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#iphone#shenzhen#huaqiangbei

How I Made My Own iPhone - in China

Strange Parts

1.9M subscribers • 3 videos on Hallway

YouTube
  • Recommended by 2 people: 2 on Hacker News.
  • Presented by Scotty Allen, creator of Strange Parts

Beginner. No background in the topic needed.

26M views9 years ago2 recommendations

HardwareElectronicsEmbedded systems

Scotty Allen travels through the electronics markets of Huaqiangbei in Shenzhen to source individual components and assemble a working iPhone 6S.

Help support these videos on Patreon: patreon.com/strangeparts Watch this video without ads on my streaming platform, Nebula! nebula.tv/videos/strange-parts-how-i-made-my-own-iphone-in-c… I built a like-new(but really refurbished) iPhone 6S 16GB entirely from parts I bought in the public cell phone parts markets in Huaqiangbei. And it works! How much did it cost? Answer here: youtu.be/-KucQDXnKws I've been fascinated by the cell phone parts markets in Shenzhen, China for a while. I'd walked through them a bunch of times, but I still didn't understand basic things, like how they were organized or who was buying all these parts and what they were doing with them. So when someone mentioned they wondered if you could build a working smartphone from parts in the markets, I jumped at the chance to really dive in and understand how everything works. Well, I sat on it for nine months, and then I dove in. More details at: strangeparts.com/how-i-made-my-own-iphone-in-china/ My Gear: I shot it on this camera: amzn.to/2B0Snke And also with this: amzn.to/2BhdF1e And recorded sound on this: amzn.to/2CFuyPv Collaborative editing software: bit.ly/frameio-sp Facebook: facebook.com/strangepartscom Twitter: twitter.com/strangepartscom Instagram: instagram.com/strangeparts_com Email Newsletter: strangeparts.com/ Special thanks to everyone that helped:Ian Lesnet (dangerousprototypes.com), Jin Lin (dangerousprototypes.com and flylin.co), Helen, Frank, David, Wyman from G-Lon Cell Phone Repair School (facebook.com/wyman.liu.1), Charles Pax (paxinstruments.com), Patrick O'Doherty, Matt Turzo, Richard Littauer, the EFF, Bunnie Huang (bunniestudios.com), Sean Cross (xobs.io), all the rest of my friends in China that have been supportive, and most importantly all the Huaqiangbei market sellers that were so generous with their time and advice! #StrangeParts #PhoneAdventures #China

Why it's here

2 people recommend this

What people say. Recommended as an incredible exploration of the Shenzhen electronics ecosystem and the feasibility of component-level repair.

Consultant32452on Hacker News • Recommends

On “Review: A Counterfeit, $100 iPhone X”

You may enjoy this video where a guy goes to Shenzen and tries to build an iPhone 6s from parts. He claims it cost $300. Technically he spent a little over $600 because he broke a lot of parts and bought the wrong parts in the process, but if everything went perfectly it would be about $300. I think this was created back when the 6s was the current model. $300 claim link build video: link to this video
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Darkphibreon Hacker News • Recommends

On “Review: A Counterfeit, $100 iPhone X”

You addressed the first question, but I popped in to bring up this neat video I came across a few years back regarding the second question. How about this guy, who "built a like-new (but really refurbished) iPhone 6S 16GB entirely from parts purchased from the public cell phone parts markets in Huaqiangbei."? :D link Making-of: link to this video
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justboxingon Hacker News • Mentions

On “How I Made My Own iPhone in China [video]”

Yep. In the video comments, he says he spent well over $1000. Justifies the $300 price tag by stating that he didn't need the $700+ worth of parts and tools he purchased. > Strange Parts 4 hours ago > Thanks for subscribing! I spent well over $1000, but a lot of that was parts and tools I didn't end up needing. I'd say it's probably around $300 worth of parts in the actual phone. Source: Direct link to comment: link to this video
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franciscopon Hacker News • Mentions

On “Why Apple and other tech companies are fighting to keep devices hard to repair”

On the other hand you can make a full iPhone by buying each of the components if you know where to find them (disclaimer: I've met Scott before): link to this video
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srcmapon Hacker News • Mentions

On “Chip wars: China, America and silicon supremacy”

Slightly different Point of view: HW needs infrastructure. It needs Packages, materials, PCB houses etc ideally all near by, with good transportation networks, etc. That was what ShenZhen was good at. It took very low cost labors and supported government and a lot time to build up. Take a look at this video link to this video on how to build IPhone from parts bought in ShenZhen public market to see the supported systems needed for HW. You can imagine how much easier and faster to prototype/build HW (drone, robots, etc) in ShenZhen as compare to anywhere else in the world (for now). As the labor cost goes up in ShenZhen / China, the significant advantages are gone. That's why China is trying to move up…
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aurizonon Hacker News • Mentions

On “Support for right-to-repair laws slowly grows”

This is not so easy. The Surface Books are made with a number of snap together modules, via fine cable runs and multi-pin connectors. Each part is made with care and subjected to detailed tests, that include a term of power-on burn in for the major parts with infra-red smart vision that looks for any hot spots (that might lead to failure). Then they are assembled with in progress tests at some points until the final productis made and it is tested after they add the SSD with all the operating system installed. There are assorted areas partitioned on the SSD that might hold an OS recovery partition, as well as other software provided by others as choice ware (since so many people like this so…
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dbg31415on Hacker News • Mentions

On “Right to Repair Gaining Momentum”

…ware... things you can easily repair. That's a selling point, right? But Apple should be free to do business however they want to do business. You're free not to buy Apple products, but you shouldn't be free, as a consumer, to insist they make schematics and parts available. You can choose to support companies that sell parts if you want! (= EDIT: link to this video - seems about as good as you can hope for. Pretty sure Apple isn't keen on "DIY" for their brand.…
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BoorishBearson Hacker News • Mentions

On “We Ran a Phone Check at a Y Combinator Event in SF. Here’s How It Went”

…that Apple has paired hardware on newer phones, and that combined with Find My has really taken a huge bite out of how many iPhones are stolen, but Shenzhen is Shenzhen. It is a mecca of technology, and you will find things that we'd generally otherwise consider impossible, like building your own iPhone piece by piece just walking around a market: link to this video So even if they can't take a given part as-is, they can always find something useful. We'd think "the logic board is paired so it's useless": they'd think "ICs X,Y, and Z on the logic board commonly fail and now we got spares". There's been more than one case of stolen stuff ending up in Shenzhen: link…
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