Dell Streak Teardown

Teardown

Teardown

Teardowns provide a look inside a device and should not be used as disassembly instructions.

Featured Guide

Featured Guide

This guide has been found to be exceptionally cool by the iFixit staff.

  • Add Note x

The Streak is new to the ever-expanding Android smartphone market. The behemoth also happens to be Dell's first smartphone, so we felt it proper to give it the royal iFixit treatment and see what makes it tick.

This is also the first device to receive a subjective "repairability" score from iFixit. We're listing the good and not-so-good repair aspects of the phone (as well as its score) in the final step of the teardown. Check it out!

Tools
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Add Note Edit Step 1 — Dell Streak Teardown  ¶ 

  • At long last, the Dell Streak has arrived on American soil. More importantly, it has landed in the hands of iFixit. And we all know what that means...

  • The Dell Streak features:

    • 5" 800x480 TFT LCD Display

    • 5 MP rear-facing camera and VGA front-facing camera

    • Android 1.6 (Donut) operating system

    • 1 GHz Qualcomm 8250 Snapdragon processor

    • Corning Gorilla Glass front panel

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Add Note Edit Step 2  ¶ 

  • The battery cover detaches easily, like all battery covers should.

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Add Note Edit Step 3  ¶ 

  • After the rear panel is gone, the battery can be easily removed from its home.

  • The Streak's 3.7 V 1530 mAh (5.66 Whr) battery reportedly powers the gargantuan device for...well...we don't know how long.

    • The fact that Dell didn't publish the battery life hints at the fact that it isn't too great. What do you expect from a 5" display?

  • The inner face of the battery is covered with a sheet of steel, rather than plastic, to decrease its overall thickness. Perhaps the Streak also doubles as body armor?

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Add Note Edit Step 4  ¶ 

  • After the battery is removed, the pre-installed 16 GB microSD card can be slid out of its socket.

  • There you have it for Dell's approved user serviceability. Now let's void some warranties!

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Add Note Edit Step 5  ¶ 

  • The rear of the device features a noticeable absence of screws. Looks like we're gonna have to dig for them.

  • A plastic opening tool is all that's needed to remove the bezel securely stuck to the top edge of the Streak.

  • We found the screws! This is a good sign.

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Add Note Edit Step 6  ¶ 

  • Similarly, the lower bezel can be easily pried up from body of the Streak.

  • The capacitive control circuitry is securely attached to the inner face of the lower bezel, so it's highly advised to pry up the bezel from below (as pictured), to make sure the circuit does not receive any damage.

  • Since the connector is inside the device, it's a good idea to leave the bezel attached for now.

  • After a bit of digging, the five T5 Torx screws securing the rear case can be removed.

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Add Note Edit Step 7  ¶ 

  • After some light prying with a plastic opening tool, the rear case comes off with ease.

  • The thick Gorilla Glass front panel is visible at this point. Its rugged construction should be able to withstand drops from above waist height.

  • The rear case houses many components, including:

    • LED flash

    • Headphone jack

    • Loudspeaker (for speakerphone)

    • Antennas

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Add Note Edit Step 8  ¶ 

  • The digging continues as we remove a small plastic bezel attached to the lower edge of the motherboard.

  • At this point, both the front-facing and rear-facing cameras can be disconnected from the motherboard.

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Guide Add Note

my screen broke after a final hard drop a few months ago (weather and ground are cold now) and not going to get it fixed. it was dropped quite a bit and held up pretty good... i can make great use of the bonus [hidden/second] memory card inside :)

thanks for the great pics and detailed teardown :)

Allan, · Reply

Step 7 Add Note

untrue....the dell streak is actually very fragile! see http://forum.o2.co.uk/viewtopic.php?t=49... for the problems us brits are having

Matt Storey, · Reply