Teleporting a modern smartphone in 1980

[dendros]

This is just an imaginary experiment hence I post it in this section so the idea is that somehow I'm able to teleport my relatively modern smartphone, an Asus Zenfone 4 Selfie Pro back in the year of 1980 together with a small printed pamphlet describing it as a computer with radio commmunications capabilities and with this configuration: 2 GHz octa-core processor, 4 GB of RAM, 64 GB storage (extensible), FullHD display, 4G radio bands and Wi-Fi radio bands.
Imagine that you are a technician/scientist from that year and you're tasked with analyzing it, how advanced would it appear to you and what could you deduce about it, its hardware and software?
Just give it a try, I think it would be fun to imagine being in the shoes of that scientist/technician. Or would it be a nightmare?

 

[BvU]

As a particle physicist ( I started in 1979 ), I would smash it and see what I can deduct from the remains ...

 

[dendros]

Well, one constraint is that it should be analyzed without destroying it, otherwise there would be nothing useful to analyze. Imagine that you're a Sherlock Holmes type of technician :).

 

[BvU]

Any other constraints ? Are the cell masts teleported too ? And Google ?

 

[dendros]

No, just the device, its charger and the pamphlet. But you have 1980's tech at your disposal.

 

[DEvens]

Integrated circuits were invented in 1959.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Invention_of_the_integrated_circuit

In 1980 there were micro-computers-aplenty. Many were z80 or 6502 based.

Anybody with any technical "smarts" would recognize most of the components for computer chips. They would not immediately be able to recognize the precise means. The traces in a modern IC chip are a *LOT* smaller than they were in 1980. And they are arranged in many more layers than in 1980. A quick Google search did not turn up the date people starting doing multi-layer ICs. But it was not far off in 1980, if they were not already doing it.

The LED screen would also be recognized. These were invented in 1977. Though the size and resolution would be surprising. Touch screens were invented in 1963, so that would not be surprising.

Using the body of the device as the bulk of the antenna would be interesting. That might throw people for a short time. It requires particular ranges of frequency, and specialized cell towers. Cell towers that had not been put up in 1980. The first cell phone was in 1983, and it was a BRICK with a huge external battery and an antenna that you could use to smack people who got too curious about your phone.

The major advances in cell phones are not so much the phones themselves. It's the factories and manufacturing and support infrastructure like cell phone towers and comm relays and servers that can keep you connected to the net while you ride a commuter train. This is what has allowed them to be smaller, faster, have more RAM, do more, and to be cheaper.