iPhone 17 Pro Teardown Reveals Apple's New Approach to Thermal Management and Repairs

[User 6502]

Physics would like a word.

If Apple kept the camera flush, photos would actually be worse, giving people yet something else to complain about. Depth is needed (somehow) for a camera to capture good images, particularly far away.

No reason to make the phone thinner in other locations though. The thickness of a device is the thickness at the thickest point, it’s absolutely pointless to make it thinner in some locations and not in others. Give us a bigger battery and get rid of this ridiculous camera bum… ehm… <<plateau>>

 

[aevan]

Years behind various Androids, finally Apple takes action to resolve warm to hot running iPhones.

Finally on a phone that matters.

 

[aevan]

No reason to make the phone thinner in other locations though. The thickness of a device is the thickness at the thickest point, it’s absolutely pointless to make it thinner in some locations and not in others. Give us a bigger battery and get rid of this ridiculous camera bum… ehm… <<plateau>>

The phone you describe would weigh like a small laptop and would suck in pockets.

 

[centauratlas]

Concrete also has spalling when the top layer starts to flake off. There are a lot of causes, but it is a common thing that occurs in different solids so I don't think it is a surprise here.

 

[LlamaLarry]

I am not really very concerned about CPU/GOU throttling in my use base, I just want to know if this new thermal management sysrem also allow the screen to run at high brightness longer. I go to the beach every day and every day I get pissed off that my screen dims so low it is practically useless after minutes/seconds.

 

[Wowfunhappy]

Physics would like a word.

If Apple kept the camera flush, photos would actually be worse, giving people yet something else to complain about. Depth is needed (somehow) for a camera to capture good images, particularly far away.

Huh, could you explain? Certainly cameras benefit from more space, but if you made the rest of the phone thicker to match it's not at all obvious to me why that would hurt image quality.

 

[Tenkaykev]

Water is the ideal fluid for a vapor chamber. Other fluids like isopropyl alcohol, ethanol, methanol, acetone, etc. have been tried but found wanting, with lower heat storage/transport capacity. Basically, water's latent heat of vaporization is very high, at about 2257 kJ/kg, so it carries a lot of heat per gram. Its specific heat capacity is also very high, at about 4.18 kJ/kg·K, so it absorbs heat better before boiling. All those other fluids have much lower figures. Their boiling points are also too low, so they boil too early, or too high, preventing them from boiling at phone temps. There's also safety concerns with some of these fluids (toxicity, flammability, and/or corrosion), some are more costly than water, and some degrade or leak more easily.

Hey, don't be coming on here with your helpful, educational and well explained comments, we want uninformed opinions 😁

 

[Return Zero]

I wonder if they experimented with other fluids, such as coolants that have a different boiling point?

Never thought we'd see the day when an iPhone needed such advanced cooling, but proof that we are now carrying super-computers in our pockets.

They have... even if some fluids have theoretically better performance, 1) they are more expensive and potentially hazardous, and 2) the primary bottleneck of the iPhone's heat rejection system is not the coolant here, but the chassis of the phone. It is not a very good radiator, though the aluminum unibody is better than any previous.

 

[S.B.G]

Zoomed in like that, on the scratch, makes it look like a horrific and catastrophic bit of damage. Of course, there are some here on MR, that feel that way!

 

[CDubMac]

A ‘water cooled’ iPhone? Is there a way to check the coolant level like there is in every car produced over the last 130 years?

So you can top it off if needed 😀

 

[zenmacx]

Finally on a phone that matters.

Yes indeed, although my iPhone 16 Pro Max serves me well at the moment, if Apple further improves thermal management on the upcoming iPhone 18 Pro Max I will be a buyer.

 

[subjonas]

Zoomed in like that, on the scratch, makes it look like a horrific and catastrophic bit of damage. Of course, there are some here on MR, that feel that way!

I can just imagine people examining their iPhones with a jewelers loupe. Somewhere someone is probably doing this driving themselves insane.

 

[zenmacx]

It sounds like you should be buying android?

I have carried two phones for years, a necessity for work. An iPhone and an Android. Each have their pros and cons. Each a flagship and an excellent opportunity to stay current with what’s happening within their respective ecosystems.

 

[zenmacx]

I see this kind of "Everyone denies this..." or "people here always..." comments quite often. Yet how come I invariably see the people complaining about these so called deniers before I ever see the actual people compaining?

weird, huh.

Years of using Apple products and living in the Apple ecosystem, monitoring many forums reveals the massive influence Apple has over a portion of their user base.

Convinced that the company can do no wrong and often in denial, they advocate as though each product is perfect and deny real world issues.

Between truly excellent, yet not perfect products, it's what's helped the company grow to massive proportions.

 

[jimbobb24]

It's less repairable even though the battery is completely internally reworked to be easily removed without even using glue. Thats such a win for repairs every thing else seems like nonsense.

 

[RedWeasel]

Next year the plateau will become a highland. Tim you're so courageous.

iPhone 18 Pro Mesa

 

[MothJab]

Ifixit was late this year, this blogger did teardown 4 days earlier. What I had seen: AWFUL. Unrepairable single-use item. If battery bloats, it will kill vapor chamber. Phone requires to be partially disassembled to get to the battery. No wonder if Apple asks 200$ to replace that. And people even say that "EU shall not command Apple to have replaceable batteries". At this point, this is what I consider anti-consumer behavior and it is a major reason why I am not upgrading this year again (apart from blurry, lackluster cameras)

People just make up **** at this point. The cameras on this device are excellent

 

[Mark Booth]

Looks like I'll wait for the 18 Pro. Bring back titanium!

Mark

 

[Argon_]

Wild to me that my phone has water in it.

Water has a massive latent heat of vaporization. Exact same reason why cooling towers work so well.

 

[aevan]

Ifixit was late this year, this blogger did teardown 4 days earlier. What I had seen: AWFUL. Unrepairable single-use item. If battery bloats, it will kill vapor chamber. Phone requires to be partially disassembled to get to the battery. No wonder if Apple asks 200$ to replace that. And people even say that "EU shall not command Apple to have replaceable batteries". At this point, this is what I consider anti-consumer behavior and it is a major reason why I am not upgrading this year again (apart from blurry, lackluster cameras)

Blurry cameras…. Sure, buddy, sure.

 

[thomasdangit]

Do you think iPhone 17 Pro battery replacements will include the entire back glass + aluminum unibody case? Or is the battery totally removable and replaceable separately this year?

 

[johnsawyercjs]

Hey, don't be coming on here with your helpful, educational and well explained comments, we want uninformed opinions 😁

In my defense, I was uninformed until I looked up that stuff!

 

[uacd]

Blurry cameras…. Sure, buddy, sure.

Sharpness is not there. Or noise reduction is even higher. Gives that “blurry” feeling.

You have to pixel peep to actually see that though, so for most people it might not even be an issue, but for me it is a main reason why iPhone photos no longer feel real or “art-like”