Background information
How to handle the first keyboard with all-round switches
by Kevin Hofer
Teardown focus week: nerds, upgrades and fails
20.1.2020
Translation: Eva Francis
Our second focus week is all about teardowns. We’re taking a closer look at products and their inner workings: we’re disassembling new products, attempting to upgrade or rebuild bestsellers and explaining technologies with the help of components.
After our second focus week in the summer of 2019 on the topic of «high tech in traffic», we’re now focusing on products from the digitec range. The spotlight is on teardowns: we’re finding out what innovations, bestsellers and trouvailles look like from the inside. It’s not about randomly disassembling products, but getting a glimpse at the inner workings of devices and explaining technologies, processes and dependencies. We’re attempting to upgrade and redesign products – environmentally-friendly thinking and DIY spirit are also part of our focus.
Our articles
New articles will constantly appear throughout the week. You can find all previously published articles here:
Clicky or linear: two words, two very different lifestyles. The Qpad MK-95 allows Kevin to experience both within fractions of a second by flipping a lever. Now he’s in front of the keyboard, screwdriver in hand, saying his quiet goodbyes to this graceful interface. He’s about to take it apart and he doesn't know if it's gonna survive. He’s grown fond of this thing over the last few weeks, working with it every day. His heart is bleeding.
Apple's iPhone 11 caused many a stir with one design aspect in particular: the double camera bump. The back contains an elevation in which the cameras are embedded. Practically every smartphone has this. The so-called camera bump makes it easier for users to pick up the phone and prevents you from accidentally bumping your fingers on the lenses. But why does the iPhone 11 Pro Max have a double camera bump? My teardown won't completely answer this question, more propose a theory: Apple is getting people ready for the iPhone 12.
Although Nintendo's competition appeared to offer better hardware, the Game Boy and Game Boy Color sold over 118 million units in the 1990s – more than any other mobile console. But the devices lack an illuminated display. Luckily, in 2020, help is at hand.
You've probably seen infrared photographs before: leaves of plants, for instance, emit a lot of infrared radiation and therefore appear very bright in infrared photos. Infrared is invisible to the human eye, but it's visible to camera sensors. Nevertheless, you can't just take infrared pictures with digital cameras, as they have a cut-off filter that shields the infrared light. This improves the image quality because it only lets the light that we actually see reaches the sensor. Thus, a regular camera allows almost no light to reach the sensor. In other words: to take infrared photos, the cut-off filter of a camera needs to be removed. This includes taking the camera apart.
Sertronics offers various services such as repairs of almost everything that can break down, home services, workshops, various technical services and refurbishments. The company works together with digitec for warranty cases. In the spacious Sertronics hall, the most striking thing I notice are the many televisions lined up in boxes. Damiano Randazzo, Sales and Marketing Director of Sertronics, tells me they actually repair more cameras than televisions.
If Phil had remembered in time that the PlayStation 1 is celebrating its 25th Birthday in December, he could have had the easiest teardown ever. But instead, he decided to expand the internal storage of a Nintendo Switch. Sure, he could just buy a large microSD card, but it would be much slower in reading and writing than the built-in eMMC chip. That's why he set my mind on replacing it with a 256 GB chip.
Take a deep breath and get to it: we're willing to go the extra mile to give you insights into how TV backlighting works. If necessary, we'll just rip a TV open. Luca takes apart a FALD TV and talks about what he discovers – in a video, as its far more complicated and less exciting to write about the inner workings of a TV. When do you ever have the opportunity to see into an expensive electronic device and learn something about it?
Raphael Knecht
Senior Editor
raphael.knecht@digitecgalaxus.chWhen I'm not stuffing my face with sweets, you'll catch me running around in the gym hall. I’m a passionate floorball player and coach. On rainy days, I tinker with my homebuilt PCs, robots or other gadgets. Music is always my trusted companion. I also enjoy tackling hilly terrain on my road bike and criss-crossing the country on my cross-country skis.
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