While I don’t have any actual experience with using a soldering iron or know how to reball components at all, I have been recently been inspired by this video from Strange Parts (If you haven’t watched the video yet, you really should) to at least come up with a plan.
So I got myself thinking; what would I need to do in order to upgrade an iPhone 4’s memory chip? I have some idea of what stuff I may need to buy in order to do this (other than the obvious stuff like needing a heat gun).
iFixIt states that the storage chip is a K9PFG08 Samsung flash memory. To be exact, it is a K9PFG08U5M-LCB0 chip.
It took a while for me to find images or a video of the chip removed, but I finally found out how the pins look. Luckily there is Reballing Station Stencil that makes it stupidly easy to reball the chip. However, I do need to confirm that this also works with the iPhone 4.
Unfortunately, the above video confirms that I can’t just reball a iPhone 6’s storage chip and call it a day. The chip has to be a LGA52 based (I think). I couldn’t find any LGA52 NAND chip from my google search, so I decided to search for the Samsung chip instead. I found a 256GB chip with the exact same name; however, I found it fishy that it only cost $19.50. I also not sure if it even uses the same pin connection that the iPhone 4 uses…
So there is my idea. I am not sure if I would actually do this, but I thought It would be a fun thing to do if I do have interest in soldering and reballing. If you have any suggestion for this idea, I am all ears.
Can’t believe people still feel the need to do this shit
Anyway, there’s almost no point unless you already have practice boards and the tools necessary. You’ll need a hot air station for reballing which can cost more than the iPhone 4 is worth now, so right of the bat it’s relatively pointless.
As seen in the video it takes him many attempts on dead mainboards before he considers himself capable to do it properly on the real thing. Unless you already have the tools and throwaway boards, you’re actually better off just buying a secondhand phone.
The guy in the video is well versed in modding phones, soldering and modding. Has added a headphone jack to an iphone and everything, but STILL went through several boards, screwed a bunch up, and required specialized technology and a microscope to get this done.
The cost of the tools alone will be higher than buying a second-hand iPhone with more storage. Unless you plan to do these upgrades on a regular basis it’s just pointless.
I already have a Android phone (Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge to be exact). Although there doesn’t seem to be a lot of love for the t-mobile variant when it comes to custom roms. But that’s a different discussion…
To be clear, if I were to actually going to do this. I am not only going to do this to just upgrade the storage nor am I going to do this as a way to save money, I would do this as an experience to learn how someone would reball a chip.
That is definitely true. While I would love to do this, I do realize that I would be silly for me to jump into something so advance without doing the basics. And even if I were to succeed with this task, I would have made a lot of beginner mistakes.
The best thing to do would be to spend time working on more beginner friendly boards, then one I master those I could try doing this on a broken iPhone before doing it on a working iPhone.
I get that, but reballing is such a niche and difficult thing that I don’t see a point for someone who doesn’t already have the necessary tools to do it just for the experience. If that’s what you want to do, then do your thing man. That’s just my two cents on the matter.
