Teardowns

LG G4 Teardown: X-ray Goggles Included

Do you hear that? The phone repair gods are singing LG’s praises. Why? Because the LG G4 just visited our teardown table. We couldn’t believe we were able to open this baby up with just our bare hands. We were delighted to see that the G4 is rocking a user-replaceable battery. Glad these aren’t extinct!

As a special treat, because we love you, we also shot the G4 with X-rays. But also ‘cause we made besties with the folks at Creative Electron and they lent us one of their science machines (and one of their scientists). Thanks guys!

X-ray image of the camera in the LG G4

All in all, the G4 is a great showcase for the coexistence of slim luxury and repair friendliness. The ease of opening, modularity, and simplicity of components earned the G4 a repairability score of 8 out of 10.

LG G4 teardown highlights:

• LG is definitely trying to raise the bar of smartphone photography—the G4’s 16 MP main camera features optical image stabilization, a laser rangefinder, and a wide f/1.8 aperture—improving low-light performance.

• We got all the way to the midframe before we needed to open our tool bag. Along with a modular design and an easily replaced battery, this is a very repairable device.

• X-rays reveal an NFC antenna, not a wireless charging coil. For those of you hoping to use your Qi charger right out of the box, this G4 won’t support wireless charging without a specialty case.

• LG G4 Hardware:

• Hexa-Core, 1.8 GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 808
• Samsung K3QF6F60AM-QGCF 3 GB LPDDR3 RAM
• Toshiba THGBMFG8C4LBAIR 32 GB NAND Flash
• Broadcom BCM4339HKUBG 5G WiFi Client
• IDT P9025A Qi Wireless Power Receiver IC
• Qualcomm WTR3925 LTE Transceiver
• Qualcomm PMI8994 Power Management IC
• Qualcomm PM8994 Power Management IC
• Avago ACPM-7717
• Qualcomm WCD9330 Audio Codec
• SlimPort ANX7816 Ultra-HD Transmitter
• NXP 47883 NFC Controller