Mobile Phones
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I wrote the stuff on the
iPhone below a year back in November 2023. Since then I've been
learning about mobile phones and their use. There are basically
two varieties... One is merely a miniature radio transceiver
using a local mast for communication but the most useful is the
so-called "Smart" phone, which includes the facility
to use a nearby router (rather than just a local mast) to access
the Internet. These use either an Apple operating system or Android.
The version of either of these depends chiefly on the date a
specific phone was designed. One cannot install or update to
the newest version of the operating system if the phone is out
of date.. whether this is merely due to the design date of the
phone or a deliberate ploy to introduce obsolescence I don't
know.. but most likely a bit of both. In an effort to reduce
the price of some phones by a pound or so, manufacturers have
even started to use cheap versions of Android which annoyed me
intensely when I bought a thermal camera
recently. Not only is the design date of the hardware significant,
but also the radio waveband it uses. The UK Government, always
strapped for cash, makes pots of money selling off radio spectrum
to businesses operating mobile phone masts. Freeing up wavelengths
suitable for mobile phones has been a priority for decades with
some requiring pretty advanced semiconductors and clever modes
of operation.
Unfortunately some wavelengths
are not really suitable for reliable communications, but nevertheless,
given little option, networks were established and phone designers
told to produce equipments that actually worked. A side effect
of the latter demand was to break (or manipulate) rules relating
to long-established safe radiation levels. More below on that
topic.
I must say.. when it comes to
coverage false figures and grossly inaccurate maps predominate.
Because these are published for all to see there's a false sense
of security prevailing so that, for example, "get a Smart
Meter and get free electricity", "no problem at your
address". Alas a Smart Meter needs really good mobile phone
coverage (at least here in Thorney Hill near Bournemouth) and
true, the published map shows excellent indoor and outdoor reception,
but coverage is virtually nil. I can climb the stairs and hold
my phone near to the bedroom window and see a tiny indication
of a signal but reliability-wise use of my new phone is hopeless
and a Smart Meter would just chatter to itself..
All is not lost however because
now we're on "Full Fibre" our landline phone is great.
Gone are the scratchy noises and loss of dial tone from wires
rubbing on wet trees. Below.. the new fibre optic wire and the
redundant copper wires. It took several hours to poke the wires
through that tree. |
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When
it comes to things like loggiing on to say the National Savings
organisation it's a trifle awkward because they, like loads of
other organisations now rely on mobile phones.
Click to read
more |
Now back to the original purpose
of penning this page.
For years I've avoided buying
a mobile phone. There are a few reasons.. Firstly I discovered
our cordless landline phone gave me a headache due to its relatively
high radiation level at 2.4GHz and its inability to switch to
its eco mode which was said to reduce the RF output. We did ditch
that model and buy a later version which can reduce RF output
but annoyingly then suffers from limited range so I now use it
in hands free speakerphone mode. Secondly because I have no need
for a mobile phone because my wife has one which serves for things
like Whatsap and carrying in the car just in case we need to
call the AA or whatever. Forget about actually making calls from
home because our signal is only seen upstairs by the bedroom
window.
My wife's phone is our daughter's
cast-off iPhone 7, but alas, this phone started to become unreliable
due to its battery failing. Once fully charged it would rapidly
leak away its charge and, at around an indicated 60%, it would
quite suddenly stop working. I decided to buy a new battery and
once this arrived discovered it was quite easy to destroy the
phone whilst fitting it. Because of this I decided to take the
plunge and buy a new phone. That way, if I destroyed the iPhone
we could use the new one. If I got the iPhone working properly
we'd end up with two phones so price was important.
It was only when I becan looking
for a new phone I discovered a rather odd thing. An iPhone is
horrendously expensive, but one can buy other makes for less
than a tenth of the iPhone price. So what's going on? Being familiar
with computers I wondered if Apple had cornered the market in
some sort of super-processor chip that was incredibly expensive,
but as I delved I found this couldn't be true. I asked my son
and his wife, who both used mobile phones, about the best buy
and after a few minutes of prodding their phone keyboards pronounced
a Motorola E13 from Tesco looked perfect for me.
So, I bought one for £69.99
including £10 worth of calls, so basically it was only
£59.99. It came with a free SIM (a tiny memory card that's
used to supply a phone number). I opened the boxes and followed
the instructions but realised it was configured for only emergency
calls.. so where were my £10 of calls? Not being yet familiar
with mobile phones I had imagined that in some way my purchase
or the SIM would automatically work out I'd bought £10
of calls. I gave up after scratching my head and pressing buttons
for ages and called the Tesco helpline. Not an easy task as everyone
I spoke to either didn't understand my questions or denied being
a helpline person. After, I think, a fourth attempt I spoke to
a nice lady with a South African accent. She said I should have
received a slip of paper carrying a voucher code. I searched
the various boxes and leaflets but no sign of a slip of paper
so she kindly gave me a special £10 call package which
she linked to my new phone. After hanging up I discoved that
indeed my phone was now attached to a £10 package.. actually
£9.99 as in the process a "penny" call had been
made.
All was now well. I had a smart
phone able to receive and make calls if I went upstairs to the
bedroom window, and linked to our router to the Internet. The
next day my wife casually remarked that she'd found an email
from Tesco carrying a voucher code. We'd used her grocery account
to make the purchase, hence the reason for sending her the code.
I entered the code on my phone and sure enough I now have £20
of calls... the phone was therefore now worth only £49.99!
In contrast, Apple's website offers four phones from £600
to £1000 and a typical case for £60: mine was really
nice for less than £5. What about the battery in the new
Apple compared with my E13 ? The iPhone batteries appear to be
about 3.3Ah.. my E13 is 5Ah.
How did the iPhone 7 battery
replacement go? See below.... Well I heated the glass
front with a hairdrier whilst pulling with a suction cup that
came with the new battery and the glass front lifted and pulled
away from the metal body. I was then able to prise loose the
old battery and pull it away from the phone. Whilst doing this
my tweezers punctured the underside of the battery accompanied
by a hissing sound and lots of heat. Fortunately, the battery
being duff, was pretty flat so nothing untoward happened. I fitted
the new 3.8Ah battery in place of the old 2.2Ah and put everything
back together. Now the iPhone 7 is working as it should with
plenty of charge that doesn't leak away.
So, why are iPhones so dear?
A search on the Net essentially reveals that Apple charge as
much as they can get away with! Loads of advertising somehow
convinces potential customers that an iPhone is exactly what
they're looking for. I find that it's totally weird that for
about £50 or £60 you can buy a phone costing about
one twentieth of the equivalent iPhone 15. |
Here's a few pictures of the iPhone 7 repair
using a proprietory kit
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Above, after warming the
glass front and gently pulling it off using the supplied sucker,
reveals the duff battery. Below, the screws removed from the
battery plug cover. The SIM card was removed before disassembly
with a supplied tool. |
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The cover detached. Note
that the kit came with a variety of screwdriver bits (and a handle),
some of which are pretty unusual. A couple of screws are fairly
tight.. note the blue locking compound.
Below after removing the old
battery (which was dated November 2019 so lasted to the point
of being really annoying, just short of 4 years). The battery
was glued in place with a weird double-sided sticky material
which, if you're lucky, can be carefully pulled out taking care
not to snap the stretching material. If some remains you can
lever the old battery out, but be aware that if you use a metal
instrument such as tweezers with sharp ends the battery case
can be punctured. If this happens the battery can get extremely
hot. In my case this is exactly what happened but fortunately
the old battery had very little charge and was removed safely
without any damage to the phone.
Note the small press-on battery
connector to the left of the display connector. Some suggest
detaching this latter connector, but by balacing the display
at 45 degrees I found this wasn't necessary. |
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Above, the new double-sided
sticky materal which is laid onto the battery space. Then the
pink plastic is peeled off and the new battery positioned and
pressed into place with its connector pressed onto the socket
next to the display connector. |
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Above, the blue plastic
sheet carries the thin strip of black gluey material which is
carefully positioned in the narrow ledge around the phone body.
When the display is refitted this black strip binds the parts
together. Note that it's this thin black gluey strip (rather
than the glass itself) that needs warming before pulling the
display from the phone body. |
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The phone now charges
to 100% and the overnight drain is now very small with the phone
working properly intead of annoyingly suddenly turning off at
something like 50%. |
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