iFixit shows what’s inside iPhone 13 ‘more than a paint job’

I can imagine the moment the designer drew this blueprint after so many iterations

iFixIt is doing its thing, tearing Apple’s latest products apart to see what’s inside the world’s fastest smartphone. The only difference this year is the company’s letting the rest of us look at what they pack in multiple installments.

More than a ‘new paint job’

You can watch iFixIt’s engineers tearing an iPhone 13 apart in the livestream video embedded below, and the company has now published the first part of this year’s iPhone teardown.

The biggest revelation? This isn’t just an iPhone 12 “with a new paint job,” they said. “There’s so much more.”

The first teardown looks at how Apple managed to reduce the size of the screen notch by 20% by moving the earpiece speaker, which now nestles to the chassis. The engineers also swapped a few parts to see which components are device-locked. “Battery swaps do work, but Apple still hits fixers with scare-tactic warnings,” iFixIt said.

Like a open book

X-ray image

With help from Creative Electron, the researchers also published X-ray images that show us how the devices look internally when all the components are in place. It gives you a blueprint someone must surely have written and felt good about a couple of years ago, so it’s nice to get a feeling of that moment.

Highlights revealed in the overall teardown include the L-shaped 11.97 Wh battery,  stabilizing magnets for the image sensors, and tiny logic boards.

Look at the LiDAR sensor

The Taptic Engine seems smaller than the 12 Pro’s, but weights more — 6.3 grams and 869.4 mm³, versus the 12 Pro’s 4.8 grams and 764.27 mm³.

We’ll see more from iFixIt down the line, but right now demand appears to be up 20% on last year, with 5G, camera improvements, a much faster processor, and decent seeming carrier deals prompting plenty of purchase.

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