If you know the Palm Pre already sold out in many loactions during its debut weekend. And Rapid Repair team disassembled the Palm Pre a few hours after going on sale. It estimates to coast $170.02 in components. Click 2 enlarge!
'It¡¯s a good design with components that, while not quite at the bleeding edge, are at the forefront of their competition,' says Aaron Vronko, CEO of Rapid Repair.
"Vronko(CEO of Rapid Repair) and his team¡¯s repair toolkit for the Pre included a small Philips screwdriver, a flat head screwdriver, a razor blade, pliers and a solder iron. Removing the back panel was easy since, unlike the iPhone, the battery on the Pre can be replaced.
¡°We found the overall construction of the Pre to be typical of slider phones,¡± says Vronko who rates the difficulty of taking the device apart a seven out of ten and comparable to the iPhone.
The Pre¡¯s system board has a Texas Instruments CPU (TWL5030B/ 94A20PW C), an Elpida memory chip and 8GB NAND memory chip from Samsung.
¡°The processor on the Pre is almost 50 percent faster than the iPhone,¡± says Vronko. ¡°One reason could be that Apple may have clocked down the speed on its iPhone processor to reduce power consumption and heat generation.¡±
The Pre stumbles when it comes to its touchscreen says Vronko. In the Pre, the LCD and capacitive touchscreen are permanently glued together. It¡¯s similar to how the first generation iPhone was built. But the subsequent iPhone 3G has the two screens as separate modules. The advantage for users is that in case of a problem with the screen it is easier to repair if they are different modules, says Vronko.
¡°If the screen is damaged, it¡¯s almost twice as expensive to repair and replace it if they are glued than if the two are discrete components,¡± he says.
Another likely trouble spot for the Pre is the slider mechanism that could wear out over time, warns Vronko. Still, he rates the Pre a ¡°solid build¡±. ¡°The phone is in pretty good shape,¡± he says. " |
