Cracking Open the Motorola Droid Bionic: Verizon $299 with contract

ntThe Motorola Droid Bionic is available from Verizon for $299.99 (US) with a two-year contract. I bought our Bionic test device (sans contract) from a local Best Buy Mobile location for $699.99 (plus tax). Interestingly, Verizon’s Web site lists the full retail price as $589.99.
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ntPhoto by: Bill Detwiler / TechRepublic
ntCaption by: Bill Detwiler

Cracking Open the Motorola Droid Bionic: Brief hardware specifications

ntOur the Droid Bionic has a 1GHz dual-core processor, 1GB of DDR2 RAM, 16GB of storage, 8MP rear-facing camera, VGA-quality front-facing camera, and 4.3″ display (960×540 pixels).
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ntPhoto by: Bill Detwiler / TechRepublic
ntCaption by: Bill Detwiler

Cracking Open the Motorola Droid Bionic: Box contents

ntInside the Droid Bionic’s box, you’ll find the device itself (includes removable back panel, battery, and microSD card), USB cable, power adapter, and product documentation.
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ntPhoto by: Bill Detwiler / TechRepublic
ntCaption by: Bill Detwiler

Cracking Open the Motorola Droid Bionic: Front

ntThe Droid Bionic measures 5″ (H) x 2.6″ (W) x 0.5″ (D). It weighs 5.6 ounces.
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ntPhoto by: Bill Detwiler / TechRepublic
ntCaption by: Bill Detwiler

Cracking Open the Motorola Droid Bionic: Back

Cracking Open the Motorola Droid Bionic: micro-USB and micro-HDMI ports

Cracking Open the Motorola Droid Bionic: Volume buttons

Cracking Open the Motorola Droid Bionic: Power button and headphone jack

Cracking Open the Motorola Droid Bionic: Bottom edge

Motorola Droid Bionic and HTC ThunderBolt side by side

Motorola Droid Bionic and HTC ThunderBolt end to end

Cracking Open the Motorola Droid Bionic: Removing the back cover

ntRemoving the Droid Bionic’s back cover grants you access to the user-replaceable battery, microSD card slot, and SIM card slot.

Cracking Open the Motorola Droid Bionic: Back cover removed

Cracking Open the Motorola Droid Bionic: Removing the battery

Cracking Open the Motorola Droid Bionic: 3.8V 1735mAh battery

Cracking Open the Motorola Droid Bionic: Battery model MOTXT8758BAT

Cracking Open the Motorola Droid Bionic: With battery removed

Cracking Open the Motorola Droid Bionic: Removing the microSD card

Cracking Open the Motorola Droid Bionic: Removing the Torx T5 case screws

ntThe Droid Bionic’s rear case is held in place with 11 Torx T5 screws.

Cracking Open the Motorola Droid Bionic: Peeling off the battery compartment sticker

ntBefore removing the rear case, I had to peel off a sticker that lined the back of the battery compartment.

Cracking Open the Motorola Droid Bionic: Ready to remove rear case

ntWith the rear case screws and battery compartment sticker removed, you can remove the rear case.

Cracking Open the Motorola Droid Bionic: Removing the rear case

Cracking Open the Motorola Droid Bionic: Rear case

ntThe internal loudspeaker, headphone jack, and LED flash are mounted to the rear case.

Cracking Open the Motorola Droid Bionic: Internal loudspeaker

Cracking Open the Motorola Droid Bionic: LED flash and 3.5mm headphone jack

Cracking Open the Motorola Droid Bionic: Internal hardware

Cracking Open the Motorola Droid Bionic: Removing the microSD and SIM card reader bracket screws

Cracking Open the Motorola Droid Bionic: Removing the microSD and SIM card reader

Cracking Open the Motorola Droid Bionic: microSD and SIM card reader

Cracking Open the Motorola Droid Bionic: Removing the webcam/card reader spacking bracket

Cracking Open the Motorola Droid Bionic: Disconnecting the LCD and touchscreen connectors

Cracking Open the Motorola Droid Bionic: Removing the front-facing webcam and speaker

Cracking Open the Motorola Droid Bionic: Front-facing webcam and speaker

Cracking Open the Motorola Droid Bionic: Removing the main PCB

Cracking Open the Motorola Droid Bionic: Front panel assembly and main PCB

Cracking Open the Motorola Droid Bionic: Touchscreen and LCD

Cracking Open the Motorola Droid Bionic: Detaching the touchscreen ribbon cables from the LCD

Cracking Open the Motorola Droid Bionic: Removing the LCD

Cracking Open the Motorola Droid Bionic: Touchscreen and LCD

Cracking Open the Motorola Droid Bionic: Touchscreen

Cracking Open the Motorola Droid Bionic: LCD - Front

Cracking Open the Motorola Droid Bionic: LCD - Back

Cracking Open the Motorola Droid Bionic: Main PCB

ntUnfortunately, the EMI shields on the Motorola Droid Bionic’s main PCB are soldered in place. To avoid damaging the components on the PCB, I decided to leave the shields in place. There are still a few components we can remove from the main PCB.

Cracking Open the Motorola Droid Bionic: Removing the processor shield

ntOne of the only removable shields on the Droid Bionic’s main PCB is the one covering the processor. It also covers the rear-facing camera’s connector.

Cracking Open the Motorola Droid Bionic: Disconnecting the rear-facing camera

ntUsing a thin metal blade, I detached the 8MP rear-facing camera’s connector from the main PCB.

Cracking Open the Motorola Droid Bionic: Removing the rear-facing camera

Cracking Open the Motorola Droid Bionic: 8MP rear-facing camera

Cracking Open the Motorola Droid Bionic: Removing rubber cushions from the main PCB

ntSeveral rubber “cushions” surround various components on the main PCB. I removed them using a pair of tweezers.

Cracking Open the Motorola Droid Bionic: Main PCB - Front

Cracking Open the Motorola Droid Bionic: Main PCB - Back

Cracking Open the Motorola Droid Bionic: Elpida B8064B2PB-8D-F

When announced at CES 2011, Motorola indcated that the Droid Bionic would use a dual-core Nvidia TEgra 2 processor. But the final version of the phone uses this Elpida B8064B2PB-8D-F chip, which contains 8 Gb DRAM and the Texas Instruments OMAP4430 Application Processor.

Cracking Open the Motorola Droid Bionic: Atmel MXT224E touchscreen controller

Cracking Open the Motorola Droid Bionic: X6500 F0TK RVC

Cracking Open the Motorola Droid Bionic: Vibration motor

Cracking Open the Motorola Droid Bionic: Ambient light sensor and proximity sensor

Cracking Open the Motorola Droid Bionic: Microphone

Cracking Open the Motorola Droid Bionic: Complete teardown

ntThe Motorola Droid Bionic was remarkabley easy to disassemble. It uses standard screws, has a user-replaceable battery, and readily-accessible components. Only the rear-facing camera was a pain to remove.

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ntFor a more in-depth review of the Bionic’s internal hardware, check out my article, “Droid Bionic Teardown: Motorola switches processors, upgrades RAM in final version.”