iPhone 3G S teardown

6/22/2009 11:17 AM EDT

The big thing happening right now is the release of the iPhone 3G S.  Or I should say, the biggest thing happening, which isn't saying too much.  I've read some reports of long lines and outsold stores from a few locations, but on Friday morning in Ottawa... not so much.  A collegue went to the "flagship" Rogers store at 5:30AM just in case.  That store was scheduled to open at 10AM, so I was to go to a smaller store as that store opened at 9AM and we figured the line up would be smaller as it was out of the way.  We didn't need to worry.  At 5:30AM there was one person in line.  They decided to open the store a little after 8, at which point there was only 3 people in line, including my colleague.  At the store I was at there was no one, and on the drive back to the office I passed a few more stores without anyone waiting in front.

We were not the first people to get a teardown done, but we were able to get into more detail than some of the initial teardowns, thanks to some decapping and collaboration with Semiconductor Insights and Portelligent.  We were also able to get a few parts correctly identified, as many places were labelling the Nymonyx NOR flash as being from Infineon.  Our full findings can be seen here (including a humerous, yet educational, video of the teardown).

I only got a few minutes to play with the iPhone 3G S before we had to take it apart.  It seemed decent, but nothing revolutionary over the iPhone 3G.  A few nice features, and maybe the faster processor could be useful (didn't have enough time to really do solid comparisons), but nothing that made me decide I needed to go out and get one.  Anyone out there pick one up and have impressions on it?