Nexus S
The Nexus S is a smartphone co-developed by Google and Samsung was the first smartphone to use the Android 2.3 "Gingerbread" operating system.
Nexus S Teardown
Teardown
Teardowns provide a look inside a device and should not be used as disassembly instructions.
-
x
Nearly one year after the release of the Nexus One, Google, in partnership with Samsung, has released its second official phone the Nexus S. It has some fancy gimmicks features that separate it from other Android phones on the market, such as a curved display and the newest 2.3 Gingerbread update.
That's great and everything, but we wanted to see what makes this baby tick. So stay tuned as we dig deep into the Nexus S!
Like the teardown? You can now embed it in your site! Just hit the embed link below for the HTML code.
- View:
- Single page
Edit
Step 1
—
Nexus S Teardown
¶
-
The Nexus S is a variation of the Samsung Galaxy S, sporting more or less the same hardware specifications as its brethren.
-
Notable changes to the Nexus S include NFC (Near Field Communication) support and a Super AMOLED Contour Display.
-
Tech Specs:
-
1 GHz ARM Cortex-A8 Hummingbird Multimedia Applications Processor based on the ARMv7 architecture.
-
16 GB internal storage capacity
-
512 MB total RAM
-
5 MP rear-facing camera and a VGA (640x480) front-facing camera.
-
Android 2.3 (Gingerbread)
-
Edit
Step 2
¶
-
A side-by-side comparison of the Samsung-made Nexus S and its HTC-manufactured older sibling, the Nexus One.
-
It's not just an optical illusion, the Nexus S is smiling at you! This is the first smartphone to feature a Contour Display, meaning the display glass is slightly curved to be more comfortable for users.
Edit
Step 3
¶
-
Without any further ado, let's start tearing this phone apart!
-
The entire back cover comes right off without a fuss, giving us a first glimpse of the battery.
-
We used a plastic opening tool to peel the NFC antenna module off the back cover. According to Google: "Nexus S can read information from 'smart' tags, or everyday objects that have NFC chips in them. These can be anything from stickers and movie posters to t-shirts."
-
Looks like something straight out of Tron: Legacy.
Edit
Step 4
¶
-
The battery is extremely easy to remove and comes out next.
-
The 3.7 V, 5.55 Watt-hours Lithium ion cell provides up to 6.7 hours of talk time on a 3G network, and up to 14 hours on a 2G network.
-
The battery inside the Nexus S is rated at 1500 mAh. That's slightly higher than the 1400 mAh rating of the Nexus One's battery.
-
Don't feed this battery to a baby.
Edit
Step 6
¶
-
Taking out the motherboard requires removing three Phillips screws and disconnecting a few cables here and there.
-
The design of the motherboard is peculiar to us. It is designed such that its inner perimeter encloses the battery. We've seen oddly-shaped PCBs before, but rarely do they have giant holes in the middle of them.
Edit
Step 7
¶
-
A handy plastic opening tool helps separate the SIM card reader from the rest of the motherboard.
-
The Nexus S is unlocked right out of the box and can be used with a Quad-band (850, 900, 1800, 1900) GSM carrier and is Tri-band HSPA (900, 2100, 1700) compatible.
-
For you AT&T customers out there, just a quick reminder that the Nexus S does not support the 850 MHz and 1900 MHz HSPA frequency bands required for 3G mobile data.
Page 1 of 2
