iFixit Reveals the iPhone 4S's Internal Organs

**Anthony Bouchard** · 10-13-2011, 11:58 AM

The iPhone 4S uses pentalobe screws.

iFixit managed to get their hands on an iPhone 4S so that they could do a complete teardown. The exploration reveals a couple of interesting finds. One of which is that the iPhone 4S definitely comes with 512MB of RAM. This is the same amount of RAM that comes loaded in the iPhone 4. This amount of RAM seems so do more than a fair share of good for the phone as is. It's not surprising that they would opt to stay with 512MB. You can multitask and play demanding games with ease.

Of course, the A5 processor is a huge part of the teardown. What would a teardown be without the most important part of the iPhone? The iPhone 4S's A5 chip is an underclocked dual core 1Ghz processor, throttled down to 800Mhz. The chip offers 2x faster speeds of the iPhone 4's 800Mhz single core A4 chip, and 7-8x faster graphics rendering. Game developers like Chair, author of Infinity Blade, are taking advantage of these awesome increases.

The logic board also holds another surprise. It comes with a Qualcomm RTR8605 Multi-band/mode RF Transceiver. The Qualcomm chip has been upgraded from MDM6600 to MDM6010. The logic board seems to look very similar to the CDMA iPhone 4's logic board.

The vibrator in the iPhone 4S is the same vibrator that we find in the Verizon iPhone 4. It's a linear osculating vibrator instead of the rotational electric motor with the counterweight found in the AT&T iPhone 4. According to iFixit, the linear osculating vibrator is quieter and less annoying. But personally I feel the counter-weighted one is easier to feel when you get a text message in your pocket.

The 8 Megapixel camera is of course there and a complete upgrade from the iPhone 4's. Although, the front facing camera is the same VGA-quality FaceTime camera found in the iPhone 4.

The battery in the iPhone 4S is also a bit better than the iPhone 4's. It has another .05 W/hrs than the iPhone 4's battery which allows you get 8 hours of 3G talk time instead of the iPhone 4's 7 hours of 3G talk time.

Sources: iFixit

**aonavy** · 10-13-2011, 12:09 PM

512 Ram is just fine. Im not complaining

**daytonaviolet** · 10-13-2011, 12:23 PM

so the linear osculating vibrator vs rotational electric motor is harder to feel in your pocket? i think the ip4 with the rotational electric motor is already hard to feel while in my pocket..but now its worse with the osculating vibrator?

**PatrickGSR94** · 10-13-2011, 12:42 PM

crap I was hoping for more than 512 MB RAM. Oh well I guess anything is better than my crash-happy 3GS with 256 MB.

**Poseidon79** · 10-13-2011, 12:46 PM

Originally Posted by PatrickGSR94

crap I was hoping for more than 512 MB RAM. Oh well I guess anything is better than my crash-happy 3GS with 256 MB.

What were you hoping the extra 512MB of ram would accomplish? The existing RAM runs even the most complex games without an issue. The OS already auto closes apps held in RAM when it needs to free some up.

Android phones NEED 1GB just to function properly with the resource hog OS and bloated UI skins the manufacturers load on.

**Hillefied** · 10-13-2011, 12:50 PM

Originally Posted by PatrickGSR94

crap I was hoping for more than 512 MB RAM. Oh well I guess anything is better than my crash-happy 3GS with 256 MB.

Agreed. Even more so for the 5% of folks still using iP3G at 128MB. I'll take it.

**SharpieBandit** · 10-13-2011, 12:50 PM

I don't mind 512mb. I have ~200 or more free at any given time. I disabled native backgrounding and pick and choose apps I want backgrounded with backgrounder.

**charliebee** · 10-13-2011, 12:52 PM

No word as to the potential presence of a Sirii dedicated chip? I think it would be surprising but I guess it's still possible. If it's not the case, I sure hope the great brains in our community will be able to bring it to at least the iPhone 4

Originally Posted by Poseidon79

What were you hoping the extra 512MB of ram would accomplish? The existing RAM runs even the most complex games without an issue. The OS already auto closes apps held in RAM when it needs to free some up.

Android phones NEED 1GB just to function properly with the resource hog OS and bloated UI skins the manufacturers load on.

Maybe it's hard coded in and it wouldn't change anything but one thing I'd (potentially) love about having more memory is not having my Safari pages being discarded from RAM when left for too long. I often have "submission generated" pages reloaded and therefore lose whatever I had submitted. Quite annoying...

**iPhonePutz** · 10-13-2011, 01:02 PM

Originally Posted by Poseidon79

What were you hoping the extra 512MB of ram would accomplish? The existing RAM runs even the most complex games without an issue. The OS already auto closes apps held in RAM when it needs to free some up.

Android phones NEED 1GB just to function properly with the resource hog OS and bloated UI skins the manufacturers load on.

Well stated. My first computer was a Franklin Ace 1000 that had a whopping 64K of RAM. The thought of 1MB seemed ridiculous. Back then programs had to be efficient. These days, the "low" cost memory lets programmers get away with being sloppy, but where does it end? It's amazing what is possible with clean code. As a point of reference on efficient programming, one of the satellite systems I used to work on managed to pack their attitude control software into ~28K of RAM.

Putz

**Italia411** · 10-13-2011, 01:29 PM

So does this mean the current iPhone 4 gsm color conversion kits won't fit on the gsm 4s?

**Poseidon79** · 10-13-2011, 01:43 PM

Why killing apps on iOS is pointless

Great article people should read before complaining about needing more RAM on iOS.

**Greatbiguns** · 10-13-2011, 01:54 PM

Originally Posted by Italia411

So does this mean the current iPhone 4 gsm color conversion kits won't fit on the gsm 4s?

I'm with you, guessing we will have to wait until at least tomorrow when more of these are delivered. Has anyone heard if the face-backplate parts attach the same way? I know a bunch of people on here are waiting to see if current COLORED Conversion Kits will work and if so what effect will the new camera have if any?

I know all of our iPhone's currently have conversion kits and of course I want to update the 4S as soon as possible...

**SharpieBandit** · 10-13-2011, 02:03 PM

Originally Posted by Poseidon79

Why killing apps on iOS is pointless

Great article people should read before complaining about needing more RAM on iOS.

It didn't really touch on power requirements of having more apps in memory though. I'm frugal with battery length. Turn 3G off, Wifi off, even location services off sometimes, brightness never goes passed halfway...

**shigh** · 10-13-2011, 02:08 PM

also wondering about backplate conversions. reason being i just frikkin ordered one after ordering my 4s.

**Poseidon79** · 10-13-2011, 02:27 PM

Originally Posted by SharpieBandit

It didn't really touch on power requirements of having more apps in memory though. I'm frugal with battery length. Turn 3G off, Wifi off, even location services off sometimes, brightness never goes passed halfway...

RAM requires power at all times wether it's being utilized or not. The act of loading it into RAM (when you load the app) uses CPU cycles. Holding an app frozen in RAM uses no additional power.

Via @Chpwn Twitter:

@jorgecarbajal_ No, RAM always needs power, used or not. And the amount of power is so hilariously small I dont understand why anyone cares.

(Also, the idea of "used memory needs more power/battery/CPU than free memory" just shows a fundamental misunderstanding of how RAM works.)

**SharpieBandit** · 10-13-2011, 02:40 PM

Makes sense. Just never thought of it that way. I was thinking along the lines of "cells" of RAM were active at times. Thanks for the info!

**unklbyl** · 10-13-2011, 03:14 PM

I just got done taking mine apart. A little scary, considering the fact that the phone does not exist untill tomorrow, but...First 2 screws come out as usual. The back plate is a little differient, and feels cheaply made. It comes off kind of hard, and you need to pry a little, one side, then the other. The battery connector is held in place with 2 screws, and the upper screw holds an EMEI sheild from the ringer assembly in place. The antennae cable from the ringer / buzzer assembly is really long, and snakes around and to the right of the battery connector. When you take the second screw out, be careful and watch where the small shield flies when you undo the battery clip. The vibrator is weaker. I see myself missing calls in silent mode. The camera looks cool, somehow sunken in the frame. Almost looks like something is missing. I got the factory unlocked model, and cannot seem to put it into DFU mode. Dunno. Maybe i am just too dumb or impatient. Maybe both. Screen replacement will be a pain, but doable. It took me about ten times on the 4 before it felt comfortable. We will see.

**raduga** · 10-13-2011, 03:21 PM

Originally Posted by unklbyl

I got the factory unlocked model, and cannot seem to put it into DFU mode.

Was that before or after you took it apart?

**unklbyl** · 10-13-2011, 03:41 PM

Both! I thought i had it, but when i hit the power button, there it was again.

**Redspyda** · 10-13-2011, 04:07 PM

So does this mean that the radio is compatible with t-mobiles 3g frequency? If so this would be awesome as they are selling unlocked might as well make it compatible with all gsm networks

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Thread: iFixit Reveals the iPhone 4S's Internal Organs

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The iPhone 4S uses pentalobe screws. iFixit managed to get their hands on an iPhone 4S so that they could do a complete teardown. The exploration reveals a couple of