Photos: Cracking open the Palm Pre
Tech Republic pries open the Palm Pre, the latest smartphone to create buzz in the marketplace, to see how it--and its insides--stack up against the iPhone.
Palm Pre
iPhone, Pre comparison
Caption by iFixit
Back panel
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Battery comparison
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Pre back
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Pre screws
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interlocking tabs
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antennas
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volume buttons
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Back frame
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Connectors
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PCB
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Keyboard bezel
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CPU
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Chips
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Boards
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Shields
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Digital camera
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Pre insides
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Pre communications board
Caption by Phonewreck
PCBs
On the connections side we see the usual Wi-Fi/Bluetooth combo going to Marvell and CSR, with the W8686 and 63823 respectively. We also see the BaseBand win going to Qualcomm, with the heavily integrated MSM6801A platform. The OMAP3 PMIC (power management integrated circuit) comes loaded with a USB transceiver and audio codec, which even further reduces the overall board density of this device. We're not fully sure, but it looks as if the Pre's cool new multitouch Touch Screen Controller win went to Cypress Semiconductor with the CP6944BA device.
On the top of the communications board we can spot the BaseBand Processor (Qualcomm MSM6801A), SDRAM, RF power amp, and Duplexer by TriQuint.
Caption by Phonewreck
Display
Caption by iFixit
Logic board
Elpida offers up some mobile DDR memory and is stacked on top of the venerable OMAP3 processor.
Caption by Phonewreck
insides
The Pre logic board is substantially smaller than the iPhone logic board, which is very impressive considering how renowned Apple's engineers are for shrinking hardware footprints. It's amazing the difference a year can make. In general, this Palm hardware reminds us a lot more of Apple's engineering style than any of hardware we've taken apart by other manufacturers (like Dell).
Caption by iFixit