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I've had my fingers in the cookie jar now enough to pretty much do it blindfolded. I've written a few DIY's for you guys and now I have an overall review of the two phones from a hardware stand point.
The 2g phone has a 2 piece motherboard. One is the CPU side, one is the COMM board side. If the COMM board goes out, you can replace it without replacing the entire motherboard. COMM boards can go as cheap as $30-$40 on ebay. On the same note, if the CPU side of the 2g dies, you do not have to replace the entire motherboard. The 2g phone uses a metal frame construction that is very rigid and solid. Minimal motherboard flexing and high strength protection to the guts. The 2g's connections are all soldered into place and are solid connections. This is an important point as we move along.........
The 3g uses a 1 piece motherboard with every component mounted onto it. If any portion of the 3g fails, the entire motherboard must be replaced. Cheapest one on ebay is $300. (compare to a $40 repair of the 2g) The 3g has an achilles heel to the motherboard, which is not good news when you are talking about a $300 part. This heel is dead center in the motherboard. A small silver box with a mirror on bottom and a magnet on top in it's own little spot in the metal framework. It is sandwiched to itself top over bottom using 4 very tiny carbon mounts that are extremely fragile to vibration as the material is very brittle. I've seen over ten phones with a "needs repair" screen from dropping the phone, which causes this part to break. IMO Apple should be contacted with class action over this phone as it has so many design flaws it should be a crime. Moving on.... the battery, home button, flex cable, side buttons, power buttons, and several other critical components rely on pressure fitting to make contact with the motherboard. Whereas on the 2g they are connected through direct ribbon cable connection with micro connectors, on the 3g they must lay against the motherboard with a metal tab that is bent to apply pressure to fit against the motherboard. THIS IS A HUGE design issue.
#1 - These types of connections are susceptible to corrosion and degradation without any moisture involved as they are open air connections that the copper tarnishes on over time.
#2- These connections have to remain perfectly aligned at all times to make connection. This is an issue with a plastic frame as it warps, cracks, and twists through natural process as the plastic ages. The iPhone plastic is very flexible and this causes several problems with the alignment of the tabs. This causes critical connections to simply lose connection for what will seem like no reason to the end user.
#3- Design flaw number 456789877680 on this phone is the fact that the home button relies on yet another pressure fitting where the LCD glass lays against the plastic frame. if you lift the glass up, you see two small metal tabs that come down and simply lay against the frame where there are two more metal tabs. No connectors, no pins, nothing. Your critical home button relies on the screen to always lay against the frame in just the right spot to make connection, as does every other critical connection on the 3g phone. They are all pressure fitted open tabs that simply lay against the motherboard. This is a problem on a plastic phone that has a lot of flexing to it. When you have to start pushing the home button harder and harder to make it work, you know your phones plastic frame is starting to warp and you are losing connection.
#4- This goes in with #3 in the fact that the rear case IS the frame of the iphone 3G. If yours is scratched up or you are having connection issues, and we know that soft plastic is experiencing both....., it will cost you over $100 for the part alone to replace it and you have to disassemble the entire phone to swap it out along with every component in the phone.
The truth is that I could go on all night about the 3g's flaws.
Conclusion: The 2g Phone is built on a solid metal frame with metal body. It has real connectors that self seal from the elements and lock into place when they are connected. The motherboard is two piece and cheap to replace each item individually. The back can be replaced if it gets scratched for under $30. It does not flex and therefore does not have critical design flaws for connections as it is built like a tank and is very heavy duty. Workmanship inside the 2g is military precise and the phone is a solid investment.
The 3g has so many issues with it's design it's amazing that the phone functions for longer than 3 months. The cheap plastic backing (which doubles as the frame) scratches easily and flexes wildly causing connection issues. The pressure fitted connections are simply a piece of metal bent over to contact the motherboard, there are only a few REAL connectors in the entire phone. The motherboard is a one piece design so if one simple component fails you must replace the entire motherboard. The motherboard itself has a critically fragile component that is prone to break if the phone is dropped. Apple will not replace the phone if this breaks. The open connections on the phone not only allow for issues with physical mating of the surfaces, they are prone to tarnish over a short period of time and corrode due to voltage going through them causing electrons to collect corrosion on the surface of the copper. Much like the motherboard, simply trying to replace the back of the phone due to scratches requires you to dig deep into the wallet as well as the phone as you must disassemble the entire unit down to the last screw to transfer over every component to the new phone cover.
If you want a solid phone that is cheap to work on with military construction standards the 2G phone is as good as it gets anywhere. While the 3g is a bit more flashy, the price to pay is far too great for the lack of quality does not justify the price.
As an engineer, the 2g still amazes me, and the 3g down right scares me.
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10-31-2008, 06:58 AM
Linear Mode
