How To: Disassemble Xperia Z1

The Sony Xperia Z1 has not even seen a wide release yet, but the handset has already received a very comprehensive teardown courtesy of Chinese site CNMO. The Sony Xperia Z1 packs some very high-end specs into its chassis, so if you’re intrigued in how Sony pieces it all together check out the handset dismantled in all its glory below. 

Xperia Z1 disassembly guide

The first step is to remove the back cover which is stuck using bonded stick tape.

Once the back cover is opened, you can see the Xperia Z1’s battery, secured by yellow tape, and the mainboard. There is a total of nine screws in the shell. The top two metal contacts on the back cover are to enable NFC.

Sony’s G Lens and chip shield can be seen towards the top of the handset.

The next step is to unscrew the nine hexagonal screws using a special screwdriver.

Nine screws removed.

Removing the shell is trickier and requires patience to separate carefully.

The power supply now needs to be cut off i.e. separating the 3000mAh battery from the shell.

A flat cable design sits at the bottom of the shell, reducing the chance of damaging the cable when conducting maintenance.

The Xperia Z1 has two RF cables, located on the left and right sides of the battery. This design helps to give the Xperia Z1 a more stable phone signal.

Now we remove all of the parts. This part is the bottom of the small panel which the speakers are connected to.

A close up of Sony’s G Lens.

The back of the motherboard (or mainboard) shows that it uses the now popular small-sided board design.

The front of the motherboard shows a number of interfaces including that of the micro USB, micro SD card slot, micro SIM and front camera.

The motherboard’s shield needs to be removed gently to get a better understanding of the Xperia Z1’s chip information.

With the shield removed we get a close look at the chipset information on the front of the motherboard.

The rear view of the motherboard with chipset exposed.

Now that the motherboard information is exposed, we can see the 2GB SK Hynix memory chip running H9CCNNNBPTARLANTH 327A.

Here we see the 16GB internal storage in the way of a Samsung 310 KLMAG2GEAC-B001 memory chip.

A close up of the Sky77629 signal amplifier.

Here is the IC chip, model PM8841.

The Qualcomm PM8941 power management chip.

The Xperia Z1 front camera.

The micro USB interface and micro SD card slot on the motherboard.

The micro SIM card slot.

With the motherboard removed, we get to the screen panel parts.

Xperia Z1 handset close-up.

The frame shows the magnetic pins to be used with the charging dock.

Slots in the frame for the micro SD and micro USB ports.

Slot for the micro SIM card interface.

The signature power button and volume keys close up.

The dedicated camera key.

All of the parts together.

Overall CNMO says the handset is not too difficult to disassemble for maintenance, although you need to take care as some parts of the process does require some brute force. It will also mean that you will need to reseal the dedicated tape around the handset. Only attempt if you know exactly what you’re doing.

Via CNMO.