iFixit

The wireless card is easily identifiable by the mess of antenna cables connected to it.

A flick of our magic spudger frees the wireless card for inspection.

With surgical-like precision and care, we remove the EMI shields from the wireless card to reveal:

• Qualcomm PM8028 power management
• Avago ACPM-7868 linear quad-band power amplifier module
• Epcos 7964 SAW duplexer
• Avago ACPM-5001 CDMA band 1 power amplifier module
• Avago ACPM-5002 CDMA band 2 power amplifier module
• Avago ACPM-5005 CDMA band 5 power amplifier module
• Avago ACPM-5008 CDMA band 8 power amplifier module

Turning our attention to the backside of the wireless card we find:

• Qualcomm MDM6200, which supports HSPA+ speeds of up to 14.4 Mbps
• Toshiba TY890A111222KA Mobile SDR SDRAM
• Sony CXM3555ER antenna switch module

The PS Vita is very modular. Check out all these connectors!

• Having all the components on a single ribbon cable or PCB makes repair both difficult and costly. With all these individual components, the Vita should be easy to repair.

We detach a few connectors and remove the SIM card board from the colorful innards of the device.

Recruiting the help of our spudger, we remove the rear-facing camera.

Though the Vita is the first Sony handheld device to boast a camera, you shouldn't cancel your D800 pre-order quite yet. The 640x480 pixel VGA quality (0.3 MP) camera isn't likely to wow the folks browsing your Flickr stream.

• On a related note, the camera is of perfect quality to turn your world into an Augmented Reality.

After a fair amount of disassembly, we find our old nemesis: adhesive!

We easily win the battle against the evil glue with our trusty plastic opening tool and separate the rear multi-touch pad from its frame.

Attached to the rear touchpad, we find an Atmel mXT224 touchscreen controller.

Once the back case is off, components start flying out of the PS Vita faster than you can say "thirsty bag."

The speakers come out without much fuss thanks in part to their pressure contacts. These types of connections are common in devices where space is a concern and there's no room for routing and soldering speaker wires.

With many modes of connectivity comes a whole bundle of antennas. Head-to-head gaming sure has come a long way.

The trigger buttons are easily removed and are a simple, modular design. This means easier and cheaper repair for the masses!

If it ain't broke, don't fix it. Sony has used the same basic design for the R and L trigger buttons since the original PSP.