMA/HSUPA and EGPRS networks. The Apps side pushes 526MHz and the Baseband hits roughly 256MHz. This package covers alot of ground with it’s integrated A-GPS (gpsOne), Camera controller and Audio Codec. The entire design (PMIC and RF Transceiver) includes Bluetooth connectivity and a USB transceiver.

These all-in-one design solutions are great for ODM’s but often do not compete with the highest ranked IC’s in terms of end-user functionality. This is perhaps why I had so much difficulty loading up my classical.

PCB top

The PCB for this device seems to be structural and as such seems a little disorganized. This is only when compared to devices that have much smaller PCBs that pack way more functionality such as the Omnia we previously took apart. In this case, the power amp win goes to Skyworks with the SKY77336. The PMIC and Bluetooth IC both go to Qualcomm with the PM7540 (integrated USB transceiver) and BTS 4020 respectively. The main section of the PCB is show on the right. Here is an image of the other side where the Bluetooth chip is visible:

The bottom of the Sidekick LX's PCB

As can be seen above, the main memory win went to Samsung with the K5E2GIGACM which features 2Gb of Nand and 1Gb of DRAM. The USB PHY belongs to SMSC and what we believe to be the USB3326 part we’ve previously found in both the X1 and G1.

At the end of the day, the T-mobile Sidekick LX is an average device. It has some powerful hardware but doesn’t exactly innovate or open any new doors.

That said, the device is marketed to young folk who will eventually genetically evolve into beings with massive sidekick worthy texting thumbs. The skin customization tools on T-mobiles website are nothing short of impressive.

One discussion I feel worth having is about the long term evolution of device hardware. Are we slowly experiencing a convergence to integrated solutions or is mobile computation infinitely bound to discrete hardware (in the highest level of course). Are integrated solutions cutting costs at the expense of performance? Feel free to share you opinions in the comments below!

If you haven’t yet, make sure and check out the product review!

-Dr.Wreck

T-Mobile (Sharp) Sidekick LX 2009 Review

Dr. Wreck — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 23:12:38 +0000

T-Mobiles "17th" version of the sidekick.

Ah, the original sidekick – one of the most revolutionary devices of it’s time bringing a full-qwerty keyboard to the texting masses.

Currently there is the LX and the standard. In the past we’ve seen the Tony Hawk edition, the older LX, the colour, the II, the 3, the II juicy, the d-wade 3, the Diane von Furstenberg 3, the iD, the slide and the original.

That’s alot of sidekicks! The bloodlines of this device trace back to 2003 - before Dr.Wreck was barely a twinkle in Mister and Missus Wreck’s eye!

What we have here ladies and gentlemen is the Sidekick LX. A rehash of the original LX circa 2007. Over the years the T-Mobile Sidekick seems to have been a very successful handset for the carrier, appearing in the hands of many A-list celebrities. We’re hoping this teardown can get Dr.Wreck into some of those fantastic hollywood parties.

In popular media, the sidekick has more cameo’s then Will Farrell. Let’s see how it actually stacks up!

The Goods

Sharp has stuck with the classic design. The Sidekick was revolutionary in 2003, and many manufacturers have copied the form factor over the past 6 years.

This is a good thing – they haven’t revolutionized, more or less just modernized something tried and tested.

Moreover, the device isn’t overly heavy (we’ll get to the overall size later…) it feels solid and well built in our hands. Dr.Wreck has recently been taking measures to boost his testosterone levels – he didn’t manage to break this thing in half during a week of hard use. Consider that a good sign.

The mechanism that slides and rotates is pretty sweet too – once you figure out how to properly use it and not get your fingers in the way – unfortunately this takes awhile.

The screen is also mighty sharp at 854×480 and only 3.2”. That blows away what we’ve seen from the latest gen BlackBerry, and iPhone.

Kickbutt screen on the Sidekick

On T-mobiles 3G network it feels snappy – it’s just … what is there to do on this device?

The So-so

Dr.Wreck would call this a feature phone (not a smart phone) even though this baby retails for $449.99 without contract. This works out to $174.99 on a standard term. When compared to the 199.99 you’d shell out for the mytouch 3G this seems a tad much. Especially considering the non-contract hardware only retail cost of that device is $499.99

Don’t get us wrong, if you want a texting, “browsing”, media and gaming device that’s simple and doesn’t have a whole whack of flexibility – this device is for you. We’d put it a similar category with the Motorola Krave or Glyde. The difference of course is that these devices have touch-screens and cost the same or less…. bummer.

That's a massive keyboard!! Check out those toe thumbs!

The keyboard would have to fall under this category as well. Similar to the palm pre, the buttons are actually a sticker that goes over the pop keys. There is minimal feedback when they are pressed and the spacing is big… almost too big. Typing on this thing will really have you fingers stretching all over the place. Thankfully, Dr.Wreck has toe-thumbs and didn’t find it overly strenous to type.

Based on the size and UI/controls layout, this device has to making of creating a fabulous gaming experience. Let’s hope some devs take advantage of this a create something fun to keep us entertained.

The Ugly

This device is massive, easily dwarfing the recent BlackBerry Bold in comparison (the biggest device we have). Sure, it’s thin and light but this thing isn’t much smaller than a PSP for gosh sakes!

The Bold is a BIG device... doesn't say much for the LX

One really weak point on this device is the calling function. To make a call you have to flip open the screen to dial. Once the screen is open you punch the numbers in and then put it to your ear. Wait, the screen is in the way. Ok, let’s just close it then. Just as you’re about to close it, it snaps back open again – so you try again – and again – and…. oh wait almost got it… again. By this time the person you called is on the line listening to you struggle with your phone. They’ll probably hear a string of curses by the time you even say “Hello?”. Of course, things like this take practice – just like juggling 4 torches – blindfolded – in a strong wind.

Flip to Dial

The last thing Dr. Wreck wanted to test on this phone before giving it the teardown was it’s ability to transfer/play music. The media player is so-so, it works fine. The biggest qualm we ended up having was in the speed of file transfer. Dr.Wreck is a busy person and enjoys his classical like any other. At most, he received 2.9MB/s when transferring a bunch of .mp3’s. Compare that to the BlackBerry Bold at almost 15MB/s – good gravy!

That’s it for the review folks! The results are in, stay tuned for the teardown!

Final Score: 6.25 out of 10 chances you get the screen closed in time to pick up your phone calls.

If you haven’t had a chance yet, check out the teardown!

CNET Score: 3.5/5

FreakGrades – User score: 7.4

FreakGrades – Expert score: 7.5

Palm Pre Review Part 3: WebOS Benchmarking (Pre vs. Bold) and UI review!!!

Dr. Phone — Sat, 20 Jun 2009 22:51:05 +0000

So here it is, the much awaited Palm Pre. Dr. Phone and Dr. Wreck have been following the handset industry from the days of the so cool Zack Morris brick phone (which we were happy to see once again appear on a recent episode of Jimmy Fallon) to the astronomically popular Motorola Razr, all the way through the Apple iPhone. Its not even hyperbole to say that at no time ever has one single phone meant more to a company than the Pre does to Palm. With the Research In Motion branded Blackberry redefining the smart phone by its Pearl, Curve, Bold and Storm entries, and Apple setting the gold standard for all smart phones by its introduction into the market with the iPhone, the Sunnyvale, CA based Palm had become a distant afterthought. For years the company struggled along rumors of being bought out or broken apart culminating with the stock price reaching an all time low of $1.42 in December of 2008. But then, with the announcement and demo of the Pre at the January 2009 CES in Las Vegas, the company built back enough momentum to inject energy into the Palm brand. The phoneWreck team has been waiting anxiously to review the Pre and promises to break down every nook and cranny of this monumental phone. As always, we will call it like we see it, and promise to pull no punches so enough of this nostalgia already and in the words of the immortal Michael Buffer, “LETS GET READY TO RUMBBBBBLE!!” Ding. Ding.

Palm Pre Review

We pay homage to the great Clint Eastwood in this review by going through “Il buono, Il brutto, Il cattivo” for those of you who don’t parlarano italiano that means “The Good, The Bad and The Ugly”

This phone was filled with plenty of Goods but also some Bad’s and Ugly’s. At times while reviewing the phone it almost seemed like a phone that didn’t have too much middle ground.

The Goods

Oh where to start?

First lets start with the looks and form factor of the phone. Image is everything and this phone does not disappoint. The phone has very sleek curved lines and a glossy look to it. Mrs. Phone also pointed out that the backside when slid up has a nice little mirror for taking pictures, or doing your hair while talking on the speaker phone and driving!!! (and some of you wonder how we got the name phoneWreck, sigh). Dr. Phone always likes to judge how good a phone looks by how many double takes he gets when walking into a club while pretending to talk on his brand new phone, and of course Mrs. Phone isn’t around.

Double-Take Rating**: 8 Double Takes Out of 10!!*

* Note this number may vary based on alcohol consumption, lighting, and other factors.

**Scale – Dr. Phone normally gets 0 double takes from 10 women so this is purely the phone and only the phone

Mrs. Phone's favourite phone mirror!

Additionally, as stated in the hardware review, the phone fits into your hand nicely, both its weight and width make it easy to slide into your pocket.

So the thing that was most surprising to the team at phoneWreck was the Touch Screen.

Most other models we have reviewed or torn apart (Omnia, HTC Touch Pro, Krave) use “resistive touch” which means you physically have to press on the screen in order for it to recognize your finger. Other phones we reviewed like the Storm or iPhone use capacitive sensing algorithms which sense when your finger actually touches the screen and are much easier to use. Still, as we mentioned in the Storm review we found the touch to be slow, the touch sensitivity not accurate, and no capabilities to press on multiple points in the screen at the same time. The Palm AMAZED us with its accurate and easy to use multi-touch ability. Kudos to them for getting it right finally! We are not saying this is the holy grail of touch screens but is a 10x improvement over Storm/iPhone and 100x over Omnia and resistive touch.

Without showing a video of some of the very cool things you can do with the touch like expanding, condensing photos (or even maps on Google, or web pages) with two finger gesturing, you will not be able to fully grasp how cool this feature is! Below are charts from the instruction manual on the gesturing just so you have an idea:

Touch-Screen Rating: 9.5 out of 10

Screen Review:

This is a difficult one to review. The Bold, Storm, iPhone, Pre all have very comparable HVGA (320×480) HVGA 24-bit color screens. The Pre screen size is at a very decent 3.1 inches and is made by Sony. The screen looks amazing, and backlight is very bright so the image really shines off of the phone. Dr. Phone is not a videophile but likes this screen a lot.

Screen Rating: 9 out of 10

Other cool features:

The internal accelerometer senses when you flip the screen to panorama, and 180 degrees so it changes the images in photo, web browser, main screen, etc…. Seeing that the movie Bruno is coming out very soon starring Sacha Baron Cohen, we thought we’d do a little Borat and say VERY NICE!!!

The phone when connected through USB is recognized automatically by iTunes so if this is your method of choice to transfer music (its not ours) you can use this utility.

Cut and Paste!!! (Apple took almost 2 years to release this for iPhone).

3.5mm headphone jack, it sounds cheesy but some phones don’t even support a standard headphone jack but its good to see has one does without doing some proprietary headphone rip-off scheme.

Internet Browser:

The Blackberry browser has been much maligned in reviews, but we chose to use the Blackberry Bold browser since it was easy to configure in WiFi and Over the Air in both Java and non-Java modes. We hear that the Palm browser is based off Webkit which also powers the Safari browser on the iPhone and on PCs. Aesthetically speaking the Palm browser formatted images much better and pages looked far superior to that of the Bold. In addition the brilliant touch adds a lot of pros here by being able to scroll much easier and zoom in and out with ease. The quick refresh and back button are a nice feature and in order to enter in your next address you begin typing on the keyboard and that’s it. Unlike the iPhone, you get to see the entire screen while you are typing in the next webpage. Palm has really made a nice browser here.

Lets take a look at the speeds using three of the phoneWreck’s team favorite sites and each companies respective sites.

Browser Loading Benchmarking:

Bold Browser: 4.6.0.167

Pre Browser: 1.0.2

Using WiFi:

Clearly the WiFi browsing on the Palm Pre is not only better looking but faster as well. Java scripts are running much better on the Palm Pre.

Network Browsing:

Okay so this one we know that the browser on the Pre is faster but we wanted to see how the Sprint EV-DO Rev. A (DORA) network stacked up against the AT&T 3G WCDMA Network:

The above numbers tell an interesting story. It seems that the Sprint DORA network is slowing down the loading of pages on Pre, but by very little margin over the WiFi which means it is closely matching the internet speed at the phoneWreck lab. On the other hand the Bold WiFi numbers closely match the numbers of the AT&T 3G network which indicates the browser formatting is probably what is the bottleneck in loading pages, not data acquisition.

This round goes to the Pre without question!!! The inaugural phoneWreck Kelly Slater internet surfing trophy goes to the Palm Pre. Surfs up bro.

Internet Surfing Rating: 9.5 out of 10

Camera Review:

Its hard to really compare against some of the super high-end camera phones that are coming out with 8.1 MP cameras but it should be fair to compare against similar type phone like Bold/Storm/iPhone. The Pre (1520×2032) is capable of higher resolution pictures than the Bold (1200×1600) and is roughly similar to that of the Storm (1536×2048).

Below is a comparison of images between the Bold and Pre:

BlackBerry Bold

Palm Pre

BlackBerry Bold

PalmPre

The above pictures really show the Pre having a more colorful, vibrant and sharper image. The good thing about the Bold is the fact that it allows you to choose between resolutions, effects, and specific types of flash modes, where as the Pre only gives you control over the flash. The Pre however makes you feel like you can take pictures as fast as your finger presses the button, which is a great feature and a testament to how fast the image processing is working on the Pre..

Camera Rating: 8.5 out of 10

Operating System Review:

The much talked about webOS! This operating system is unique and yet probably the closest thing you will see to a PC’s operating system in the sense that it lets you keep as many applications open as the Operating System can handle and as many web browsers as you’d like. The people at Palm call an open application a “card” for the cool way that it appears on the main screen. We tried to push the Palm Pre to the limit to see how many cards (applications) we could have open at the same time without slowing down the OS. We got up 16 (1 YouTube,1 Google Maps, 2 Telephone Prompts, 3 Webpages, 1 video camera mode, 2 camera modes, 1 calculator, 1 notepad, 1 task taker, 1 world clock, 1 calendar, and 1 e-mail) before we quit because the OS still did not slow down. Very impressive! The ease of switching between the apps is the swipe of a finger left or right, and the ability to close an app is about as simple as swiping your finger up, to fling the app off the screen!! The webOS is perfect for multitasking is probably the single largest advancement over ANY phone in the market today. Superb job of really understanding how to make an OS easy to use, and to allow users to flip between their favorite applications rather than closing one down and having to open another. The OS from our time playing with it seemed to be very stable and bug free.

webOS Rating: 10 out of 10!!!!

The Bads

There are so many items on this phone that show that Palm really took their time, with prepared, well thought out features that it was surprising to see so many things that made the phoneWreck team scratch their head. This phone really appeals to the consumer market and we understand that, but Palm’s core audience has always been the business user as well, which we think they may have turned off with a couple of key features.

The slider button on the top of the phone for muting for instance, is something that is hard to slide especially in the middle of a conference call or in a split instance if you need to talk to someone else. Why not use a simple push button like the Blackberries.

The speaker, and speaker phone are sub-par. The Bold really became the phone to beat here, but the Pre doesn’t compete against a Curve, or even and iPhone with its speaker phone. Not to mention the speaker design on the back looks like its straight out of an 1980’s tape player.

We commend Palm for putting a keyboard on the Pre unlike the iPhone. The touch screen is so good you could easily get away with using a touch keyboard on the Pre, however it would take away from the ability of viewing the entire screen. Having said that, the keyboard is way below average comparing it to other keyboards on the market. Once again Blackberries set the bar high on keyboards, but Palm’s choice to keep their old Centro/Treo keyboard was not a wise move. The keys feel really slippery, don’t depress much and are very close together. A nightmare for Dr. Phone who suffers from FFS, and no that’s not a fatal disease, its Fat Finger Syndrome!

Its U.S Open time for Golf so we wanted to type the following sentence in both the Bold and Pre and compare time and errors:

“Unlike Thursday, Friday offered no rain. And by the time the first 78 players had finished the first round, the sun came out and offered up a nice day on a still-saturated course, Tiger Woods who played seven holes of the first round in Thursday’s rain and shot an opening-round 74, tried to downplay the effect of the tee times. But it was clear afterward that those in his predicament got the worst of the situation.”

The above was typed three times on each device and an average was calculated. The above contains multiple numbers, capitalizations and punctuations which also needed to be correct, as if I was a business user typing an important e-mail to a CEO.

In addition to making over two times the amount of errors Dr. Phone typed almost two times slower. The keyboard could certainly be easier to use.

Keyboard Rating: 6 out of 10 (we give credit for at least having one)

The Uglys

USB Sideloading

The phoneWreck readers are very intelligent, but we believe everything on the Pre phone should be consistent with its OS and Web Browsing and simple to use. That’s why we were surprised to plug in the phone to the USB port on our computer (note without iTunes) and see the below:

Luckily, because of Dr. Wreck’s teardown review we now realize the OMAP 3430 is handling the High-Speed USB (hardly fast as you will see). The average user might go cross-eyed seeing the above. We expected to plug in the phone and have it look like a thumb drive. The Bold phone does this and were surprised not to see this easy option on the Pre right away. Okay so we eventually figured out that we needed to download the “Palm Data Transfer Assistant” to move our music and movie files in “USB Drive” mode. We think this should have been plug n’ play but we can let that go aside. The next thing that took us by surprise is that you cannot use the phone while you transfer your movies and music files to the Pre!!!!! The phone turns off and shows that you are in USB mode. Neither the Bold, iPhone or Storm do this, why the Pre?! In addition, we decided to transfer one large 1.4 GB movie file to the Pre and found that it took nearly 12 minutes. So, before I travel I always transfer at least two movie files onto my Bold so I can play them on my plane ride. This would take nearly 25 minutes, and 25 minutes which I can’t talk or text to my friends. Dr. Phone’s 16 year old nephew is texting and talking constantly, he would go nuts if he couldn’t use his phone for 25 minutes, as I practically did.. Here is a side by side comparison of the Pre vs. Bold on Sideloading:

The Bold would take 3 minutes to transfer 2 movies versus 24 minutes for the Pre and You can talk on the phone and transfers files fast at the same time with the Bold, this is the way it supposed to be, a definite oversight on the Pre, especially as a multimedia smart phone!

USB Sideloading Rating: 3 out of 10 (At least it has HSUSB, that’s all we can say)

Mechanical Design

The slider mechanism is not very stable, and looks as if it could be very easily broken. When we were first trying to get our hands on the Pre we went by several Sprint stores who had to remove the Pre displays because people and we quote “Slid the phone too much and broke the slider.” This is a very expensive phone, it is almost inexcusable to not have a tight sliding mechanism like the T-Mobile G1, or the Sony Xperia. The USB mini A/B port cover also fell off Dr. Phone’s Pre after using it three times. Mechanical design must be more robust!!

Durability Rating (as mentioned in Review Part 2): 5 out of 10

Battery Charging

Battery charging from a dead battery situation is a nightmare. I pity anyone who is on an important call and their battery goes 100% dead because it took us almost 10-15 minutes to get this thing back from a dead battery using the wall charger. It charges relatively quickly when the battery is not dead, and standby battery life is not to shabby at all, but the dead battery situation is a catastrophe.

Battery Charger Rating: 4 out of 10

Summary:

The phoneWreck team prides themselves on testing every phone to their limits and not giving “soft reviews” We really took this thing to the limit and we believe it actually lives up to its hype which is a hard thing to do! This phone took several major steps forward both with the brilliant touch screen and the amazing webOS. There was some drawbacks that like we said made us scratch our head, like the keyboard, speaker phone, USB sideloading, and mechanical design. You’d think for a phone that holds the companies fate in their hands they would try their best to get everything perfect and not make simple correctable errors. They spent so much time on the OS, and other features why not go out of the way to build in a nice keyboard, better audio codecs, faster USB, robust mechnical design and battery charging. Some of these items could turn off one of Palm’s core demographics – business users. We absolutely don’t want to let these negatives get in the way of an absolutely revolutionary phone. Our numerous positives far outweigh the negatives. If you get the chance to get one on the Sprint Network please do it!! You won’t regret any dime you spent and you will love this phone. Great work Palm, and we think your company will be fine!

Thanks for reading the review, we appreciate your support everyone, please feel free to leave a comment.

Keep on Wrecking phone lovers!!!

Overall Rating: 9 “Pre cards” out of 10

Make sure to check out the other Palm Pre Reviews! Also, subscribe to our RSS and follow Dr.Wreck’s twitter!

iPhone 3Gs – Teardown and Analysis

Dr. Wreck — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 15:35:38 +0000

The unboxing - courtesy of ifixit

Apple “surprised” us early this month with the announcement of it iPhone 3G “s”. Whenever Apple releases a new device – everyone and their brother/sister has to get involved.

Dr. Wreck is no exception and has been working hard with the gentlemen/women over at ifixit to get the skinny on the new device. Without further ado, here we go!

Explosion - courtesy of ifixit

Those Apple Engineer’s really know how to pack a PCB. They’ve managed to fit almost everything onto the “top” of the main logic board. The 3Gs’ PCB makes the 3G’s PCB look sparse (the apostrophes were probably a little bit confusing there).

Let’s take a minute here to talk about the new Applications Processor Core. Apple has chosen to go from the ARM 11 Samsung S3C6400 to the ARM A8 Samsung S5PC100 with this device.

iPhone 3Gs Block Diagram - In Progress

This is the single largest difference between the 3G and the 3Gs. Firstly the manufacturing process has been chopped from 90nm to 65nm. Pipeline depth has been boosted to 13 – stage from 8. More importantly the clock speed of this newer processor rolls in at 600MHz – opposed to the 412MHz core of the old – obsolete 3G. Samsung has also doubled the quantity of L1 cache from 16 to 32KB.

None of this even takes the new PowerVR graphics core into consideration. Apple is clearly thinking along the lines of a gaming device for this puppy. The SGX is fully programmable – like the graphics card on your PC or mac. Expect some sweet gaming action in the near future.

@ 200MHz the SGX can pop 7M triangles/second and render 250M pixels/sec. That’s roughly 7 times the performance of the old, “obsolete” MBX.

It’s kind of like comparing your old 486 to a Pentium.

Moving around the rest of the PCB – it’s easy to notice the similarities with the previous 3G device. The Power Amp wins once again went to Triquint and Skyworks. We also see the NAND flash going to Toshiba – which as far as phoneWreck is concerned is fairly surprising. The battery has been bumped from the previous 1150mAH to 1219mAH – a much needed upgrade. Only time will tell if Apple’s claim of increased battery life will hold.

Once again the psuedo SRAM win goes to Numonyx. The BaseBand Processor appears to have similar markings to the previous 3G therefore we can assume it’s an Infineon. This has been paired with the Infineon PMIC. The Applications Processor mentioned Earlier (Samsung S5PC100) is paired with a PMIC courtesy of what appears to be NXP. It’s mounted with a DDR SDRAM coming in at 256MB.

True to form, Apple has re-branded some of the higher profile IC’s we’re very interested in. We’ll be performing some more thorough analysis further identify these. Make sure to follow Dr.Wreck’s twitter or subscribe to the RSS for updates!

Underneath the logic board we have a little surprise! A new combo chip from Broadcom (BCM4325) This puppy packs 802.11a/b/g and Bluetooth 2.1 (+EDR and FM). This is a fairly substantial change from the Marvel and CSR combo on the old – obsolete 3G.

We’ve received some rumours and speculation about the other devices we weren’t able to ID. There is a guess from a few readers that the GPS chip may be the same as on the previous 3G – the Infinieon Hammerhead II. This may be true but the new package is a different size – this means that it could incorporate the compass hardware as well.

That said, we’ve had some rumours that the compass chip is the Asahi Kasei – AK8973. We’ll still have to do some more digging!

We’re currently in the process of performing a much more thorough analysis. Keep checking back for more details as they come – we’ll most likely be putting this device through it’s paces to see how it stacks up with the Palm Pre and BlackBerry Bold & Storm.

Thanks again to the wonderful people at ifixit for gracing us with these great photos! If you want to see how it’s taken apart, make sure to check out their teardown.

Stay tuned and keep wrecking!

Dr.Wreck

Palm Pre – Part 2: Design Analysis (Software/UI Analysis coming soon!)

Dr. Wreck — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 21:16:32 +0000

As promised, we’re coming at you with the second part of our analysis of the Palm Pre from Sprint. This time, we’ll be talking about the specifics of the form-factor design. What we like, what we don’t like and what is merely – satisfactory.

This review will be a good compliment to what ifixit has already done. Also, make sure an checkout our hardware analysis and UI Review!

So without further ado, we present you the Palm Pre Design Analysis!

Overall

The Palm Pre feels good in your hand and is much smaller than the Doctor’s weapon of the choice – The BlackBerry Bold.

In the next review, we’ll see how it stacks up to this device in terms of performance.

The Pre definitely has a minimalist design. To us, it’s shape resembles the perfect skipping stone… an expensive skipping stone at that. One thing this device definitely has is curves. The screen isn’t made of glass which may have been a cost cutting decision. However from a design perspective, this allowed Palm to shape and flex the screen around the chassis of the device which creates a genuinely sexy look. Unfortunately, as with all plastic screen covers, we’re skeptical about how it will resist scratches.

Smudge Magnet

One thing we’re used to seeing as of late is the faux/real metal border surrounding the device. This is a ploy often used by ODM’s to make the device looks smaller in your hand. Fortunately for Palm, this device is already quite small – this might reduce the devices resistance to drops and scratches though.

Cosmetically speaking, the all black look is definitely attractive and leaves the door open to many future colour options which we’re sure we’ll soon see.

Moving around the edge of the device, things are once again kept very simple – there is only one flap, the one that exists for the microUSB port. It is flat and flush with the body – a very suprising and clever design move for Palm.

That door is flush.

Of course, there is no external (or internal) slot for removable storage. This thing comes packed with 8GB of internal memory – which as any iPhone user knows, isn’t a whole lot. At least we got a removable battery right? Dr.Wreck is calling future versions with 16-32GB of internal storage – mark his words.

Keyboard/Sliding Mechanism

The Palm keyboard we're so used to seeing

On the outward, this device doesnt feel like it has a keyboard – it’s so small and fits so nicely in our hands! In reality it probably feels like this as the keyboard is fairly small and shall we say… flimsy. The sliding mechanism feels solid although not as smooth as the Xperia’s which we previousely took apart.

The keyboard is the same as previous Palm devices – small and hard to press with anything but your nails. Dr.Wreck has some massive thumbs and as such found it difficult to hit the buttons. Moreover, the space between the top keys and the device is fairly small… stay tuned for some speed typing benchmarking.

Dr.Wreck has some massive thumbs

As we started taking it apart, we revealed the sliding mechanism. We also peeled the keyboard off (turns out the keys are just a sticker with gelled buttons).

The leaf spring

Looking closer at the sliding mechanism, we can see there are two tracks. The entire device has a slight curve which allows the keboard to slide out and toward the user – a very cool and useful feature. There is a small leaf spring which helps pop the keypad into place but is not too loose or too resistive. That said, Dr. Wreck is also abnormally strong… which is also probably why he didn’t experience any binding.

The two tracks (phone is in closed position)

Back Cover/Touchstone Charging Kit

The back cover is suprisingly easy to remove – although with no removable storage or SIM card, there is very little reason to remove it – unless of course you got yourself the Touchstone Charging Kit. If you purchased the kit, you need to put the new backcover on. At this point, Dr.Wreck wanted to give a science lesson on inductive coupling. We figured that might be a little bit boring and decided to forgo it. That said, it charges the same way as your electric toothbrush and isn’t really that ground-breaking – unless of course you consider this as the first time it’s been implemented on a mobile phone.

Touchstone Charger and Touchstone Cover

It’s worth mentioning that the touchstone cover has a matte finish while the original cover is glossy. The glossy cover looks nice but is slippery and susceptible to smudges and scratches. We prefer the matte touchstone cover.

Conclusion

In conclusion this phone is fairly well built and very well designed. If you’re a sprint customer looking for an upgrade, without a doubt this is the phone to choose. If your thinking of switching carriers to get this phone we suggest you try before you buy.

First Impressions: 9

Build Quality: 8

Estimate on Durability: 5

Keypad/Interface devices: 7

That’s it that’s all! In the meantime, subscribe to our RSS, watch Dr.Wreck’s Twitter and check out the Pre’s hardware review and UI Review!

Keep WRECKING!

Dr. Wreck