The iPhone 3GS has been released and, as is geek tradition, torn apart to see what’s inside. RapidRepair went over to France to pick one up from Orange and then promptly disassembled it, only to discover that much of the machine is similar to the previous iPhone 3G. The design of this version is almost identical (thought it’s about 2 grams heavier), with upgrades to the processor, graphics card, RAM, battery (1219 mAh vs 1150 mAh in the 3G) and camera. But generally speaking, this is an evolutionary upgrade, not a revolutionary one.

As predicted by other sites, the iPhone uses the Samsung S5PC100 Cortex A8 Arm, which is capable of running at 833Mhz, though Apple has slowed it down to 600Mhz, likely because of heat and battery issues. Samsung says the processor is capable of 720P playback, 2D/3D graphics acceleration and HDMI output — it’s unclear how much of that processing power app builders will get to play with, but the machine is definitely much faster than the old 3G.

The NAND flash memory comes from Toshiba, like the last model. No word on the sourcing of the new camera or where the magnetometer for the compass is. More teardowns should be coming in the next few days from iSuppli and others. For now, you can check out RapidRepair’s teardown and lament the fact that you probably don’t have an iPhone 3GS yet.

Finally, if you aren’t sure whether you want an iPhone 3GS or Palm Pre, Gizmodo has an excellent (and surprisingly accurate) flowchart to help you make your decision.