Introduction
Overview of the G1 hardware with circuit diagrams and labeled chips. Also see www.phoneWreck.com for more in-depth analysis.
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The G1 has a lot of meaning to the “1″ in its name. Not only is it the first phone to sport Google’s Android OS, it’s:
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the first phone to use T-Mobile’s 3G network.
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HTC’s first capacitive touchscreen phone.
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HTC’s first trackball phone.
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HTC's second attempt at a 5-row keyboard (correct me if I’m wrong).
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The user interface of this phone is also another winner. Google’s engineers, however, have been totally innovative in giving users:
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a pull-down notification bar.
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a slide-out menu.
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3 different customizable desktops.
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The backgrounds even slightly move when you switch desktops, giving it a sort of, 3D effect. Very cool.
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The T-Mobile G1 was a mind-blowing experience to crack open. There’s an insane number of parts, and the way they put it together seems, well, complex. Make sure you give the sliding mechanisms a peek near the bottom.
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Finally, the moment you’ve all been waiting for. The back of the casing, showcases swooping action (we’re seriously too in love).
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The translational springs on this puppy are strong as !&&*. But it needs to be so, since it has to drive a large screen around an arc. It’s interesting to note how much effort HTC seems to have put in to produce a clean swooping action. Perhaps we’re overthinking this.
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For starters though, we introduce to you, the block diagram:
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The Qualcomm MSM7201A, which was previously used in later US iterations of the Touch Diamond and the Touch Pro, comes full force in the G1.
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Similar to the BlackBerry Storm, the GPS and audio processing components are embedded into the processor.
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Fortunately, HTC has had much experience using the processor, although it runs a brand new OS.
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Running alongside the processor is the transceiver and power management ICs, Qualcomm RTR5285, and Qualcomm PM7540, respectively.
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This part is pretty cool, because housed within the screen casing is four large parts.
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On the front of the actual casing is the capacitive touch panels, with Synaptics handling the controllers and everything else touchscreen-related.
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An interesting feature of this phone are the dual vibration motors. One motor is mounted on the display module, and the other on the main PCB.
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There are two main PCBs housing most of the components. The main PCB is shown at left, while the “Chin” PCB is shown on step 9.
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The NAND Flash + DDR SDRAM is handled by a Samsung MCP.
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SMSC provides the USB PHY handling the connection from the processor to the PC.
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As shown, Avago provides both GSM and UMTS power amplifiers (ACPM-7381 & ACPM-7391).
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TriQuint provides their regular GSM power amplifiers (TQS 7M5008).
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Asahi Kasei makes an interesting appearance with the first (to our knowledge) appearance of a compass IC.
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Asahi Kasei makes an interesting appearance with the first (to our knowledge) appearance of a compass IC.
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Lastly, we move on to the "chin" PCB.
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Texas Instruments provides the Bluetooth and Wi-Fi chips, both appearing on this PCB.
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The trackball is the same module used on nearly every BlackBerry (except the upgraded trackball found on the Javelin).
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