Motorola Droid 4 gets torn down, packs huge battery
updated 12:30 pm EST, Mon February 13, 2012
iFixIt gives Droid 4 poorest 4 out of 10 score
The Motorola Droid 4 is the latest subject of iFixit's teardowns. The team managed to remove the non user-removable battery fairly easily, though the hardware QWERTY keyboard is oddly integrated into the motherboard and difficult to repair. This was the main reason iFixit gave the Droid 4 its lowest repairability score to date, at 4 out of 10.
The handset does include a rear panel removal tool, which is a first in the teardown team's experience. On the inverse, the team said this process shouldn't require such a tool to start with. The 1,785mAh battery is covered by a sticker, which is not the only obstacle to its removal. The large battery is otherwise held in place with two T5 Torx screws and a lot of glue. A pry tool was used in order to keep the battery from being bent and damaged.
Moving on, there was a liquid damage indicator below the micro-SIM cover. The keyboard pressure sensors are found on the back of the mainboard, so if one fails, it necessitates replacing the entire board.
The microSD card slot is held onto the board with two screws rather than being soldered, as usual. The board also holds 4GB of Samsung memory, a Hynix H8BCS0QG0MMR chip for RAM with STM flash, and a Qualcomm MDM6600 CDMA/GSM hybrid radio. The 4G baseband processor is Motorola's T6VP0XBG-0001 LCM 2.0 LTE. The Wi-Fi, GPS, Bluetooth, and FM radio are all on a TI WL 1285C WiLink 7.0 chip. The back of the board holds the 16GB of SanDisk permanent flash memory.
The LCD isn't fused to the glass, so breaking the latter may not require them to replace both. It does, however, contain the touchscreen controller. The Atmel MXT224E controller is shared with the Droid 3, among other phones. Replacing it is also a time- and labor-intensive process.
