Hardware Hacking Smartphones?

Show off your completed projects, announce your hacking progress, or discuss upcoming events.

Moderator:Moderators

Post Reply
jimmyjohn
Posts:1
Joined:Fri May 27, 2011 6:52 am
Hardware Hacking Smartphones?

Post by jimmyjohn » Fri May 27, 2011 7:03 am

Is there anyone out there who could/would hack a phone to upgrade, say, CPU/RAM? I've been looking all over for anyone who does this, and can't find them, if they do exist, past all the software hacks that are out there. Has anyone found people or resources for this?

To give some examples: much of the difference between a new $200 phone these days and a free phone is really just the CPU and RAM. Upgrading the two for less than $200 would seem a smart way to go.

And then there's a case like mine: I have an insanely cheap plan on Sprint, saving me easily several hundred dollars per year over any potential alternative. But Sprint stopped allowing people on older, cheaper plans to upgrade to any smartphone that's better than the HTC Touch Pro 2 (Rhodium).

It's unquestionably worth multiple hundreds of dollars to me to be able to upgrade the CPU and RAM in this phone, and/or be able to get a current-gen Android smartphone to be able to identify itself to Sprint's network as my Touch Pro 2.

There are a great many people like me, those with Touch Pro 2 phones on Sprint who can't justify upgrading to new plans because of the many hundreds of dollars it'd cost every year for a new plan, but who'd gladly pay a significant amount to have a better phone available for those years. I'd be happy to work to recruit others to make it more worth someone's while.

Is there anyone out there up for a task like this?

tom61
Senior Member
Posts:1517
Joined:Fri Mar 25, 2005 6:51 pm

Re: Hardware Hacking Smartphones?

Post by tom61 » Sat May 28, 2011 7:27 pm

I've not seen anyone do what you're talking to an embedded device like a phone as hobbyist. There are professional services that could do it, but it'd likely cost more than $200 just for the labor alone, as BGA rework requires specialized equipment. Plus, you'd likely have to adjust the software to be able to use the faster processor, and possibly the RAM depending on the OS.

Getting a phone to work on another network is usually fairly easy, if you can find an unlocked phone compatible with your network (most Android phones use AT&T/T-Mobile network signals).

Post Reply