Introduction
Since HTC U11 released, it has won lots of welcome comments, especially for its Edge Sense application.
Why is it so popular? And what exactly Edge Sense is?
Edge Sense has opened a new form of HMI, which is an intuitive action that is easy and convenient to get without learning cost. It was said on the release conference that Edge Sense is an Eight Super-Thin Strain Gauge. But what we want to see is how it looks like and how it works.
We will have a Teardown of HTC U11 to solve this puzzle.
What you need
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First, for easier opening, we need to heat up the mobile frame. Please be aware of the glass cracks while heating and opening.
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We could see that there’s more glue on its frame than other phones’, this should be the reason why it can meet the requirement of IP67, to be used under water, such as taking photos while swimming or diving.
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Here we head to the frame, it seems like there is a module on both sides of the frame
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A full Teardown
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A close-shot of the module
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As we could see the pictures showing that each side of the frame has a module (which we did not see on other mobile devices). It has thin structure but strong and stable signal.
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Based on the Teardown works above, we came to a conclusion, that is, Edge Sense is an "8 super-thin strain gauge” with 4 pairs of sensors on each module that separately installed on both sides of the U11 frame.
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These strain gauges are to detect the force changing while pressing, then the signals transmitted to the CPU of mobile devices for processing, and forming a signal output.
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It could recognize long press, short press and different level of pressure.
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It is not by recognizing the contact of skin (or we can say not by recognizing the Capacitive sensing) while squeezing to activate this function, but by detecting the pressure of pressing to start it. Otherwise how can we initiate the Edge Sense functions underwater or when we are wearing gloves?
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7 Comments
Good teardown, Gladys. Thanks!
Also appreciate that you like it, thank you!;)
Gracess -
Hello,
do you know where we can find parts for repairs and replacement ?
about to do my 2nd screen replacement on one of these at my shop. if i have time today ill try and photo the process of lifting out the display as it is not documented here, or anywhere else that i can find :)
Hey Joshua, was the screen replacement difficult? I've never worked on a phone before but I'm plenty savvy. The back replacement is super clear-cut and straightforward with all the videos on it… is the front basically the same? Thanks in advance!
Alex -