BlackBerry Bold 9650 Teardown and Analysis
You read the review – time to see what’s inside the BlackBerry Tour, I mean Bold 9650!
RIM makes a solid device. They come apart easy, everything is modular, held in with a minimal number of well placed and cleverly but not impossible to find screws (a la Motorola Droid). These devices can be fixed although with the new optical track-pad what would you need to fix?
This is a gorgeous device, enough said – it will probably look better disassembled.
Remove the battery and back-cover. There you will see 4 hex screws just waiting for your T6. Remove them.
Here comes the tricky and slightly clever part. You’ll probably notice that the device is still held in the upper (camera level) portion. There are two screws located underneath the ear speaker. This is the same construction as the original Tour, and should come as no suprise. Alas, removing this piece of plastic requires a plastic spudger, patience and a will of steel. You can actually break the plastic tabs holding this portion in – be careful.
Once this piece is removed, you’ll see the missing links. Remove these screws and that’s it – everything – PCB, Antennae, inner and outer shell were held in with these 6 – screws. Simple and extremely effective.
Now for the PCB. Dag-nabbit, RIM is still using solid ESD cans without clips. In the past, we’ve found we can remove the solder with a heat gun of powerful soldering iron. They took this a step further (a la Palm Pre) and tossed in some epoxy as well. Alas, after much deliberation, we settled with a dremel.
Argh!
As a small aside, you’ve probably all heard about the iPhone 4′s antenna issues. You also may have seen Jobs’ jab at RIM and attenuation loss on the hallowed 9700. This device is a perfect example of RIM’s mastery in wireless communication. This PCB, is more secure from ESD and heat then Alcatraz. It’s rare to see such solid shielding as it undoubtedly drives manufacturing costs up. Kudos to RIM on this one – it just makes our job harder!
Since the 9650 is a world-phone, the hardware allows access to the following GSM networks: GSM850, GSM900, GSM1800, GSM1900, UMTS2100. You’ll also get CDMA800 and CDMA1900 support. Hardware wise, there isn’t much difference from the OG Tour I mean Bold I mean, 9630 as you’ll see below:
The 528MHz ARM 11 MSM 7600 reined on the 9630 and we see it’s face again on the 9650 – there’s nothing wrong with the IC, but the 9650 competes with some pretty heavy 1GHz A4 and SnapDragon devices. That said, battery life on this device is fantastic and it seems to handle it’s built in functions well, with little processor lag. Apps? Not so much, it’s not really RIM’s current forte.
Interesting to note is the 256MB of RAM provided by Samsung on the KAT00M NAND + SDRAM MCP. Will this device have enough RAM to run BB OS 6.0? We guess not, seeing the advent and pending launch of the 9780. Worried about your device handling that OS upgrade? Maybe hold out for the 9780 or the other rumoured devices launching with OS 6.0
USB PHY win goes, once again to SMSC with the USB3326, PMIC and RF back to Qualcomm with the PM7540, RTR6500 and RTR6285 respectively. The PA array is courtesy of Skyworks (SK77336-13), Avago (FEM-7758) and TriQuint (TQM613031).
That’s and that’s all! Stay tuned, we’ve got a very interesting device in the queue – looking forward to tearing it apart!
Cool stuff I found on this website. Provides so much technical insight into the inner workings and details inside the phone. This will become a must read to me whenever you post.
Basically a Tour with more Flash + RAM + Wifi + Trackpad, but interesting nonetheless.
Wait a minute…..2Gb RAM + 256MB SDRAM?
Shouldn’t this thing have 512MB of FLASH Memory? Is this in addition to the 256MB SDRAM?
[...] phoneWreck » BlackBerry Bold 9650 Teardown and Analysis [...]
[...] phoneWreck » BlackBerry Bold 9650 Teardown and Analysis [...]
[...] phoneWreck » BlackBerry Bold 9650 Teardown and Analysis [...]
[...] phoneWreck » BlackBerry Bold 9650 Teardown and Analysis [...]
[...] płytek drukowanych i długich cyfrowo-literowych oznaczeń zapraszamy do zapoznania się z krótką prezentacją gołego Bolda 9650. Redaktor i założyciel serwisu BBNews.pl. Chętnie odpowie na wszystkie pytania pod adresem [...]
Good to hear the antenna’s shielded. Apple’s jab at BlackBerry lacked class.
@Simon, couldn’t agree more!
Are ALL antennas at the top (GSM, CDMA, WiFi, GPS)? Any diversity reception used?
According to BB, there will be OS6 for this model. Maybe it will be model specific.
[...] phoneWreck » BlackBerry Bold 9650 Teardown and Analysis [...]
[...] phoneWreck » BlackBerry Bold 9650 Teardown and Analysis [...]
[...] phoneWreck » BlackBerry Bold 9650 Teardown and Analysis [...]
[...] phoneWreck » BlackBerry Bold 9650 Teardown and Analysis [...]
Dr. Wreck,
I am a huge fan of your teardowns and find them extremely interesting, however I believe this phone has 512MB (4Gb) of Flash NAND RAM, not 256MB.
Thanks Robert, we’ll make the change.
Can the bold housing, or just the front plate with the trackpad be used on the tour? Just to replace the annoying trackball?
I would like know the opposite of Cris — looking at the similarities between 9650 and 9630 could an aftermarket 9630 housing (keeping the 9650 keyboard and panel with trackpad intact) be used on a 9650? Have seen awsome color and material varieties of 9630 housing/body mods
Main Products:
iPhone 2G/3G/3GS/4G/iPad/iPod spare parts and accessories.
For payment, delivery and other terms you concern, please see below:
Payment: PayPal, T/T, Western Union, Wire Transfer
Shipment Via: UPS/DHL/EMS
Warranty: 3 months
Lead time: next or same day, big orders vary from quantity
Full price list will be provided if needed.
Any questions, plz don’t hesitate to contact me.
Looking forward to be a partner of your company.
Kind regards,
Sales Manager
IWORTHTECH CO., LTD
ADD: Baoan,District , Shenzhen City,51813