First iPhone SE Teardown Reveals Mix of iPhone 5s, 6, and 6s Components

[sofila]

I like this phone. I like the fact that price surprised me. If battery life does as expected it will be a great purchase. And I like choices (small, medium, large).
But this phone finally put the 5C concept and price to shame. And all the 5C supporters in the same hole.

 

[Kalkulator]

I want to know if iphone SE has additional gaskets and silicon seals as iphone 6S has to help with water resistance a little bit. Will probably have to wait for a more detailed teardown, but if somebody has any info on that, please share it.

 

[Gudi]

The facts say that Palm, Ericsson, Blackberry and the Sidekick all had smartphones before the iPhone, along with others.

No they didn't. It's not the first airplane until it flies and it's not the first smartphone until app store downloads are humming. Success is a necessary condition for having invented something. There are endless failed attempts prior to any meaningful invention.

One of these is the progenitor to all tablets sold today.​

 

[1Zach1]

No they didn't. It's not the first airplane until it flies and it's not the first smartphone until app store downloads are humming. Success is a necessary condition for having invented something. There are endless failed attempts prior to any meaningful invention.

One of these is the progenitor to all tablets sold today.​

All those companies had successful smartphones before the iPhone. Apps don't make something a smartphone. Apple changed the way Smartphones were used, but they did not invent them.

 

[Gudi]

Apps don't make something a smartphone.

Yes they do. Smartphones are general perpose computers and apps are the way to adapt them to different purposes. The term smartphone was originally coined to describe feature phones with special features, but it ended up to mean mobile computer with an app store.

Apple changed the way Smartphones were used, but they did not invent them.

Yes they did.

 

[manu chao]

For what use ? It's just a gimmick.

Barometer-based altimeters are a gimmick? Before GPS and even until GPS became as accurate as it is today, all decent altimeters were based on barometers. And even today barometer-based altimeters offer a much smoother signal that makes tracking altitude changes more accurate and has less significant altitude errors. Barometer-based altimeters also consumes much less battery power than GPS-based ones

Barometer-based altimeters do need frequent recalibration. But thanks to the Internet that can be fully automated even if the distance to the nearest refencence barometer (fixed weather stations) can result in small errors. Reasonably strong winds, in particular wind gusts, can also affect the accuracy of barometer-based altimeters. But overall, I have found barometer-based altimeters to be still more accurate than GPS-based ones, in particular for tracking altitude changes.
[doublepost=1459431930][/doublepost]

Moreover, a barometer would then not be able to tell the difference between you climbing a few sets of stairs, or the weather changing above you head, or the differecne between stairs and an escalator.
No, I am pretty sure the accelerometer is used for counting flights of stairs climbed. The data it outputs can be differentiated between stairs, escalator, and elevator; and it is sensetive enough to detect even millimeters of movement.

I cannot speak with absolute certainty about how the Apple Health app counts floors climbed but Fitbits definitely do base it on the altitude change calculated from the air pressure change, just look at their documentation and support pages (of course they combine things with the accelerometer data to differentiate between you taking the elevator and taking the stairs). Without barometer data the Fitbit could not detect altitude changes when walking up a slight to moderate incline. And once you venture out of completely man-made environments, altitude change and step/stair count largely loose their correlation.

There are also a good number of altimeter apps for the iPhone that use the barometer data. And the weather problem isn't a problem at all because the rate of pressure change when walking up a flight of stairs is about 100x faster than any weather-induced pressure change. It is pretty simple for the phone to differentiate between those two. And thanks to the Internet, the overlying weather-related pressure changes can easily be corrected for automatically.

 

[Tycho24]

Whilst I enjoy their early work and I admire their recent efforts, sometimes it's hard to argue with a greatest hits album.

Best. Comment. Today.
=)
Had to give a kudos beyond just a "thumbs up"! You made me literally laugh out loud, with a lingering smile. Well done... great analogy.

 

[macduke]

Yes apple was listening to YOU when they made this phone.... thanks.

Glad they finally came out with a "new" 4" device so people could stop flooding the forums with thread after thread about hating bigger phones and wanting a new smaller one ect ect.

I'm waiting for their 5.8" phone.... even if it's a bigger form/factor.... Picking up one of the old 4" phones and trying to do anything on it is a joke now that I've used the 6plus (man sized) phone. 4" screens make the phone look like a toy phone now IMHO. BUT I'm glad most can be happy now no matter which size screen they like.

Yeah, I get what you say about it feeling toy-like. I had the 6 Plus for a year. Ended up hating it slowly over time, but now that I'm on a 6s I think 4.7" is perfect for me. It's less of a difference when you use one after having used the 4.7" size for a while.

As for my "claim", I was saying that mostly tongue in cheek, but now that you mention it, I do think that Apple does listen to their community to a certain extent. I've been a rather vocal proponent of this around the forums (as well as on social media and writing emails to Apple, as well as giving other users Apple's feedback contact information), advocating specifically for people, often women, who have smaller hands or pants pockets and feel as though all of the major phone players are discriminating against them by refusing to make small phones any more. And whether or not that claim is justified, it's still how they felt as customers. That's not good for business.

I personally know a whole lot of people who refused to upgrade to a bigger phone. My wife has a lot of friends who were holding out with the iPhone 5 and 5s, and I even know a few guys at work who refused to upgrade and they weren't even small guys (well one of them was). My passion about it came from seeing things through my wife's point of view and realizing that there was a pretty decently sized segment of the market that Apple starting missing out on once they killed the 4" size. I think the 4" market is nearly as big as the Plus market. And I think this iPhone SE is going to kill it in Asia. I think a lot of people and analysts missed the segment of 4" users who never upgraded because the iPhone was, at the time, experiencing tremendous growth by peeling away many Android users which masked the number of users who were not upgrading due to size. Apple is grasping for growth right now and they'll find it in the SE, particularly overseas.

 

[joe-h2o]

It's called lack of innovation or using up spare parts; take your pick.

Real innovation would have been a 4.3" iPhone 6S with smaller bezels that has the same foot print as a iPhone 5S while fixing the camera hump. Here we have Frankenstein iPhone. Your post is the reason why we will have a iPhone 6SS for 2016; people eating what Apple throws in front of them. Not saying that the SE is bad, only saying that Apple lost it's edge. It could have been a better device for around $550.

That is a phone I would not have bought. There's a reason I waited until a new 4" iPhone was released - the screen and chassis are the right size for me to use one handed. It's doesn't need to have a bigger screen - 4" is just the right size.

I would say that people don't necessarily "eat what apple throws in front of them" given that such a large number of people waited out the period where Apple stopped selling something that we wanted to buy because they only had large phones available.

Now that they've actually done what we have asked them to do and updated the internals of the 5S, people are buying them again, and for some reason a vocal minority of MR users seem determined to hate it for any and all possible random reasons because it somehow personally offends them or isn't a product that they would personally buy.

Like I said in another thread, I think all the haters were banking on it having an A8 with 1GB of RAM and a smaller battery, etc etc so that they would have nice, easy targets to use to bash the phone as "recycled leftovers" but were dismayed to find that it's actually the bulk of a 6S inside a 5S chassis and is hard to bash.

I mean, look at this very thread - someone here is calling it "using up old spare parts and selling it" when it's using parts from the current 6S flagship phones. I mean, tall about making up ******** just to try and find some way of trashing the SE! It's hilarious.

 

[oopsroger]

Why are you so certain it is the barometer that provides this information?

A flight of stairs in a commercial modern building is 12 feet. No data that I am aware of, and I have looked for a while, has shown that a barometer can be accurate to such a tiny change in elevation.

Moreover, a barometer would then not be able to tell the difference between you climbing a few sets of stairs, or the weather changing above you head, or the differecne between stairs and an escalator.

No, I am pretty sure the accelerometer is used for counting flights of stairs climbed. The data it outputs can be differentiated between stairs, escalator, and elevator; and it is sensetive enough to detect even millimeters of movement.

The barometer works with the step tracker (which is the accelerometer, I guess). If you gain elevation while taking steps, inputs from the accelerometer and the barometer will be combined to produce the elevation gain, which will then be converted into flights of stairs.

And it is accurate for a phone. I go hiking in various local mountains of various elevations, the measurement is pretty consistent.

 

[diipii]

With the iPhone SE now available in several countries, the first teardown of the device has been conducted by Chipworks. As expected, the device uses a hodgepodge of components sourced from several past iPhones, including the iPhone 5, 6, and 6s, leading Chipworks to say "this is not your typical Apple release."The processor inside the iPhone SE is indeed the same A9 processor found in the iPhone 6s, and the part in the iPhone SE Chipworks took apart was labeled with an APL1022 part number from a TSMC facility. It includes SK Hynix memory, which Chipworks says is likely the same 2GB LPDDR4 DRAM module found in the iPhone 6s.

The NFC chip is the NXP 66V10, the same used in the iPhone 6s, and the 6-axis sensor is from InvenSense and was also used in the iPhone 6s.

The Qualcom MDM9625M modem and the accompanying transceiver were originally found in the iPhone 6, and the Audio ICs, which Chipworks thinks were designed by Cirrus Logic, came from the iPhone 6s.

While many parts were originally from the iPhone 6 or 6s, the touch screen controller components (Broadcom BCM5976 and Texas Instruments 343S0645) were originally used in the iPhone 5s.

There are a few new components in the iPhone SE, including a "338S00170 device," which Chipworks says is "very likely a new Apple/Dialog power management IC," along with a Skyworks SKY77611 power amplifier module, a 16GB Toshiba NAND flash module, an EPCOS D5255 antenna switch module, and an AAC Technologies microphone.

Additional information about the iPhone SE will come out as Chipworks continues on with its teardown and as other companies like iFixit conduct their own device teardowns. The iPhone SE will be available in the United States starting tomorrow, March 31.

Article Link: First iPhone SE Teardown Reveals Mix of iPhone 5s, 6, and 6s Components

10 minutes from now the A10 will be out and this will be regarded as steam powered.
Let's all remember this is just a phone beloved by 13 year olds, fan-fools and everyone not living in Europe, UK and the USA. (Note very well the UK is NOT in Europe and will soon be able to decide its own future away from Germany and France and all those "others".)

 

[manu chao]

My passion about it came from seeing things through my wife's point of view and realizing that there was a pretty decently sized segment of the market that Apple starting missing out on once they killed the 4" size. I think the 4" market is nearly as big as the Plus market.

Thanks to Apple we now know that it is a 13%-sized market. This measure is naturally somewhat distorted as (a) there was no current-tech 4" iPhone available in 2015 (only one and two-generation behind models, note that the 5c was sold until last September) which likely depressed the sales somewhat and as (b) the 4" models where the cheapest iPhones and thus for lower-budget people the only or at least preferred choice, which added customers that got them because of their price and not because of their size.

Since point (b) remains but point (a) does not (or is much reduced), one would expect the fraction of 4" iPhones in the sales chart to increase.

 

[Suckfest 9001]

Who acted like an authority? I was in the military and was fit....did some marathons.... I mountain bike all the time when the weather is nice.... never ever did I need a barometer to push myself and get a great workout. You use it good for you but I believe you were the one being a bit harsh... even above...."there are people that care more about exercise than you do".... because you look at a barometer you care more? Come on now.

Again, none of that matters. Some people like using it to measure certain aspects of their exercise. Not everyone's use case revolves around yours. Being unhappy about the lack of barometer in the SE is a valid complaint. Stop being so upset about it.

 

[cableguy84]

Yes they do. Smartphones are general perpose computers and apps are the way to adapt them to different purposes. The term smartphone was originally coined to describe feature phones with special features, but it ended up to mean mobile computer with an app store.
Yes they did.

You obviously didnt own a Nokia N95 back in the day, that thing didnt need an app store. It had just about everything you would need preloaded. Whatever software it didnt have you could just download onto your PC, and install manually.(or directly to phone)

The N95 was a legend, still my favourite phone to this day

 

[C.Calthrop]

I would have bought an SE if it replaced the inadequate Touch ID in my 5S. I will wait for a full featured iPhone with a 4" display. I would be happy to pay more.

With the iPhone SE now available in several countries, the first teardown of the device has been conducted by Chipworks. As expected, the device uses a hodgepodge of components sourced from several past iPhones, including the iPhone 5, 6, and 6s, leading Chipworks to say "this is not your typical Apple release."The processor inside the iPhone SE is indeed the same A9 processor found in the iPhone 6s, and the part in the iPhone SE Chipworks took apart was labeled with an APL1022 part number from a TSMC facility. It includes SK Hynix memory, which Chipworks says is likely the same 2GB LPDDR4 DRAM module found in the iPhone 6s.

The NFC chip is the NXP 66V10, the same used in the iPhone 6s, and the 6-axis sensor is from InvenSense and was also used in the iPhone 6s.

The Qualcom MDM9625M modem and the accompanying transceiver were originally found in the iPhone 6, and the Audio ICs, which Chipworks thinks were designed by Cirrus Logic, came from the iPhone 6s.

While many parts were originally from the iPhone 6 or 6s, the touch screen controller components (Broadcom BCM5976 and Texas Instruments 343S0645) were originally used in the iPhone 5s.

There are a few new components in the iPhone SE, including a "338S00170 device," which Chipworks says is "very likely a new Apple/Dialog power management IC," along with a Skyworks SKY77611 power amplifier module, a 16GB Toshiba NAND flash module, an EPCOS D5255 antenna switch module, and an AAC Technologies microphone.

Additional information about the iPhone SE will come out as Chipworks continues on with its teardown and as other companies like iFixit conduct their own device teardowns. The iPhone SE will be available in the United States starting tomorrow, March 31.

Article Link: First iPhone SE Teardown Reveals Mix of iPhone 5s, 6, and 6s Components

 

[Tech198]

its like diving into a bag of licorice allsorts .

iFixit will have fun with this one Power management would be a new chip for better saving of battery ... Give us the long life.

 

[lkalliance]

Why are you so certain it is the barometer that provides this information?

A flight of stairs in a commercial modern building is 12 feet. No data that I am aware of, and I have looked for a while, has shown that a barometer can be accurate to such a tiny change in elevation.

Moreover, a barometer would then not be able to tell the difference between you climbing a few sets of stairs, or the weather changing above you head, or the differecne between stairs and an escalator.

No, I am pretty sure the accelerometer is used for counting flights of stairs climbed. The data it outputs can be differentiated between stairs, escalator, and elevator; and it is sensetive enough to detect even millimeters of movement.

So a college student is taking a physics exam, and he encounters this question:

"Given only a barometer, can you determine the height of a given building?"

The student knows what the expected answer is, but answers much more extensively:

"There are several ways to use a barometer to calculate the height of the building:
(1) You could measure the atmospheric pressure on the ground floor, and the atmospheric pressure on the roof, then you could use Bernoulli's equation to calculate the difference in their heights.
(2) You could start at the ground floor stairwell, and moving up the stairs carefully determine how many barometer lengths it takes to get to the roof. Multiply that number by the length of the barometer.
(3) You could go outside on a sunny day, and stand the barometer up on its end and measure the length of its shadow. Have a partner simultaneously measure the length of the building's shadow. Using the measured length of the barometer, you can calculate the height of building using a simple ratio.
(4) You could go to the office of the architect that designed the building, and knock on the door. When he answers, you can say, 'Here I have a fine barometer. I would gladly give it to you, if you would in exchange tell me the height of the building.'"

 

[sw1tcher]

Pretty interesting little device. I think Apple is going to sell a ton of these.

weight of iPhone SE = 3.99 ounces

32,000 ounces = 1 ton

8,020 iPhone SE's = 1 ton

Yeah, I'd say Apple will sell a ton of these too.

 

[lkalliance]

I like this phone. I like the fact that price surprised me. If battery life does as expected it will be a great purchase. And I like choices (small, medium, large).
But this phone finally put the 5C concept and price to shame. And all the 5C supporters in the same hole.

I'm a 5c user, and I wished dearly that Apple had made another phone with the same design sensibilities. Though I've waited long enough to upgrade my technology, and though I am very much looking forward to picking up an SE, it is with some mixed emotions. The 5c has been my favorite iPhone to handle, and I will very much miss it.

 

[hokieputter]

I don't see how packaging most of the best components from their recent phones into a form factor that a lot of people really like could be considered a bad thing. Especially since it's priced pretty well. At least in the US. Seems like a good move to me. I'm a fan of the smaller size iPhones, so I bought one to replace my 5s. Should hold me over for a while.

I'm also interested in whether or not they add the smaller device into the regular release cycle at some point soon. Maybe an SE sized device with a larger screen with touch ID integrated into the screen? Shrink the top and bottom bezels and lose the physical home button (replace functionality with 3D touch), giving us more screen real estate in a similar compact form factor.

 

[Cloudsurfer]

All this complaining. Finally Apple creates an affordable phone and DIDN'T shrink it to preserve battery life and it still gets pissed on.

For me it's clear: Apple set out to create a cheap iPhone (the one we were waiting for since the rumors of the 5C) and they did exactly just that. This is not only an interesting choice for people who prefer smaller screens, but it may even also lure some Android users to the Apple eco system.

Apple product prices have soared since Cook took the stage, so this is a welcome exception. It may not be the most original phone but they do deserve credit. Too bad I'm never going back to 4 inches, my old 5 feels like a kids toy now hehe.

 

[MrGuder]

10 minutes from now the A10 will be out and this will be regarded as steam powered.
Let's all remember this is just a phone beloved by 13 year olds, fan-fools and everyone not living in Europe, UK and the USA. (Note very well the UK is NOT in Europe and will soon be able to decide its own future away from Germany and France and all those "others".)

This is clearly a spam post, you could have easily passed up this thread but you just had to trash the SE, you are on the wrong thread and possibly on the wrong forum...such a disappointment from a 2012 member.

 

[metsjetsfan]

Does this fix the fbi loophole too for 5c users?

 

[kdarling]

No they didn't. It's not the first airplane until it flies and it's not the first smartphone until app store downloads are humming. Success is a necessary condition for having invented something. There are endless failed attempts prior to any meaningful invention.

Smartphones were selling just fine before the iPhone came along.

Yes they do. Smartphones are general perpose computers and apps are the way to adapt them to different purposes. The term smartphone was originally coined to describe feature phones with special features, but it ended up to mean mobile computer with an app store.

You are correct that the first iPhone was NOT considered a smartphone by most people, but more of a feature phone, because it only came with Apple's built-in programs and lacked support for third party apps.

The reason this was an issue, was because of course there were app stores for smartphones long before Apple came along. Some smartphones even came preloaded with stores like Handango, which many of us used. Here's their web version from 2005, with over 75,000 downloadable apps, widgets and wallpapers available:



Not to mention a bunch of other free app sites, and even accessory-specific sites. Slingbox comes to mind, with their own store that sold not just their Slingbox TV accessory, but the app to use it on your favorite smartphone. It's no wonder they held back from using the Apple App Store for a very long time... why should they give up 30% for no reason?

 

[asleep]

Teardown video.