An American guy has successfully assembled an iPhone 6S from scrap. It is quite amazing how easily you can put together individual components to make a new smartphone. That too, without any high-profile knowledge of mobile repairing. Here we will tell you how Scotty Allen, the man behind Strange Parts made his Apple iPhone with parts bought from Shenzhen, China.
Five Main Components of iPhone 6S
You will need four main components to build an iPhone. They are:
- Outer Casing or Metal Housing
- Screen
- Motherboard or Logic Board
- Battery
- Brackets, Screws, Cables, Speakers, and Other Accessories
Outer Casing
The first one is the easiest to get. Outer casings of iPhones are readily available in various parts of the world and almost all of them are supplied from Shenzhen itself. So, Allen got an iPhone 6S shell with no trouble.
One small note. If you wish to keep your costing low, go for the refurbished items. However, if you want your assembled smartphone to look new, go for the fresh components which are priced a bit higher.
Screen
Coming to the screen, Allen went for a custom-built one. However, you can always buy a complete display set to keep the process simpler. If you are trying to build your phone outside Shenzhen, you might not have any other way other than buying a whole screen replacement unit.
Assembling a display with separately bought components is a complicated procedure. Moreover, you may not get all the required equipment to assemble an LCD panel. But, Allen was in China. So, he individually bought a display glass, a digitizer, an LCD-LED backlight, and some proprietary glue. Now, putting all of these together is a tedious job. So, he went to one of the famous mobile repair shops of Shenzhen, where he got his entire job done at once.
Motherboard
This is the toughest part. Unlike desktops, individual components of the logic board of a smartphone are not widely available. Furthermore, most of the mobile manufacturers opt for custom motherboards which make it very difficult to fit the processor, RAM, and other stuff into it. Also, the process is utterly delicate due to its miniature size. Only highly trained experts can do it.
Thus, Allen bought a refurbished logic board set from the extensive Shenzhen market. While he did not get any long term warranty, he somehow managed to squeeze out a testing guarantee. For Allen, it actually came to use as he found that the compass sensor is not working and eventually got it repaired for free.
Battery
iPhone batteries are available almost everywhere around the globe. So, buying it was not a big deal.
Brackets, Screws, Cables, Speakers, and Other Accessories
Lastly, you need a complete set of screws, brackets, cables, speakers and other small but important accessories like cameras, lightning dock, headphone jack, etc. Hopefully, this would complete your shopping list.
Assembling the iPhone 6S
For this part, you need to have some knowledge about smartphone components. You can easily gain that by watching some teardown and rebuilding guides. A crash course in mobile repairing will be sweet too. Now, with the knowledge and a tad bit of intuition, you can start assembling all the components.
Do note that you should have a set of smartphone repair tools to make the iPhone 6S. One more thing, the power button and the volume rockers have some specific washers to fit in properly. So, keep this in mind, or else you may need to run to the market once more like Allen.
The assimilation procedure needs a lot of patience and persistence. However, with adequate effort, you will successfully build your own phone.
Wrapping it Up
So, what is the moral of the story? It seems that building a phone can be as pleasurable as assembling a PC. With some moderate understanding, you might be able to make your own mobile device with your desired components. However, it is highly unlikely that the smartphone industry will accept so much openness.
Google’s Project Ara is one of the few initiatives to produce modular handsets which anyone would be able to assemble. However, the program is currently in a stagnant situation due to some technical difficulties.
Still, it won’t restrain you to build an iPhone 7 with a headphone jack!
