With the back off of the phone, this is the first visible bit of electronics. The space where the black sticker sits is normally taken up by the battery.

Almost every group of components is hidden beneath the perforated metal shields. While their primary role is no doubt to protect against interference they can also serve another role. As they are soldered almost completely along the perimeter of the interface with the PCB they have the ability to pick up, an wick away, heat from the underlying components.

There is a really good article on Aavid's site, written by Christopher Chapman, entitled the "Basis of package/device Cooling" which address this type of cooling setup in good detail. Briefly though, it works on the principle that heat from the individual components is transferred into the PCB.

Now, assuming the substrate has a metal layer, it can then be used to aid in the cooling of the surface mounted components. In effect the copper layer that is used for the transmission of electrical signals can act like a thermal pathway. The tiny metal cages shown on the PCB may - and I stress may - be acting in this capacity, in addition to their shielding capabilities.

From normal use of a phone we all know they get warm if conversations last a while. In this case, the hottest spot seems to be on the lower right hand side. That particular enclosure is made from stainless steel and shows visible 'browning' just above an electrical component.

After removing the main PCB from the front of the phone, all that remains is the keypad, ear, and microphones. The keypad is a simple PCB with LED's attached sporatically - to light up the keypad when in use.

Why the inside of this portion of the plastic casing is coated in a fine metallic paint is something I can just guess at. I've seen the same kind of coating on some really cheap plastic computer cases. In those instances it was acting as a ground for the motherboard. In this instance, the PCB doesn't appear to have any visible means of using this to ground components.

The back portion of the phone is without this coating so... any ideas if this is supposed to cut down on signals radiating through ones' noggin?

Anyway time to move on to the computer that controlls the whole shin-dig... is it Intel or AMD !?!