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Add Note Edit Step 9  ¶ 

  • Big players on the front of the board include:

    • ST Ericsson CPCAP 2.2TC22 DC Power Management (thanks, Chipworks!)

    • Triquint TQM7M5013 Linear Power Amplifier

    • Qualcomm PM8028 RF Power Management IC

    • Toshiba eMMC THGBM2G7D4FBAIE 16GB NAND Flash

    • Kionix KXTF9 MEMS Motion Sensing Accelerometer

  • An ultra high-res version of this picture can be seen here.

Image #1

Add Note Edit Step 10  ¶ 

  • The back of the board houses:

    • Qualcomm MDM6200 supporting HSPA+ speeds of up to 14.4 Mbps

    • Hynix H8BCSOQG0MMR 2-chip memory MCP

    • Elpida B8132B1PB. According to Chipworks, the Elpida package contains 1 GB DDR2 RAM, but also covers the Nvidia Tegra 2 CPU/GPU residing underneath the package.

    • Broadcom BCM4329 802.11n Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 2.1, and FM Tuner

    • AKM 8975 Electronic Compass

  • An ultra high-res version of this picture can be seen here.

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Add Note Edit Step 11  ¶ 

  • Next, the first of the two complex ribbon cables can be peeled off the steel mid-plane.

  • This cable houses the front camera, earpiece speaker, power button assembly, and top microphone. How's that for integration?

  • For enhanced security, the power button has a capacitive fingerprint scanner that can verify your identity from a single swipe of a finger.

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Add Note Edit Step 12  ¶ 

  • We can also remove the rear camera assembly and its cable.

  • One cable to rule them all: the rear camera, proximity sensor, ambient light sensor, pressure contacts for the headphone jack, and side volume buttons all come out as one piece.

  • What a decade can do for cables. Check out the thickness of a Parallel ATA cable compared to the Atrix camera cable. The PATA cable is 0.66 mm thick, while Atrix' camera cable measures 0.17 mm! And they're routing several components through the same cable!

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Add Note Edit Step 13  ¶ 

  • To remove the metal plate behind the LCD, simply lift its top edge slightly while pushing it toward the top of the phone.

  • After releasing it from its retaining clips, the LCD is readily accessible.

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Add Note Edit Step 14  ¶ 

  • And just like that, the LCD can be lifted from the glass front panel.

  • Huzzah! -- the LCD is not glued to the front panel glass!

  • The roughly 80% (this number is a rough estimate and is a calculation deemed accurate by the iFixit statistical department) of people who drop their Atrix now won't have to spend their money on replacing a fully functional LCD in addition to their broken glass!

  • The 960x480 qHD PenTile LCD is aptly named because it is the size of one quarter of a 1080p panel.

  • The front panel houses an Atmel mXT224 touchscreen controller underneath the LCD connector. It's the same chip we've found on the Samsung Galaxy Tab, Nexus S, and HTC Evo 4G.

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Add Note Edit Step 15  ¶ 

  • Motorola Atrix 4G Repairability Score: 9 out of 10 (10 is easiest to repair)

    • The LCD is separable from the glass front panel, making them independently replaceable.

    • The phone is held together with a limited number of screws and plastic clips. Adhesive is minimally used in its construction.

    • The battery can be removed in seconds.

    • No tools necessary for changing the SIM and microSD cards.

    • The phone feels solid in the hand, but the plastic rear panel is a little chintzy (that's right, chintzy).

    • The two main ribbon cables are soldered to many components (cameras, proximity sensors, etc.), making the cables costly to replace.

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Comments Add Note Comments are onturn off

ST-ERICSSON CPCAP 2.2TC22 is a 4G Modem (the only available on the market today). Qualcomm Modem used in this phone is only to support CDMA (even if it also supports HSDA, it is not used in this way)

John, · Reply

Any indication where the liquid detectors are?

I believe there is one on the back of the battery, and there might be one (that white spot) next to the sim card slot.

Taylor, · Reply

Details about disconnecting the super-tiny ZIF connector would be very helpful! Thanks!

jondelameter, · Reply

Replacement screen from eBay is just that; the glass touchscreen. The glass is adhered to the frame w/ 2-side tape that doesn't come apart kindly. Installing a new screen must be done with new tape (good luck) or glue.

jondelameter, · Reply

Thanks ifixit! I wasn't happy having shattered a 6-day-old, ex$pensive phone, and I'm too stubborn to pay someone else to fix anything.

jondelameter, · Reply