Google Glass teardown reveals rather paltry internals in innovative device

Considering a space accessible to Google in a span of eyeglass frames — even with a additional hardware combined to a device — a morality of Google Glass is unsurprising. There are usually a few printed circuit boards, yet there are a few notable finds from a teardown.

For one, Synaptics is a aristocrat of touchpads in laptops, and Google Glass — or during slightest a stream Explorer Edition — has a tradition Synaptics touchpad on a side.

Inside a device is a Google X-branded proof house that binds a Texas Instruments OMAP4430 system-on-a-chip (SOC). That is a dual-core processor, and has been used formerly in smartphones such as a Droid Bionic.

Glass also includes 16GB of SanDisk flash, and an Elpida mobile DRAM chip (amount of RAM vague in a teardown; it appears to be a 16GB module, though).

There is a non-user-replaceable battery that sits behind a user’s ear. When we contend non-user-replaceable, we meant it. To entrance a battery, Catwig had to flay behind a plastic, destroying it. It has a ability of around 570 mAh.

If we wish to know because a battery life — that has been beaten as a large reduction — is so short, review that with Samsung’s latest flagship phone, a Galaxy S4. That, by comparison, has a 2,600 mAh battery.

Meanwhile, a device’s arrangement is an underwhelming (but hey, they’re glasses) 640 x 360 resolution.

There is also a nine-axis InvenSense MPU-9150 inertial sensor and a sincerely paltry 5MP camera (but to be fair, many tablets, including a iPad, competition 5MP cameras).

Finally, only brazen of a battery pod, there is a bone conduction speaker, that appears to double as a pleasing switch.

For those wondering, it’s misleading if Catwig breached a terms of use for a Google Glass Explorer Edition eyeglasses it tore down. While it’s been famous given a initial units shipped that users couldn’t sell or even lend a device, we didn’t see any discuss of ripping it detached in a TOS.