Inleiding
Spring has sprung and HTC has hatched a new One. Join us as we take a closer look at this season's newest sprout, the HTC One (M8). After all, it's our job to weed out the irreparable, and the best way to do that is through destruction—er, precise analysis.
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Wat je nodig hebt
Video overzicht
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For its second act, the HTC One brings some impressive props. The lengthy list of hardware includes:
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Quad-core, 2.3 GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 801 processor
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2 GB RAM
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5" 1080p display with dual front-facing speakers
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4 MP (2 "ultrapixel") f/2.0 rear Duo Camera with dual flash; 5.0 megapixel front-facing camera
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16 or 32 GB on-board storage; up to 128 GB additional storage via microSD
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LTE, Bluetooth 3.0, NFC, 802.11ac Wi-Fi, and IR blaster
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The immediate question is whether the M8 will prove more cooperative than its nigh-unrepairable predecessor, whose hardware secrets had to be pried from its mangled aluminum corpse.
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While we ponder our plan of attack, we pause to appreciate the One M8's appealing—albeit inscrutable—brushed metal design.
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Dual rear cameras, dual flash—despite being dubbed the One, this phone likes its Twos.
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Spinning the M8 around, we find the first of another pair—two card trays straddling the upper end of the phone (microSD and SIM).
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Maybe we can just call it the One-Two? No? Moving on...
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Gereedschap gebruikt in deze stap:iOpener$17.99
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Looking for a point of entry, we surprise the One M8 with a spicy hot iOpener.
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With the underlying glue sufficiently softened, we strum away with a guitar pick until the first screw peeks through.
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Just like that, the One M8's first line of defense is down—with the power of the Pro Tech Screwdriver Set, these screws are deftly dispatched.
is the front speaker plate metal or plastic?
Those covers may be silver colored, but they’re actually a flexible plastic.
Quick question, I want to clean under the top and bottom grills (where the speakers are) how do I put the grills back on? Thanks!
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Gereedschap gebruikt in deze stap:iFixit Opening Picks (Set of 6)$4.99
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We're on a roll. Gaining momentum, we free the M8's guts from its rear case with
the power of rock n' rollguitar picks.
Care should be taken to not damage or bend the GPS antenna contact located just towards the center of the body from the power button. It's mounted on a daughterboard of sorts, and unlike all the other contacts which make contact with the inside back of the case, this one sticks out horizontally and makes contact with the edge of the case.
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Here's where things turned ugly during our teardown of the first-gen HTC One (the phone that garnered the all-time worst repairability score of any smartphone we've ever had on the teardown table.)
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To our delight, the pesky display cables of yesteryear have given way to spring contacts—so this time, the phone assembly comes out cleanly.
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No mangled aluminum here—the rear case remains intact. Apart from the NFC antenna and some nice machine work, there's not much to see.
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The rear case weighs in at 27.5 grams.
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The remaining assembly is a fair sight less tidy. A mass of copper shielding and tape awaits...
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Next, we spudge up the battery connector.
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We start working our way through what looks like aeons of tape strata. Digging through the entire Earth's supply of tape feels a little like a chest burster emerging from a ribcage.
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We're free! Well, except for the billion cables yet to be disconnected.
Something I found the hard way is right under where you disconnect the battery, the cable for the speaker HIDDEN under some tape. I wasn't paying attention and almost, well did, rip it from the connector.
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If the rear case removal sparked our hopes for an improved repairability score, this glued-down motherboard is a bad sign.
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To improve is to change; to perfect is to change often. From a repairability standpoint, we'd like to see more change from this One.
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The shields are down! Here's what we found lurking below:
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Elpida FA164A2PM 2 GB RAM + Qualcomm Snapdragon 801 quad-core 2.3 GHz CPU
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SanDisk SDIN8DE4 32 GB NAND flash memory
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STMicroelectronics 0100 AA 9058401 MYS
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Avago ACPM-7600 power amplifier module
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Synaptics S3528A touchscreen controller
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Qualcomm WTR1625L RF transceiver and WTR1625 (modem?)
What audio codec does it use is it a Wolfson or Qualcomm wcd9320
Des it have the Qualcomm WCD9320? Thanks. :)
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A close up of the RF front end, highlighting the Qualcomm ET subsystem. That's "Envelope Tracking", not "ExtraTerrestrial".
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Inside the red line is the Qualcomm QFE1100 ET IC, plus all the associated passives, weighing in at around 50mm2 for the whole footprint.
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The QFE1100 ETIC itself
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With the motherboard free, we turn our attention to the battery.
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You heard right: you have to remove the motherboard to get to the battery, again, which is more than lightly adhered to the LCD shield.
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HTC touted the all-new One's exceptional battery management, with up to 2 weeks of standby from a 100% charge, and 15 hours on 5%. Wowsers.
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Time for a couple bite-sized goodies from the One:
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The rotary vibrator motor lies in this square rubber case.
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The earpiece speaker is backed by a plastic amplifying chamber, providing the required oomph for this half of the highly touted "BoomSound" stereo speakers.
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With the speaker chamber removed, we're cleared for take-off to get this daughterboard off the
groundcase.
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Or at least we thought we were, until we found the glue holding the board in place.
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Our
willspudger is strong, but our spudgering arm is getting mighty tired. -
With the daughterboard free, it's time to gather 'round for a peek at the fancy camera tech.
you forgot about the topspeaker, its in the fronthousing , and its a mother to get out!
be carefull
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Chipworks found last year's "UltraPixel" cam to be a 4-megapixel affair. This revision likely has the same pixel count, but with larger pixels.
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Much more interesting is the addition of this secondary rear camera, which in concert with the first enables all sorts of fancy image data manipulation, retroactive focusing, and special effects.
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Not to be outdone, the intrepid selfie-cam gets a huge spec bump, leaping from last season's 2.1 megapixels to a whopping 5.0 MP (more than selfiesufficient).
I have noticed a lot of scratches on my camera lens. In this picture it looks to be attached to the camera itself. On the M7 a new lens came with the replacement back housing. Is that not the case with the M8 because I'd like to replace that lens as it's starting to affect my photos.
Were you able to find out? Is the lens glass removable without tearing about the motherboard?
That's a crappy coating HTC put on the lens. There's a thread on Android central forums that talks about how to resolve the issue: http://forums.androidcentral.com/htc-one...
Yes, the lens cover is part of the rear cover (battery cover). I sent mine in for warranty repair and that is what they replaced. Seems like it would be somewhat easy to replace the back on this phone.
You can just rip it off, it's plastic. They sell replacements on the internet for like $6, they come with adhesive on them. If you're worried about scratches, it's actually a coating that HTC put on the lens, and just scratches easily. You can read more about the issue and how to resolve it over at android central forums, everyone has this problem: http://forums.androidcentral.com/htc-one...
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Gereedschap gebruikt in deze stap:Tweezers$4.99
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A tap of our tweezers and we step into
speakeasyspeaker action. -
Dr. Dre fans, beat your chests in sorrow: HTC's partnership with Beats Audio has ended. Despite this, early reviews confirm the speakers are quite good... for a phone.
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These HTC BoomSound speakers give some good vibrations, rated up to 95dB, or just shy of a pneumatic drill.
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Last to leave the party is the 3.5 mm audio jack, now sharing a small cable assembly with the microphone and micro-USB port on the bottom of the phone.
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We give it a gentle nudge out the door with the spudger. The end is in sight...
from some other posts, it looks like there are several microphones. would love specifics on each, as I am having an issue with speakerphone mic's call quality.
anyone else having this issue?
Same here, it is a feature I use a lot and people are now saying they can't hear well, etc..
thats because its a greasy mess inside
dust is cludding between the top and bottom gray speaker grill and the housing.
buy new grill on ebay , get the original off ,clean gently with pensil and vacuum cleaner.
ensure all is clean and dry , stick on the grill , vĂ´illa its done ,your mic,s are like new again.
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With the front panel mostly stripped down, we finally get to display removal.
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Liberal heat around the edges of the glass and we're able to easily slide an opening pick around the perimeter, separating the adhesive.
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...A little too easily, in fact, as we discovered the exact wrong place to slice and dice, severing the digitizer cable.
> we’re not sure why some manufacturers insist on burying both the screen and the battery
I figured it was to coerce customers into buying a new phone when the screen or battery broke, instead of repairing it. Much more profit in that than making it easy to repair.
Yes, that is on par with most big company's 'planned obsolescence' in design (I'm an industrial designer). You make something that people want to buy, but not want to keep for long (a year in most cases with phones), and would rather buy a new one than repair. If repair costs (that could very likely go to a 3rd party repairer) are close enough to the cost of a new phone (which would go to the manufacturer, albeit somewhat indirectly), why not just get a new phone right?
Super irresponsible in my opinion.
Ethan -
I have read and watched your tear down very carefully. I wonder if it should not be possible to remove the display assembly right after you removed the backcover witout disassembling all the rest. Of course it is neccessary to know which two connector to release (digitizer, display) and than on which corner to lift the display first, but that' s what we know now after your first trial.
Would be nice if you can responde to this thought now after you have done this job and seen the details. Regards Marty.
No it is not possible, there isn't enough clearance for the digitiser cable.
This phone is a royal mess in terms of internal design.
Tom Chai -
Could you please explain why you think the "HTC black bar" is present below the screen? Does it actually serve any function? I can't see anything critical underneath it!
It was designed like this to hide where the digitizers flex cable ties into the digitizer sheet.
BurnieG -
It provides extra space for internals and a larger battery. I personally don't mind, despite it creating an offset screen when gaming in landscape mode. There's less than a 3mm difference between the top and bottom of the screen because the bottom speaker grill is shorter than the top one. I actually don't notice it when gaming or watching movies.
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With all of the quality control stamps and signatures on the back of the 1080p display, we're reminded of a certain Macintosh we recently tore down.
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To make a thin phone (9.4 mm), you need thin components. The fused LCD and digitizer measures little more than 2 mm.
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Down to a bare midframe, it's time for the teardown team to high-five, have a beer, and mull over the storm of a repairability score to come.
As an average consumer I am disgusted at HTC. My wife has had her Samsung Note 2 six years. Mine is the windows M1 (8). Not into watch, or phone repair. Paid 785.00 for this piece of crap 2 1/2 years ago. At one year the charging port stopped functioning properly. For you techies I guess it's fun. But for someone who want a phone that will outlast the warranty? Forget it! Not worth it! I want a phone that will last past the warranty period! I love problem solving, but not with technology. When I spend that kind of money, I want something that will last. Don't want to have to take tech classes, and get a degree to fix a friggin phone! Sick of these massive companies building in a warranty (plus one day) product, in order to get by! Guess some people love the idea that, a year after purchase they get the challenge of taking mother boards, and ports apart. Good for you! But for people like me, when I spend that much money, I want my product to work! Long passed its warranty. Sick of it!
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HTC One M8 Repairability Score: 2 out of 10 (10 is easiest to repair)
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It's very difficult—although no longer impossible—to open the device without damaging the rear case. This makes every component extremely difficult to replace.
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The battery is buried beneath the motherboard and adhered to the midframe, hindering its replacement.
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The display assembly cannot be replaced without tunneling through the entire phone. This makes one of most common repairs, a damaged screen, very difficult to accomplish.
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Copious amounts of tape, adhesive, and copper shielding make many components difficult to remove and replace.
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Solid external construction improves durability.
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53 opmerkingen
Do you know the model of the 802.11ac chip?
It is Qualcomm's WCN3680, located in bottom-left corner of the board near the two Camera Flash LEDs.
Also the dual RFIC (WTR1625L + WTR1625) is to support concurrent use of multiple RF bands, which can be for either SV-LTE (for VZW) or for LTE-CA.
Stainless steel deep drawn and pressed on plastic body.
where exactly is the IR blaster located? is it still under the power button or does it now reside somewhere in the elongated black window?
i've seen some phone cases that block that window, leaving only the power button visible/accessible, and some cases that leave the entire top visible. i want to make sure i get a case that does not block the IR sensor
I own the phone and it seems that the IR blaster still works fine with a case that only leaves the power button exposed, but occasionally i will have to hit a button a second time for the receiver toget the signal when I do have the case on.
Is the ram DDR2 or DDR3
It is Ddr3 memory
I have noticed a lot of scratches on my camera lens. In this picture it looks to be attached to the camera itself. On the M7 a new lens came with the replacement back housing. Is that not the case with the M8 because I'd like to replace that lens as it's starting to affect my photos.
The lenses are actually in the back housing.
I just finished a complete outside overhaul with new
front and back housing and lcd replacement due to cracked screen.
It took me some hours , but wel worth it.
the parts cost me 38 euro and came via the mail in two weeks.
Thnx IFixit for the great tutorial in the background.
best repair site ever!
I want to buy HTC One M8. I have source of its wallpapers to make it look stylish.
I threw my M8 against a brick wall pretty hard yesterday. While the wall has a nice dent about 1 cm deep now, my phone came out undamaged. Well, apart from the top right corner of the screen, where the adhesive seems not to be able to hold the screen in for longer than 15 minutes so it stands out about 1.5 millimetres until I push it back in. Pretty sturdy phone if I may say that. My 3310 back in the day exploded into a million pieces when it hit that same wall. ;)
Excellent tear down as usual!
Regarding the speaker element itself: What material is the speaker face made from? Is it hard plastic?
My friend you saved my butt! I sat my M8 face down and speaker first into a little pool of pancake syrup. I couldn't hear anything any more! But a little research on google to find your image with a guitar pic made all of the difference, i used a hair dryer lightly to soften the glue (warmed it slowly). I needed to use a pin to start the removal but the pick to remove it clean. I cleaned it all up inside and now works like a champ! TY
Screen repair disaster. Of course I'm 2 months out of my HTC replacement deal-and first screen I've ever broken. Brought this in and they said it was involved, as I knew it would be-hence not doing it myself. They broke a cable inside, I believe to do with the sim card. Had to wait a week for the part/fix. Just got it back and now my GPS is no longer working. It seems to see satellites, but won't lock. I'm 100% certain they damaged something else as it worked perfectly always. Any ideas hardware wise where the damage could be? Another cable,antenna, chip possibly? I'm concerned they may not want to fess up to it so I'm trying to figure out what I can. Any software test I can run to narrow it down? Cheers
Weird update-the phone mic/ear speaker doesn't work either, but it works on speakerphone.
Hey Jeffrey, did you find a solution to your problem? I am having the same problem you are.
Alex -
help, a dropped htc one m8 started to sound aweful when raising the volume. like a cheap radio. maybe you after this teardown knows how to fix it? thanks. ajmdve@gmail.com
I have HTC M8 and it is stuck in Airplane mode after falling from 2 story building, i replaced screen rest everything is working fine, what do you recomend me to replace. it is stuck on Airplane mode.
Hi, my m8 suddenly stopped vibrating, if I shake it, the vibration works. It is just a misconnected cable or is a bigger damage? In which part of the mobo I should try to see if there's something broken?
Thanks in advance
Hi.. my htc m8 screen goes dark blue and it didn't turn back to its initial stage , i also perform reboot but no success...The person to whom i gave my phone to repair, said this is the ic problem from the motherboard and display is alright. also touch is working fine... my phone is sprint htc m8 and i m using it in India. pls..help me. pls.
Whats a reliable place to buy the HTC one M8 battery for an AT&T phone ?
I replaced the screen twice because I though the SIM card reader was faulty. The third time I installed the original SIM card reader on a new screen and still I get No SIM Card found. Anyone know what could be causing the problem? Everything else is functional except detecting the SIM card. SIM card works tested on another phone. Does the IMEI get locked somehow?
Hiya i forgot my password to unlock my homescreen as i cant get into the phone to factory reset it just want to know is there any other way i can remove the password so i can use my phone again let me know wat i can do please thanks
Turn of your phone hold power and volume down button at the same time and you will get a boot manager use the volume keys to go down and use the power button to select factory reset this will wipe the full phone removing any locks it had thanks
Hello. Can you help me locate the wi fi antenna? Thanks
ive changed my speaker re assembled the phone and now it wont turn on but shows charging screen 100% charged any ideas please
Had the same problem. Remove the 2 screws from the end of the battery cable and look at the back side of it. There is a little connector that needs to be snapped in place on the board. Then put the 2 screws back and tighten.
My model phone is somewhat different in the watermarks on the inside of the cover and the sheer amount of tape (I only had two, see-through orange strips). I bought it refurbished.
How scammed did I get?
There are two different models, so no, you didn't get scammed
Has anyone found a proper way to repair/replace the speaker chamber? I get really annoying sound now, everything vibrates since I opened the phone once.
I replaced my battery and everything works except when I being up my camera, it's stuck on a black screen for a few seconds then goes back to the desktop.
same here, and also dont have cellphone signal, i thinks this have to do with the little metal gold contacts inside the back frame
My htc 1 m8 is having charging port problems, I replaced it but it still has to be held to charge, I need to know which pins go where on this charging port so I can rig my solar panel to it, to provide definite charging
Hi
where is exactly the music (audio) ic ????
Can its processor be replaced ?
Any suggestions after I replaced the display the touch screen doesn't respond?
Difficult ? It’s not.
Where you identify flash IC because my mobile back light is ok other nothing disply only back light plz tell me how can i repair it.
Thanks
I'm replacing screen on my M8. Does anyone know what this part is and where it goes?
the upper one is not ultrapixel!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
lampshadelight - Antwoord
Is it just a depth sensor or is it an actual camera?
Zachary Laborde -
The second camera sensor is used only as a depth sensor, but you can do some pretty cool editing effects using the extra data.
Paul Campbell - Antwoord
cant connect to wifi and cant bluetooth ..since my father sent us to philippines ..not openline..please help me how i can repair this phone
maica mejio - Antwoord