iFixit

Before lifting out the motherboard, the touchscreen, LCD, and control button ribbon cables must be disconnected.

The "C"-shaped motherboard comes out easily. Rather than using daughterboards like the Droid 2, the Streak has all components attached to this singular motherboard.

• This is most likely due to the extra space afforded by designing the Streak around its 5" LCD.

A 2 GB non-user accessible microSD card can be seen near the top of the motherboard.

• This card is used to house system & applications files only, and Dell doesn't want you to remove it.

Big players on the motherboard include:

• Qualcomm QSD8250 Snapdragon processor
• Analog Devices ADV7520 Low Power HDMI™/DVI Transmitter
• Hynix H8BES0UU0MCR NAND-based MCP
• Qualcomm MXU6219 RF Transceiver
• Qualcomm PM7540 Power Management chip
• TriQuint Semiconductor TQS 7M5012 Power Amp (Quad-band GSM)
• Texas Instruments TPS 65023 Integrated Power Management IC

The back of the motherboard is relatively featureless, with a few notable exceptions:

• Microphone
• Pressure contacts for the capacitive controls on the lower bezel
• Proximity sensors to tell the touchscreen when your face is pressed against it
• Ambient light sensor for the front-facing camera.

The Streak's cameras pretty closely resemble the iPhone 4's front and rear facing cameras.

The auto-focus rear-facing camera is good for 5 MP still images, while the front-facing camera shoots at VGA quality.

Sadly, the Streak's LCD is permanently adhered to the front panel glass. However, that LCD/glass subassembly is held in the front panel with very strong 3M adhesive, and could be removed with enough careful prying.

• The LCD is bonded to the front panel glass to increase the strength of the device and sensitivity of the capacitive touch panel.

The inner face of the front panel assembly isn't all that exciting. The ear speaker and vibrator motor can be seen near its top edge.

The touchscreen ribbon cable houses:

• Pixcir's controversial Tango S32 Touchscreen controller
• Atmel's ATmega168P 8-bit AVR microcontroller

Dell Streak Repairability: 8 out of 10 (10 is easiest to repair)

• Good: Replacing the battery is super easy and takes less than one minute.
• Good: Opening the device requires prying the bezels and removing five screws.
• Good: Cables use standard connectors, including our favorite, ZIF connectors.
• Neutral: The rear panel feels cheap and deforms easily for a $600 device.
• Bad: The LCD is bonded to the Gorilla Glass, increasing the cost of fixing the device if you break just the glass.