iFixit Gives Us a Peek Inside iPhone XR With New Teardown

[MacRumors]

Apple's new lower-cost flagship smartphone, the iPhone XR, launched today, and iFixit picked up one of the new devices to take it apart for one of the site's traditional teardowns that are designed to give us a peek inside Apple hardware.

An x-ray provided by Creative Electron offers a look inside the fully assembled iPhone, showing where each component is located.

Opening up the iPhone XR is similar to opening up the iPhone X, with Apple using its standard pentalobe screws that can be bypassed with iFixit tools. iFixit says that surprisingly, the screws don't match the color of the iPhone XR, and compared to the iPhone XS, the SIM slot is lower.

In fact, the SIM tray in the iPhone XR is modular, which is a first for an iPhone. iFixit says that this will allow for faster swapping of a dead SIM reader and a reduction in cost when replacing the logic board.

iFixit says that it's not entirely clear where the iPhone XS got its extra IP-68 water resistance from, given the fact that opening the XR and the XS is similar.

The internals of the iPhone XR look like a cross between an iPhone 8 and an iPhone X, according to iFixit, with a rectangular battery and a rectangular logic board.

The iPhone XR has an 11.16 Wh battery, larger than the 10.13 Wh battery in the iPhone XS, but smaller than the 12.08 Wh battery in the iPhone XS Max. Despite the smaller battery, the iPhone XR gets the best battery life out of Apple's three new iPhones. There's an included Taptic Engine, which provides the Haptic Touch feedback that's available in place of 3D Touch, and a single-lens rear camera module.

The TrueDepth camera system is, unsurprisingly, identical to the TrueDepth camera system in the iPhone X and XS.

The XR is equipped with an LCD that's 0.3 inches larger across than the AMOLED display in the iPhone XS, and it's also thicker and heavier because it requires a backlight. According to iFixit, the larger display is the reason why the Lightning connector is off-axis.

Like the iPhone XS and XS Max, the iPhone XR features a copper wireless charging coil, which should allow for faster wireless charging speeds due to less heat produced.

iFixit gave the iPhone XR an overall repairability score of six. A broken display can easily be replaced with minimal hardware removal, says the site, but Pentalobe screws and waterproofing complicate things.

Article Link: iFixit Gives Us a Peek Inside iPhone XR With New Teardown

 

[Baymowe335]

iPhones are so clean on the inside. The design is incredible.

 

[Bornee35]

iPhones are so clean on the inside. The design is incredible.

Step 1:
Schematic
Step 2:
Export to PCB
Step 3:
Autoroute
Step 4:
Undo
Step 5:
Autoroute
Step 6:
Profit

 

[AL1630]

Very cool. I always like seeing these when a new iPhone comes out.

 

[twocents]

What comes to mind when I see this was the quote by Steve Jobs along the lines of how the inside of Apple products should look better than the outside that of the competitors. Happy to see that’s still true

 

[Pelea]

Ah good old apple. Making 2 phones with the exact same water resistance and marking one As ip67 just for $$

 

[lec0rsaire]

That’s a pretty damn big battery. As dies keep shrinking, the battery will eventually make 95% of the total volume of the phone.
[doublepost=1540586410][/doublepost]

What comes to mind when I see this was the quote by Steve Jobs along the lines of how the inside of Apple products should look better than the outside that of the competitors. Happy to see that’s still true

Even if 90% of folks will never see the guts themselves. This is the approach that manufacturers of luxury Swiss watches use as well with the movements as well as exotic car manufacturers with their engines.

 

[lec0rsaire]

Ah good old apple. Making 2 phones with the exact same water resistance and marking one As ip67 just for $$

Steel is more resistant than aluminum hands down. Which is why watches made of stainless steel can resist up to 3,900m/12,800 ft. depths.

But no one can take any phone in the ocean and underwater no matter what the IP rating so splash resistance, 1 meter or 1.5 meters makes no significant difference in practice.

 

[B4U]

Looks like there is still room for the hardware to implement 3D touch, right?

 

[Agit21]

Looks like there is still room for the hardware to implement 3D touch, right?

3D Touch is dead. Get over it bruh.

 

[pweicks]

3D Touch is dead. Get over it bruh.

No it’s not.

 

[typecase]

Looks like there's room for a headphone jack.

 

[mjdickerson]

Step 1:
Schematic
Step 2:
Export to PCB
Step 3:
Autoroute
Step 4:
Undo
Step 5:
Autoroute
Step 6:
Profit

Nope, not anywhere close. Their work is certainly not a product of autoroute.

 

[JohnR]

The iPhone XR has an 11.16 Wh battery, larger than the 10.13 Wh battery in the iPhone XS, but smaller than the 12.08 Wh battery in the iPhone XS.

So...it's bigger than the one in the XS, but smaller than the one in the XS...ok. Got it. Just make sure you order the bigger battery in the XS.

Looks like someone forgot to put Max after the 12.08 Wh battery

 

[44267547]

iPhones are so clean on the inside. The design is incredible.

Indeed. In retrospect, if you look at the first iPhone back in 2007, look how the sloppy assembled internals compare to how neat and organized everything is in today’s current iPhone internals:

 

[simply258]

Looks like there is still room for the hardware to implement 3D touch, right?

Apple left it out to reduce the cost, it’s not about the space.

 

[magicschoolbus]

Indeed. In retrospect, if you look at the first iPhone back in 2007, look how the sloppy assembled internals compare to how neat and organized everything is in today’s current iPhone internals:

View attachment 798581

Wow. All of that in a decade... can’t imagine another 10 from now.

 

[B4U]

3D Touch is dead. Get over it bruh.

If it is dead, then please try to explain why is it still implemented on the flagship model XS and XS max.
On the other hand, the second part of your comment is totally uncalled for. Try to get off the high horse sometimes.

 

[Sasparilla]

Apple left it out to reduce the cost, it’s not about the space.

The Xr is already $50 less than the 8 Plus was though. They could have included it on a cost basis and kept the price below the old 8 plus.

 

[robertcoogan]

"The iPhone XR has an 11.16 Wh battery, larger than the 10.13 Wh battery in the iPhone XS, but smaller than the 12.08 Wh battery in the iPhone XS."

Uh...what?

 

[izac90]

The battery is both bigger and smaller then the the iPhone XS! Lmao

 

[JohnR]

"The iPhone XR has an 11.16 Wh battery, larger than the 10.13 Wh battery in the iPhone XS, but smaller than the 12.08 Wh battery in the iPhone XS."

Uh...what?

Beat you by almost 2 hours.

 

[tooloud10]

It can be “lower cost” or a “flagship”, but it can’t be both.

 

[madKIR]

"The iPhone XR has an 11.16 Wh battery, larger than the 10.13 Wh battery in the iPhone XS, but smaller than the 12.08 Wh battery in the iPhone XS."

Uh...what?

Great Apple engineering: it shrinks and expands when it’s needed

 

[Enclavean]

Much easier to hit the wireless charging pad cross with the XR than the 8. A pleasant surprise