Hasta La Gadget!

Google may make a profit on every Moto G it sells, but it’s likely swallowing a considerably smaller margin on the budget Motorola than rivals would stomach, according to a new teardown analysis. The 16GB Moto G, which Motorola sells unlocked and SIM-free for $199, costs Google $123 in components alone, research firm TechInsights tells […]

It’s always fun to tear gadgets apart. I remember being a kid and taking stuff apart to learn how it works. Somehow this never gets old. We all love a good gadget teardown, And so the folks over at iFixit flew to New Zealand to get a launch day console and have now posted their teardown of the Microsoft Xbox One.

So what did they find inside? Well, the Xbox One is easy to disassemble, which is always good news for those of us who like to tinker, and most of the parts are easy to access and repair.

However, it’s not as easy to swap out the hard drive as in the PS4, and it voids your warranty. Overall, it’s not all that different from the PS4 since they’re both glorified HTPCs – although you can really see that Microsoft could have trimmed their console down in size a bit – or at least have integrated the power supply like Sony did.

One other interesting discovery is the tiny speaker inside the case. I presume this is used to make sounds when the system powers up or discs are ejected, but maybe it could be programmed to make other sounds. Perhaps Microsoft will start to sell disc eject sounds – like ringtones for your console.

For tons of photos, component listings, and info on repairability, check out the full teardown at iFixit. Now you will know what’s inside your shiny new black box.

The chip-obsessed gadget archaeologists at iFixit already have an Xbox One, and they’re already ripping it apart. Those monsters! While they’re not done dissecting and analyzing every single piece just yet, they’ve already found some interesting tidbits: for one, the Xbox One’s 500GB HDD is a standard SATA II 2.5-in. (of the Samsung Spinpoint variety, with an 8MB cache). Sure, you’ll have to pry open the system and carefully remove the Wifi and system speaker assembly to swap it out the HDD for a larger size, but if you’re willing to void the warranty and get up in there, serious storage is at your fingertips.

While you’re inside the Xbox One, you may also notice the amount of easy to replace, standard hardware. It’s true: 64 mm Torx screws hold the Xbox One’s internals together and a SATA data connector pairs the Blu-ray/DVD drive to the motherboard. As iFixit‘s teardown is still in action, they’ve yet to determined its repairability. And should they find out any dark secrets about the console in the process, we’ll keep you updated.

Update: iFixit awarded the Xbox One an 8 out of 10 repairability rating, placing it in the same easily repairable world as the PlayStation 4.

[Image credit: iFixit]

Filed under: Gaming, HD, Microsoft

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Source: iFixit

Not too long ago Sony offered up their official unboxing and teardown video giving us a look at what comes in the package you buy a new PlayStation 4 and the hardware inside the enclosure. Typically, when we talk about tear downs around here it’s the geeks over at iFixit ripping something open and giving us a glimpse of what goes on under the shiny outside of our favorite gadgets. The last time we talked about iFixit taking something apart from Sony was when they gutted the PlayStation Vita. This time, they’re back with a tear down of the new PlayStation 4 game console.

It looks like the console is surprisingly easy to take apart. In fact, iFixit gave the PS4 a repairability score of 8 out of 10 – a rarity with today’s ever more disposable gadgets. One thing that is particularly easy to change is the hard drive hidden underneath a snap-on cover and secured with a single screw.

Sony uses a normal 2.5-inch 5400 RPM 500GB laptop hard drive. Presumably, you can cram just about any capacity hard drive or SSD you can think of inside to expand or speed up your storage space. Hardware highlights inside the PS4 include Sony’s CXD9002G system on a chip, which combines AMD Jaguar CPU and Radeon graphics cores, there’s also 8GB of Samsung GDDR5 RAM, another 2GB of DDR3 SDRAM, and 256MB of flash RAM.

One thing that iFixit did note during its teardown is that it was impossible get the heatsink off the EMI shielding. Apparently, Sony uses an incredibly strong glue to secure those two components together. They also noted that like many have observed, the console does wobble slightly if you push on it, and offers up the most sage bit of advice on the topic: “don’t push on it.”

If you’re interested in seeing all of the guts of the PS4 splayed open, head on over to iFixit for the full teardown.

Not content with Sony’s official teardown of the PlayStation 4, iFixit has started work on its own thorough analysis of the console’s internals. The dissection isn’t complete yet, but early evidence shows that Sony is using standard measures to deter modders and tinkerers, including security screws and lengthy passages in the user guide about how “analysis” of the PS4’s components is “not authorized.” (With the replaceable hard drive being an awkward exception.) Now, this happens to be exactly the sort of language that gets up iFixit‘s nose, and it could well hurt the PS4’s score for repairability and recyclability. The site also reports a potential issue with the HDMI port, spotted earlier by Kotaku, in which a small metal obstruction in front of the port on some units could potentially stop video output if you’re not careful when you first plug in your cable (although the HDMI pins can apparently be bent back into position). In any case, we’ll update this post as soon as the experts have splayed everything out and come to a verdict.

Update: Though you might expect a low repairability score from a gaming console — especially in a smallish case like Sony’s Playstation 4 — iFixit gave it eight out of 10. All things considered, that’s an excellent mark, which the teardown site chalked up to the absence of adhesives and a non-proprietary, user-replaceable hard drive. Security screws and tamper seals put a slight damper on things, but the biggest markdown came from a sharp mid-plane which resulted in a cut finger. Naturally, the site included a pic of said wound, adding that “we wear our repair scars with pride.”

Filed under: Gaming, HD, Sony

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Source: iFixit, Kotaku