The recently revealed Lumia 950 smartphone from Microsoft may not be on sale yet, but it looks like a company managed to get a hold of one of its units, and proceeded to tear it apart to see what's inside.
The Poland-based Kapion LAB posted up videos showing their tear down work on YouTube, along with another video that shows how to reassemble some of its parts. Both videos offer good views of the Lumia 950 XL's camera, battery, boards and more. Of course, while these videos are cool to watch from an educational perspective, it should be noted that owners of the Lumia 950 XL who decide to disassemble or reassemble their phone will void their warranty.
Thanks to Philipp for the tip!
Source: Kapion LAB (YouTube)
Reader comments
See what's inside the Microsoft Lumia 950 XL in new videos
>but it looks like a company managed to get a hold of one of its units, and proceeded to tear it apart to see what's inside.
No, these are the nokia care tech videos.
Yes but will the second sim be restricted to 2G like all the previous dual sin models?
Losing hype...moving on to the next flagship already...
Wow, they went over every little, nitty-gritty thing!
Press to activate the adhesive
Is it me or is the person in the video actually not that precise with their hands? They seem to have very little knowledge of how plastic bends or where to apply pressure. It's really odd to me.
Well he did better than me when I tried to open my 920 with a hammer.
You may have voided the warranty there?
Interesting video, I was hoping to see detailed instructions on how to replace the storage of 32GB with someting larger of 64GB, also a place showing how could you increase your RAM memory, but I guess smartphones are difficult to upgrade.
However with the amazing camera, amazing microphone, removable battery, microSD card, USB Type-C this really looks like the best phone of 2015.
Oh and I forgot, that liquid cooling system looks awesome on the video, really small but practical to fix thermal throttle issues on the Snapdragon 810
Did Microsoft bought all the defective snapdragon 810 with heating problem earlier this year and staffed a cooling system inside! I wonder. Ha ha.
Wow I won't be trying to fix one of those
Screen repair still looks like it'll be difficult. Sure, it's easy to access the thing, but it looks like you have to dig all the way down if you want to replace the display. That gives you plenty of steps for things to go wrong, unfortunately.
I hope I'm wrong, but it looks like screen repair, while accessible, won't be a trivial task.
What's difficult, looks really easy. Will have a go on my current 930.....what can go wrong?
Well unlike something like say, the Surface that uses excessive amounts of adhesive, this phone is all screws and re-attachable cables. So from that standpoint: Super easy to repair.
However, unlike previous devices like the Lumia 900 or the 1020, you've gotta dig through the entire phone to reach the screen. I remember replacing the display on my Lumia 900, and it was rather easy because all the electronics and such rested in the back cover, the screen could be removed without removing all the other parts. You were working front to back, and since you only had to replace the front: The back could mostly be ignored.
However, the 950 series works back to front. I mean, obviously, you can't how a removable back-cover otherwise. But it does mean that accessing the screen, should it crack, requires taking out literally all the other parts. Again, correct me I'm wrong and I simply missed a shortcut while watching the video, but that's a lot of parts to remove, keep safe, and put back together again for a screen replacement.
Still easier than so many other devices on the market today, but rather disappointing all the same when I remember how easy it was to repair the Lumia 900 and 1020.
My original comment should have included :/s
Bravo to you for taking a phone apart, it is something I would never attempt.
I think I'm being technical because I can change the sim card in my phone lol
Yeah, I unfortunately figured that out /after/ I replied. The "What can go wrong?" tipped me off afterwards to, "Oohh, he's joking."
Nonetheless, I'm still disappointed how painstaking screen repair will be. A most very risk operation indeed.
Don't show us interesting disassembly
Give us these extra interesting devices asap.
Its hard to keep patience for a patient :p
Didn't knew there is something like "Kapion Lab" in Poland. Bing and Google don't find anything. I believe those videos are internal guides for care center technicians.
The phone will be available soon. Just get on with your lives.
shhh... 11/10/15
What's that date you're posting? Please dear God be the date for Australia!?! :-P
. that's the day Microsoft stores will get them in the u.s. If everything goes according to plan. But it's Microsoft, very few products go according to plan in terms of the scale up to production models. Their supply chain is suspect so dates will always change.
Sigh, that's also the date the 1st physical MS Store in Australia opens in Sydney, got my hopes up for a minute.
Still, maybe they're planning to make them available in the MS store here (online & off) at the same time as MS stores in the US?
I don't care about that though, I wanna know about "wider availability" with Aussie Telcos, Telco_Resellers, & Retailers.
I think we'll be lucky if we even get these bloody phones in December, let alone ~November like the US. >.>
Cheers!
I went to the ms store yesterday and got my hands on the 950xl it was great and it's thinner than my 1520. Can't wait for the release of this phone.
I went to the MS store yesterday, but they didn't have the 950xl available. I have a 1520 too though and was wondering if the XL is the same size (other than thickness)?
Saying it nicely forget MS and their failed 950 series. I think they want the Lumia line to fail so that they can write the entire thing off. ATT exclusive if I were the other carriers I would turn my back to them as well.
It's not exclusive to any carrier. So far only one picked it up.
They've already written it off. And no, they don't want it to fail.
So that's where those stolen 950 and 950 XL's went...
How about a release date?
It'll be out on the date of release. We're all going to die waiting for that date, though.
What I get from the video:
1. Very easy to assemble and dissemble.
2. Instead of liquid cooling, thermal paste with copper cooler is used. Miniature version of laptop cooler. Which is cool. So liquid cooling was marketing mumbo jumbo!? Anyway, First Mobile phone with cooling system of my knowledge.
3. Less connector, less hassle for DIY job.
4. Interestingly Dual sim variant was not introduced on the event. But any one can make dual variant just by changing the back cover and buying a sim socket from third party.
You know that thermal paste still applies with liquid cooling, right? It's there to help the contract between the chip and the heat sink. The liquid is in the pipes you see.
This is basically a heat pipe. The liquid refrigerant inside get the heat of CPU and turn to a gaseous phase. The gas travels to the end of the flat pipe, cools down and becomes liquid. The liquid returns to heat sink and the process loops again.
Quite smart.
I'm actually happy to see a matured cooling system in a phone. It is straight flat a miniature version of traditional cooling heat sink without a fan, that's all.
WHEN CAN I BUY THIS PHONE ALREADY?
The disassembly seems very easy in the first video. So I think it is good and bad...good because if something breaks inside these phones you can buy the parts and with not much effort you replace it...bad because the easy disassembly may reveal the message that these phones are not sturdy and cohesive enough to own. I am comparing this disassembly to say what iFixit does on iPhone with high degree of difficulty. It makes you think twice before jumping to buy!
The easy disassembly doesnt make it to see that the device is not sturdy enough !! It only gives a little glance towards a protective measure for the owners ! Also replacable as u said is also right !! More than the build, i mainly consider its performance !!!
I don't get your logic. Are you saying if your fork was made of a hundred pieces of metal strapped together it would have been sturdier? I always thought less parts means less means to break something.
I like the warranty warning lol
I would rather see a video of someone giving a firm US Release date.
I tried to go check these out at Microsoft store yesterday. I knew the 950 XL was taken away but I thought the 950 remained. But, both had been pulled from their store.
That happened to me too. The store did not know the reason for pull out but he said pre order is available for 950 in Canada.
I also went to the store yesterday, thinking the 950 would be available. They said they never had a 950 model--just the XL, which was pulled. If I understand correct, the MS store wont be carrying the 950 at the beginning. Just ATT.
Store in Buffalo only had the 950xl
US stores haven't received any 950 samples yet. So there was never one to send back
I don't even get why my whole comment thread was deleted.
,
.
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I'm tired of hearing about this phone now. Until it's on users' hands, there's really not much more to report that hasn't already leaked for months.
Sounds like you need a rest!
Dual sim on 950XL is there to be seen
what happened to the "tablet-type liquid cooling"? not a single mention of anything liquid...it's a Snapdragon 810 after all, I don't want burn on my lap when the phone in my pocket.
That copper encases the liquid. If looking for clear plastic tubes, that's not how it works.
Liquid cooling is there shown in copper heat sink and flat tubing.
Obviously when they opened the phone all the liquid came out along with a few goldfish.
Lol good one :P
Go to 13:39, that is the thermal pad. To understand how it works, see the Surface Pro 4 description here: http://imgur.com/9gQAjct
From what I saw, there is a very tiny amount of thermal compound.. I wonder if that was the problem that they found, that triggered the recalled of all the l950 xl prerelease version from store's... Hummm
Jesus, enough with the FUD. MS already made a statement about why they recalled all the demo units.
"Last week’s Lumia 950 and Lumia 950 XL phones announcements generated huge interest. We made some prototype devices available for a limited time in our retail stores, so that customers could get an early look at our best Windows experience with Windows 10, on our most productive smartphones ever. We’ve now removed the prototypes from the stores as we finalize the experience, and look forward to rolling the phones out next month"
I'm a little dubious at that explanation. May be the pessimist in me, but from what I can tell, none of the anecdotal evidence from the store staff supports the official line. The withdrawals appeared to be at her short notice.
And November 31st 2016 is the end of the world - the Microsoft staff have not denied this so it must be true :)
i heard only the XL was removed? seems odd to remove one and not the other based on this statement
Grazy the stores in the US didn't have 950 samples at all so there wasn't any to send back
Okay. I'm reading the statement and they don't give an actual reason. "We've removed the prototypes from the stores...because."
lol drawing thermal compound out from nothing.
I can't watch the video now, but what is a "very tiny" amount? When you put thermal paste on, it's supposed to be a very thin layer. If you cake it on, it'll ooze out into the rest of the hardware, and the die and heat sink won't have good contact.
A quite normal amount you'd see used anywhere
There is little to none that remains in the CPU after he remove's the heat sink.. In normal conditions when a heat sink is removed there is an amount that stays on the CPU.. In this video I can't see any on the CPU..
Btw, I have already preorder an 950 xl, so I'm watching this video with attention to detail..
I disagree completely. I just watched the video, and it looks like a rather generous about of thermal paste. Heck, on a proportional level, that's probably more than Intel included for my i5 with its thermal pad.
The were taken back because they were rough prototypes from line test runs. They don't have FCC markings etc. They were out just to have something in stores for early preorder people to have something to hold. They weren't "recalled" they were simply sent back when they were supposed to be
It's amazing that after a year of waiting Microsoft still doesn't know who is selling their phones.
It is indeed amazing
They are...it's not hard. =\
This is an instructional video created by Microsoft itself. And the Microsoft Mobile branch is just a renamed Nokia up to this point. Most repair centers will have their Nokia Repair Kit 2, so why release a Microsoft Repair Kit if all the tools are present in the Nokia one.
MS did not buy Nokia. They can not rename company they do not own.
They do and it's been announced months ago: Microsoft will sell them directly and through a few selected retail partners and a handful of hand-picked carriers namely AT&T in the US.
I don't think one counts as a handful, a fingerful maybe?
Thats torcher!! The horror!! THE HORRORRRRR!!!!
Torture?
No, he's calling it arson. They're apparently lighting the thing on fire, a.k.a. torching it, haha.
Flame on
OMG, the Lumia 950 XL is on fire! HELLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLP!
Yeah i meant torture:$, thanks.
I think people would much rather know when they can get one of these phones. Especially if there is still a possibility of a T-Mobile deal after John Legere basically called Microsoft out. I want one but I'm not willing to go unlocked for one.
I think it was more like...saving face for T-Mobile's lackluster support for previous versions of Windowsphones.
Well this is a flagship we're talking about and after the long wait, I'm willing to bet people will be happy to buy these.
Yes absolutely this... John wanted to make it look like tmo was on board but knows full well they haven't given wp much support other than carrying them in stores with zero promotion... MS isn't the blame for tmo not carrying the 950/950xl...blame lies squarely at tmos feet and John knows this... Hence the quick way he came out to point blame
Well Microsoft did come out and say other carriers beside ATT showed interest.... Either way, less carriers will probably equal less sales no matter who's at fault.
Yes, we all know that Microsoft can do no wrong and everything is someone elses fault. /s
Probably mid 2016 for me here in South Africa. All the hype will be gone by then and one can expect lacklustre sales as the iPhone 7 Plus is released :-/
Posted via the Windows Central App for Android
Where is SA are ya? Used to live in Joburg
Ask John about his 640 marketing plan. That one worked great. I can't imagine Microsoft cares if John Legere "called Microsoft out".
If he wants to play, let him show some support.
Are you serious? The 640(and 640xl for ATT) took months to become available and no one really wanted it. You can't blame people for not buying a cheap phone. This is something people would actually want.
That's because the 640 at Walmart was cheaper and more easily attainable. I bought 6 of them for my whole family. None of the Tmobile stores had any on display and it was special order only. Tmobile set this phone up to fail. I honestly don't care if Tmobile picks it up because their track record for Windows phone sucks. I've been burnt too many times by them. HTC Radar, Lumia 810, Lumia 925...
Thank you. My favorite marketing idea from T-Mobile. Ship it to WalMart and sell it for $45 less (that includes the SIM starter kit you have to buy at a T-Mobile store/website) and wonder why you're not selling any online, because it never got near your stores.
And for our friend who says no one wanted it! Then why is it the fastest selling Windows Phone in the US.
You really must not want one. You only bought 6.
It's the fastest selling Windows phone in the world. Rave reviews.
And support for Windows from T-Mobile? Where's the Denim update for the 635, or even 8.1 update 2.
If you treat the low and midline phones you have like trash, why would someone trust you with a flagship?
If John Legere is serious about listening to customers, listen to them all. Lip service doesn't work long.
This!!!! right Thurr!!!
Waiting for the 950 XL !!
From what I've heard, the real issue with Tmo is that they want to be able to control updates. Similar issue with Verizon (plus Verizon wanted their own device, not a pure unlocked one with CDMA capability).
T-Mobile did such a great job with the Denim update for the 635. I'm sure Microsoft would want them to control W10M.
My mistake, they haven't put out the Denim update yet. It's only been out a year. "Coming Soon"?
And ATT did such an excellent job with the Lumia 830...
I'm not crazy about AT&T either. And the 830 update mysteriously just came out. Gee, I wonder why?
I like T-Mobile, unfortunately they're just not interested in either Windows phones, or dealing with Microsoft. To their credit, Microsoft apparently hasn't given T-Mobile much support for the Windows phones they did have.
Ok, AT&T got first dibs on the 950. They do have (including Cricket &WalMart) 50% of the US Windows Phone market share. T-Mobile along with MetroPCS (and WalMart) have 20%.
What needs to happen is for Nadella and Legere get together and discuss this. It ain't gonna happen over Twitter.
Make sure you note that his callout was based on false information. He said that the 950 and 950 XL had exclusive deals with AT&T. Not only does the 950 not have an exclusivity agreement, but AT&T hasn't even said it will carry the 950 XL AT ALL. Legere was basically posturing like so many people do on Twitter.
And John Legere is probably the best Twitter posturer in recent times.
And Microsoft admitted that other carriers showed interest yet they chose to go single carrier to begin with... Either way the situation is not ideal no matter who's fault it is but Microsoft did say other carriers showed interest.
If you see what Microsoft is trying to do you'll understand it's ideal for Microsoft. They need these to be sold by trained people here in the us. That program will take a little time, then move on to the next.
To be fair, when have the AT&T employees come off as knowledgeable? When I got my 920 (exclusive to AT&T), the person selling it to me flat-out said I knew more than he did about it. When my cousin got his 1520, it wasn't really better. Carrier employees only learn as much as they feel like learning, because with Windows Phone devices, they're not really going to be hurt by the 5 customers they see ask for the devices. Anyone interested in the platform likely already knows everything important, so they don't need taught anyway.
There's an article by Paul Thurrott about this carrier situation. The rollout of the 950's will involve extensive training for both Microsoft Store employees as well as AT&T sales reps. If you remember our friend who gave the Continuum demo at the Devices event. He's their trainer.
We all have visited carrier stores to find out we knew more about Windows phones than anyone there. And by the way, from a MetroPCS store rep yesterday, "We don't have those anymore" when asked about the 640.
Microsoft's approach will be slow and deliberate. It'll be interesting to see if it really happens.
Microsoft didn't really admit that, it was reported by someone via a reputable source, if I remember correctly. Of course, in the cases of the non-AT&T carriers in the U.S., is makes sense. Verizon wouldn't market or update its exclusive devices, after demanding a special 820 variant, a special 920 variant, and an exclusive 930 variant. T-Mobile stopped updating multiple Windows Phones shortly after launch (I believe the 710 and 810 were part of that). Sprint just sucks at showing interest or supporting the platform. Plus, if Verizon isn't going to bother, then making a CDMA variant just for Sprint is almost pointless, given its relative customer base and lack of support.
Oh, and don't forget the article on here yesterday about how Verizon was actively trying to keep the unlocked variants from its network.
Keith, I think it's time for us to sit back with a cold beer and watch all this unfold....or blow up.
November should be interesting.
Did they show the liquid cooling system at all?
No, but the disassembly looks very easy to me.
You could see it but they didn't take it out
Not at all. I wonder if it's because these were the "prototypes" that were in the stores. It possible that the specific hardware feature is only present in the manufactured models.
They were in the video but not mentioned, the flat copper tube.
Go to 13:21 .. You will see a copper strip that is the liquid cooling!!
Yup its the copper pipe
Love how they just ran the breakdown instructions through a speech sim rather than try and redo the commentary in Pol-english.
There's only one place they'd get the phones from
When are they gonna announce more about availability such as dates? Would really like to get the 950xl. Hopefully a carrier will pick it up.
Microsoft has said that the phones will be released in december in the netherlands which is in accordance whit retailers which have a december 6 release date
???you mean november, not september, right?
i meant december thanks, i fixed it
Our company has today been informed that tomorrow we'll receive further information here in UK however not certain why Amazon.co.uk delisted Lumia 950 XL shortly after it was confirmdd to be listed there!
Connected to the withdrawals from stores?