Since the day iPhone was released back in June of 2007, Verizon customers, and frustrated
AT&T customers all over the country have had the same question: when will Verizon get the
iPhone?
Well, after nearly 4 years of hot and heavy rumors, the day has finally come.
I'm mj with iFixit, and what I'm holding in my hand is the long awaited Verizon iPhone.
When quickly comparing the two iPhones, they look really really similar, but we know that
it’s what on the inside that counts, and our curiosity isn't satiated until we've totally
stripped a device and laid its unmentionables bare for the world to see.
So I'm delighted to give the Verizon iPhone iFixit's customary teardown treatment, and
in the end, answer the big-money question: just how reparable is it?
If you’re looking for information about the difference in capabilities between the
two devices, there’s already a lot of information out there, so I’m going to focus on the
differences in hardware.
Let’s get started by a quick comparison between the two phones.
Since Verizon doesn’t use SIM cards, the Verizon iPhone has no SIM tray
FCC logos are not on rear panel of Verizon (looks much better!)
And if you can read the tiny text, the model numbers are also different,
The AT&T is A1332 and the Verizon is A1349 There have been some changes made in the placement
of the antenna bridges on the Verizon iPhone.
But interestingly enough, the death grip spot remains in the same location.
So it will interesting to see if the Verizon iPhone suffers the same issue as the AT&T.
Not surprisingly the Verizon iPhone shipped with pentalobe screws.
Which we are well prepared for.
If you intend on removing the pentalobe screws, you will want to get either our, iPhone 4
liberation kit.
Or if you are looking for something more professional?
Our high quality pentalobe screwdriver from our tool store.
The tear down process for the verizon iPhone is almost identical to the process for the
AT&T iPhone.
So let us get this phone taken apart and take a look at what makes it different.
To get started, lets take out those pentalobe screws.
Okay!
So it is disassembled and I'm actually kind of surprised.
It is quite a bit different on the inside.
The first thing that i noticed was that the vibrator has been moved to a completely different
location.
It used to be in this corner up here and now its kinda down near the battery connector.
Probably the biggest difference.
Is that it is three or four times bigger than the previous vibrator.
In testing it, it actually felt a bit softer and it was quieter.
I don't really know that i would notice if it were going off in my pocket.
Another thing that i noticed that is that, the battery look almost identical but the
connector is different.
And the is unfortunate because that means right now the parts aren't interchangeable.
The same thing goes for the rear panel.
Although the rear panel looks almost exactly the same, if you compare the inside of this
rear panel to the AT&T rear panel?
They do not match up.
So until we let you know otherwise, so far.
The parts are not interchangeable.
The biggest difference is that the verizon iPhone runs on CDMA.
Where the AT&T iPhone runs on GSM.
Let us talk about what that means for a minute.
GSM is faster but CDMA is more reliable.
So what that might mean, is that you will notice fewer drop calls in the verizon iPhone
in comparison to the AT&T iPhone.
But I do not think that is going to surprise any of you.
Primarely the differences between GSM and CDMA technology, like i said CDMA is more
reliable.
Now, when we transition to 4G that is really not going to matter much because they are
all going to be the same.
But we do not anticipate apple moving in that direction for a couple of years.
But what makes CDMA in the iPhone possible, It is the new Qualcomm chip which is surprising
because it supports both GSM and CDMA.
If it sounds familiar because Motorola's droid pro shipped with the same chip back in October
of 2010.
They are calling it a world phone because it allows customers to have voice coverage
in almost every country in the world.
One phone to use all over the world sounds wonder, but this phone only supports CDMA.
Why is that?
Could it be that apple is thinking of using this chip in the iPad 2?
Or maybe when iPhone 5 is released there will be one phone for both verizon and AT&T?
That would be great!
We can't tell just yet but what we can tell, is while the chip supports both GSM and CDMA
there is no modding this phone to work on AT&T.
This isn't just a case where apple took a CDMA chip, and slapped it into the iPhone
and called it Verizon.
They actually redesigned the entire logic board, including the electro-magnetic shields.
Apples RF engineering team did a great job restructuring the antenna, so hopefully we
don't have the same death grip problem that saddles his AT&T brother.
So how repairable is the Verizon iPhone?
Im going to say it is just as repairable as the AT&T iPhone.
Almost all the part are replaceable, except they use those pesky pentalobe screws to keep
us out.
We have a lot more technical information and high resolution photos in the verizon iPhone
teardown on our site.
For all the latest tear downs and repair guides you can subscribe to our youtube channel at
youtube.com/ifixityourself and if you do the twitter thing, you can follow us on twitter
at twitter.com/ifixit.
Thanks for watching and happy repairing.