iFixit Does X-Ray Teardown of New iPhone 11 Smart Battery Case

[MacRumors]

Apple last week debuted new Smart Battery Cases designed for the iPhone 11, iPhone 11 Pro, and iPhone 11 Pro Max, with each case adding 50 percent additional battery life to its respective iPhone.

Noted repair site iFixit and Creative Electron today did an x-ray teardown of the new battery cases to take a quick glimpse at what's inside and how the near camera button feature works.

Compared to last year's battery cases, the new cases have a camera button on the right side that's designed to open the camera when it's pressed. With the Camera app open, pressing the button takes a photo, and holding it down takes a QuickTake video.

According to iFixit's x-rays, the camera button works though a little circuit board in the case, which has a thin, flexible circuit that runs to the photo button. The circuit board is designed to connect to the camera button through the Lightning port at the bottom of the case.

The button is designed to be just a bit recessed to prevent it from activating in a pocket or a bag, and you do need to hold it down for just a bit to open the camera app to begin with. All in all, it's a useful little feature that adds some nice utility to the Smart Battery Case.

There's little else of interest in the x-ray, but the inductive charging coil is visible, as is the 10.9v battery and other internal circuitry that makes the case functional.

For more on Apple's Smart Battery Cases for the iPhone 11, iPhone 11 Pro, and iPhone 11 Pro Max, make sure to check out our guide.

Article Link: iFixit Does X-Ray Teardown of New iPhone 11 Smart Battery Case

 

[acorntoy]

A battery case that contains batteries, i'll be darned.

 

[nvmls]

Shot on iPhone XR™

 

[orbital~debris]

iPod flashback (scroll-wheel ?)!

 

[needfx]

I'm pretty sure MRI was shot down early in the discussion

 

[youngatwork]

Do these still block the compass from functioning? Causes problems with Google VR Directions, which is a pain

 

[Moonlight]

Looked like an iPod at first

 

[pukifloyd]

They should keep the entire back at the same thickness level and put in another battery in an L shape above the two batteries that are in the case right now.

 

[CarlJ]

They should keep the entire back at the same thickness level and put in another battery in an L shape above the two batteries that are in the case right now.

That would break their hinged method of getting the case on and off easily.

 

[MrGuder]

Not for me
Bulky still = Bulky

 

[Westside guy]

I don't quite get how this qualifies as a "teardown".

 

[Rogifan]

Wow I’m surprised they didn’t fly someone to Australia so they could have a tear down done before US customers woke up.

 

[wwooden]

Shot on iPhone XR™

More like "Shot on iPhone XRay"

 

[FightTheFuture]

Man this makes me excited for the next Arkham game.

 

[WestonHarvey1]

I don't quite get how this qualifies as a "teardown".

It's a spectrographic teardown!

 

[gsmornot]

I think it was obvious the camera button used the lightning port since the wired headphones have had the capability all this time.

 

[Toratek]

The use of the term “teardown” in this context is stupid and lazy.

 

[boswald]

Not as interesting as the MacBook teardown, but still kind of cool to see how the technology works.

 

[FlyingDutch]

They should keep the entire back at the same thickness level and put in another battery in an L shape above the two batteries that are in the case right now.

that would affect the antenna's performance and add weight to an already heavy product.

 

[V_Man]

Great product if you need it. Integration with iOS is the big advantage over the other brands.

just don’t want to take off my Apple leather case.

 

[JosephAW]

Too bad Apple didn't keep going and add a headphone jack and SD card slot for external store capability added to iOS 13 and USB C fast charge and transfer port and they would have sold them like gangbusters. Also they should release an updated version with the camera button for their older devices.

I still think the iPhone 12 should come without a battery at all and be super thin and allow the user to buy a thin, thick, massive or power cell battery case.

 

[Someyoungguy]

A battery case that contains batteries, i'll be darned.

Yeah, I...I don't know who this article is for.

 

[Tech198]

That would break their hinged method of getting the case on and off easily.

I think the thing is, once its on, why would you even wanna take it off .. Seems good all around

 

[LuciusWrong]

Too bad Apple didn't keep going and add a headphone jack and SD card slot for external store capability added to iOS 13 and USB C fast charge and transfer port and they would have sold them like gangbusters. Also they should release an updated version with the camera button for their older devices.

I still think the iPhone 12 should come without a battery at all and be super thin and allow the user to buy a thin, thick, massive or power cell battery case.

Keeping with the same theme, they should drop storage to 1gb, because the cloud. Who needs all that old fashioned local storage when there is a giant cloud in the sky so hungry to soak up all our data???

 

[bsimpsen]

There's little else of interest in the x-ray, but the inductive charging coil is visible, as is the 10.9v battery and other internal circuitry that makes the case functional.

The battery (2 cells) is 10.9WH, not 10.9V.