Motorola Droid 2 teardown

The guys at iFixit have done it again, this time tearing down a Motorola Droid 2 handset.

I think one of the most interesting points made by the guys at iFixit about the Droid 2 is how similar it is to the original Droid.
“Motorola made significant evolutionary changes to the Droid 2’s internals (1 GHz processor, 802.11n, etc.) that provide an overall speedier experience for the user,” said Kyle Wein, CEO of iFixit. “Yet, the phone’s internal layout is so similar to the original Droid that it is difficult to discern which is which once they’re apart. Motorola certainly took the “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it route” by keeping everything people didn’t complain about exactly the same, and upgrading the bits that mattered. Who wouldn’t like smoother games and faster browsing?”
Some teardown highlights:

• The Droid 2 has a 3.7V, 1390 mAh Li-Ion Polymer battery, identical to the one found in the Droid. But Motorola is advertising a 575 minute usage time for the Droid 2, compared to a 385 minute usage time for the Droid. That’s a claimed 49% improvement while still using the same battery.
• Unlike the iPhone 4 battery’s “Authorized Service Provider Only” pull tab, the Droid 2 has a helpful note stating “Battery Removal Here.”
• The Droid 2’s 5 MP rear-facing camera with dual-LED flash supports DVD-quality video recording at 6 more FPS than the original Droid - 30 FPS vs. 24 FPS.

• The Droid 2 uses the same 3.7 inch, Full WVGA, 854×480 TFT LCD as the original Droid.

• The Droid 2 has a SanDisk SDIN4C2 8 GB NAND flash package soldered to the main board. This part wasn’t included in the original Droid. The Droid 2 only comes with a 8 GB micro SD card, so its storage capacity out the box is the same as the original. We didn’t investigate how Android handles the filesystem being split across two physical devices.
• The TI WL1271B WLAN Bluetooth/FM chip gives the Droid 2 802.11n capability, a substantial upgrade over the Droid’s 802.11g.

Another great teardown guys!