HTC EVO 4G Teardown

We literally just mentioned that the HTC EVO 4G was available off-contract for $549 direct from the HTC online store. We then come across iFixit who have done a complete teardown of the HTC EVO 4G to see exactly what’s inside and what makes it function the way it does.

iFixit are well known in the Gadget world for taking apart high end gadgets, often Apple [AAPL] products, but anything with a high price tag. The latest teardown was made possible because of Google [GOOG] handing out free HTC EVO 4G’s at the Google I/O event that was held recently. The iFixit team managed to get one of the EVO’s and take it home to carve it apart.

iFixit say that the EVO 4G was an easy phone to take apart. All that was required was removing the back cover and then unfastening 6 Torx screws to reveal the insides.

Some of the key features iFixit found in the HTC EVO 4G Teardown are as follows…

* Removing the glass is not terribly difficult. This is great news for those unfortunate enough to drop their shiny phone and crack the glass.

* Like most reasonable phones, changing the Evo’s battery is a snap. All you have to do is remove the back cover and unplug the battery.

* The 3.7 V, 1500 mAh rechargeable Li-ion battery contains 23% more capacity than an iPhone 3GS, 15% more than a Droid Incredible, and 7% more than a Nexus One.

* Look out! There’s a liquid damage indicator on the battery’s top edge — a first that we’ve seen. Of course, you can just replace the battery if you douse the Evo in water. There are other liquid damage indicators on the phone, however, so you can’t fool the manufacturer that easily.

* The Evo’s internal frame houses the stand, antennas, LED flashes, and speaker, and connects to the logic board via several ribbon cables.

* The dual LED flash assembly consists of no more than two LEDs soldered to a small interconnect board.

* The forward facing 1.3 Megapixel camera lifts right out of its enclosure in the top portion of the Evo 4G.

* Big players on the logic board include:

* Broadcom BCM4329 integrating Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and FM connectivity to provide speeds up to 50 Mbits/s in 802.11n.¨
* Sequans SQ1210 RF combo chip.¨
* Qualcomm’s QSD8650 Snapdragon processor.¨
* Amtel’s AMT224 Touchscreen controller.¨
* Qualcomm’s RTR6500 CDMA2000 transceiver with GPS.¨
* Qualcomm’s PM7540 power management IC.

The full teardown can be found over here.