Veer Disassembly

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Copyright and Donations

Copyright Notice: All images on this page are copyright by Rod Whitby, with all rights reserved.

If you wish to use any of these images in any way, you must place the following request for donation and PayPal button immediately adjacent to your use of the images:

An off-contract device purchased at full price ($550 including shipping to Australia) by Rod Whitby was used in this tear-down. To recoup that cost, your PayPal donation is requested.

<paypal></paypal> Further pictures of the internals of the Veer (including high resolution shots of the circuit boards) will be added to this page as they are taken.

The HP Veer

First, here is the rear of the device before disassembly starts. As you can see, it's an AT&T Veer.

To be very clear, this is a device which was purchased at full price off-contract from an AT&T store. There are no strings attached to this device. It was not a free or discounted developer device. The device did not come from HP. There is no NDA, embargo, convenant, or other restriction on this device.

It was used to test Preware, Impostah, Govnah, and other homebrew applications for the Veer. All that was very successful, and I can report that all tested homebrew applications and patches ran safely and correctly on the Veer.

Then it was used for further hard-core command-line investigation into the new "tap to share" interface (which seems to be controlled by an "A6" chip). That's when things went wrong, and the device was permanently bricked.

Hence there are no qualms in dismantling it. So that we shall do now ...

Veer 01.jpg

Initial keyboard separation

Separate the plastic around the bottom of the keyboard and the sides of the phone using your fingernail or a spudger.

Veer 02.jpg

Veer 03.jpg

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Initial lower half separation

Further separate the backplate at the bottom of the phone and along the sides, but do not pull it any further apart than this.

Veer 05.jpg

Note that the volume rocker switch is part of the backplate ...

Veer 06.jpg

... but the magnetic connector is not.

Veer 07.jpg

Initial upper half separation

Now separate the plastic around the top of the phone, but do not pull it any further apart than this.

All the switches along the top of the device are part of the backplate.

Veer 08.jpg

Backplate separation achieved

The backplate is now fully separated, but do not take it further than this at this stage.

In this shot of the top left corner you can clearly see the lanyard attachment opening.

Veer 09.jpg

Here is the left-hand side of the phone.

Veer 10.jpg

Here is the bottom of the phone.

Veer 11.jpg

Here is the right-hand side of the phone.

Veer 12.jpg

Warranty sticker

Note the white warranty sticker between the backplate and the body of the phone. If this sticker separates from either the body or the backplate, your warranty is voided.

The tiny white rocker switch near the camera is the mute switch. The plastic slider which actuates this is part of the backplate.

Veer 13.jpg

Right-hand side.

Veer 14.jpg

Bottom.

Veer 15.jpg

Left-hand side.

Here you can see the flex cable which connects the circuitry in the backplate (touchstone coil, touch to share, volume rocker, power switch) to the main body of the phone, somewhere underneath the battery.

Veer 16.jpg

Battery removal

It is possible to remove the battery without dislodging the white warranty sticker.

Veer 17.jpg

Veer 18.jpg

Voiding the warranty

Veer 19.jpg

Battery cage removal

Detach the magnetic connector flex cable, and then unhook the battery cage latch.

Veer 20.jpg

Here is the connector you need to detach before attempting to remove the battery cage.

Veer 21.jpg

Battery cage removed

Detaching the metal latch on each side allows the battery cage to be removed, exposing the location of the flex cable connector for the backplate connection.

Veer 22.jpg

Backplate separated

Detaching the flex cable allows the backplate to be completely separated from the body of the phone.

Veer 23.jpg

Speaker enclosure

Push on the black plastic area between the two metal tabs to release the inside edge of the speaker enclosure.

Veer 24.jpg

There are two plastic tabs which hook the top of the speaker enclosure to the body of the phone. If you level up the inside edge (the edge in the battery compartment), then these two tabs unhook very easily.

Veer 25.jpg

The front of the speaker enclosure.

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The rear of the speaker enclosure.

Veer 27.jpg

Underneath the speaker enclosure

Underneath the speaker enclosure is the camera, the rocker switch for the ringer mute, the vibrator, and a couple of antenna connectors.

Veer 28.jpg

Rear cover close-ups

Veer 29.jpg

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Battery close-ups

Veer 31.jpg

Veer 32.jpg