Inside the Samsung Galaxy Note 7
Fully torn down Samsung Galaxy Note 7
The folks at iFixit got their hands on a hot-off-the-production-line Samsung Galaxy Note 7, and they immediately set to work taking it apart. Here's what they found inside.
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Even getting into the device isn't easy, with the rear glass panel held in place by strong adhesive. So be warned if you are planning to venture into your Note 7 - and bear in mind that both the front and back and glass, so there's twice the chance of breaking something.
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Once inside, the team find a whole bunch of components, many being familiar from the Galaxy S7/S7 Edge teardown, including:
- Samsung K3RG2G20CMMGCJ 4 GB LPDDR4 SDRAM layered over a Qualcomm Snapdragon 820
- Samsung KLUCG4J1CB-B0B1 64 GB Universal Flash Storage 2.0
- Avago AFEM-9040 multiband multimode module
- NXP 67T05 NFC controller
- Qorvo QM78064 high band RF fusion module, TQF6260 front-end module andQM63001A diversity receive module
- Qualcomm WCD9335 audio codec
- Samsung 3420S7 G707A3 Wi-Fi module
- Wacom W9018 touch control IC
- ZF10 110630 0625
- Qualcomm PM8996 and PM8004 PMICs
- Qualcomm QFE3100 envelope tracker
- Qualcomm WTR4905 and WTR3925 RF transceivers
Given that the Note 7 is water- and dust-resistant to IP68 standards, there are a number of gaskets used to keep the elements out. Some buttons actually appear to be embedded in the gasket material, which makes replacement in the event of a failure complex.
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The iris scanner feature is actually in two parts - there's an IR emitter that shines an invisible light to innominate your eyes, which are then photographed by a separate front-facing camera.
The iFixit team gave the Note 7 below average repairability score of 4/10, pointing out that while many of the components are modular and can be replaced independently, Samsung's use of strong adhesive on the rear glass makes removal tricky. On top of that, iFixit claim that replacing the front glass without destroying the display is also probably impossible.
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