The original iPhone, unofficially named the iPhone 2G, was the start of it all about 10
years ago.
With 8 gigabytes of capacity, I’m holding the more deluxe of the two versions initially
launched; the other having a whopping 4 gigabytes of internal storage.
Apple sold about 6 million of these original iPhones.
So let’s throw back and analyze how the build quality was back in 2007.
[Intro]
Now obviously with a phone this old, it is fairly difficult to find a brand new one like
I always do with my regular durability tests.
This phone does appear to be in original condition though, well, at least it was before I got
my hands on it.
We’ll start with the scratch test.
The original iPhone is using the first generation of Gorilla Glass.
This is basically tempered glass used on cell phone screens.
And as we know, most tempered glass is a 6 on Mohs scale of hardness.
But we are seeing some nicks on this phone at a level 5, which never happens on the more
recent Gorilla Glass versions, like Gorilla Glass 4 or 5.
So some things have improved in the glass department since this phone was released.
It’s almost interesting that you can almost see the individual pixels on the screen.
The home button does not contain a fingerprint scanner and is made of plastic.
But it does still have that satisfying physical click that has been removed on the newer versions
of the iPhone.
Up here on the front facing camera…just kidding, there’s no front facing camera.
That feature was not implemented into the iPhone lineup until the iPhone 4.
The earpiece is buried pretty deep under that thick black glass.
It appears to be of a nylon variety but it does not pull out easily like we’ve seen
on some of the other phones.
I still think metal makes for the most ideal ear piece on a cell phone and luckily that’s
what we’ve been seeing in the later editions of the iPhone.
The back of the phone is pretty curious.
Instead of antenna bands at the top and bottom of the phone, we have more of an antenna chunk.
This black plastic section of the phone makes up a pretty large portion of the device body
and is definitely not the most aesthetic looking piece of tech, but it did get the job done
way back in the day.
Lucky for us the silver portion of the phone is indeed real metal.
Solid.
Cold.
And quality feeling in the hand.
And look, it’s an apple tree.
You can tell it’s an apple tree from the apple there in the center.
It’s pretty neat.
This incredibly small circle up here in the top corner is the 2 megapixel camera lens
for picture taking.
The video capabilities were not introduced until the iPhone 3GS, two years later in 2009.
The interesting thing is that this camera lens is made from plastic.
The little lip along the edge probably doesn’t offer much protection either.
I am glad that Apple has improved on this with later versions of the iPhone, delving
into their own special blends of sapphire.
There is no flash, so good luck with your low light shots, and no flashlight either.
The side volume buttons are made from plastic, and even this mute switch is plastic.
Now normally I’m an Android guy, but this mute switch is actually a really good idea.
I find myself wishing that my Galaxy S8 had one.
I’d be more than happy to trade Bixby for a mute switch.
Take a look at that headphone jack.
There are 9 years of innovation between the release of these two phones, and I think it’s
a bit funny that the smaller iPhone has plenty of room for the headphone jack, but Apple
claims that the bigger phone, which is almost twice the size, did not have room.
I think that there’s always room for jack – if you make room.
The power button is made from plastic.
And the bottom of the phone near the charging port is also plastic.
There are a lot of different materials used in the build of this phone.
The chrome looking metal around the screen is much harder than the soft aluminum on the
back.
It is much more scratch resistant as well.
And this is good if you were to ever set your phone face down on something, or drop it.
The lip around the screen would not be damaged or flake away like what happened with the
plastic lip on the Galaxy S5.
The original iPhone has a 3.5 inch TFT LCD display, with a 320 by 480 pixel screen resolution.
Proportionally compared to this 4K video you are watching, the original iPhone screen resolution
looked a lot like this, utilizing about 2% of the total available pixels on screen.
The iPhone7 currently has a bit better resolution at 750 by 1334.
And the Galaxy S8 is one of the higher resolution phones in the industry with a 2960 by 1440
display.
Remember, all of these sizes are just relative to the 4K viewing window that YouTube offered.
The phone lasted about 20 seconds under that flame test.
I think that the heavier and thicker front glass panel helped keep the heat off the pixels
for longer.
Luckily it did recover like the IPS screens that Apple uses now.
And the screen was totally functional a few seconds after the heat was removed.
And now for the bend test.
With all the different materials used in this phone it will be interesting to see if there
are any failure points.
The phone is so small, there’s almost not even enough room to grab a hold of it with
both hands.
Even after flexing the phone, the plastic to metal joint along the back is still holding
very tight.
I’m sure the small form factor along with the body style is helping considerably with
the rigidness.
Personally I’d be totally fine if smartphones started trending thicker.
I’d much rather have a larger battery that could last a day or two over some arrow dynamic
dainty piece of fluff.
I use my phone has a tool and not a fashion accessory, so the more features it has and
how long the battery lasts are big selling points for me.
Apple did do a good job with this phone though, minus the plastic camera lens.
This phone definitely passes my durability test.
I’m excited to tear this thing down and see what it looks like on the inside.
Now that the phone is so old, I’m sure that there are plenty of old broken phones or phones
with dead batteries laying around just waiting to be brought back to life.
What other old phones would you like to see tested or torn down on my channel?
I think these throw backs are kind of fun.
Thanks a ton for watching.
I’ll see you around.