Gadgetory

from the outside the galaxy note 4 looks a lot like the previous model but Samsung has made several subtle design changes one of which makes the device much more difficult to disassemble than previous notes I'm Bill Detweiler and this is cracking open with nearly every phone maker including Apple now offering an oversized phone the Galaxy Note 4 can't really compete on sheer size alone luckily it has some pretty nice hardware to go along with it's beautiful 5.7 inch 515 pixel per inch Super AMOLED screen now such as a 2.7 gigahertz Qualcomm Snapdragon 805 processor or a 1.9 gigahertz octa-core exynos 54:33 chip three gigs of ram 32 gigs of internal storage a 16 megapixel rear facing camera 3220 milliamp hour battery and of course the phone's signature feature the s-pen along with all the hardware upgrades Samsung made several design changes inside the phone so let's get cracking after removing the back cover battery and stylus we can turn our attention to the dozen or so Phillips screws inside the phone now once they're out we can separate the internal cover from the front panel and frame assembly there's also a thin ribbon of adhesive that runs along the edge so a little heat can make the process a bit easier with the cover removed we get our first real look inside the phone attached to the cover is the 3.5 millimeter headphone jack and external speaker the circuit boards cameras vibration motor and other components are attached to the frame and front panel assembly after removing a single screw and detaching several cables and connectors we can gently lift out the mainboard and the attached components I'm going to leave the USB charging board earpiece speaker vibration motor and the button contacts attached to the frame I'm also going to leave the front panel and display alone I want to put this phone back together in working order and these components could be damaged during removal so turning our attention back to the main circuit board we can detach the rear camera the front camera assembly and finally the board's metal shields with that our teardown is complete as I mentioned at the beginning of the show the Galaxy Note 4's design isn't radically different from that of the previous model but Samsung did make several subtle design changes and one big one now the major change is to the front panel and frame assembly the phone's metal Ram is part of the internal cover instead of the frame as it was on the note 3 there's also a thin adhesive seal between the front panel and the internal cover which wasn't present in the older model now this design element makes the device just a tad bit harder to crack open and reassemble than previous notes the smaller changes include things like a redesign circuit board repositioned sim and microSD card slots and a headphone jack that's attached to the internal cover not the front panel and frame assembly along with all these changes like I mentioned there's also plenty of hardware improvements such as a better display faster processor better camera and a much improved s-pen now for more information on the Galaxy Note 4 including real world tests and pricing check out Jessica dull courts full CNET review to see more teardown photos and read my full Hardware analysis go to TechRepublic comm forward slash cracking open