Take a look inside Apple Watch Series 7

iFixit has returned with its regular look inside fresh Apple devices, publishing its Apple Watch Series 7 teardown. Highlights include an all-new display and an interview with someone the company claims is one of the original architects of the device.

What critics said about Apple Watch Series 7

Reviewers seemed to like the device as they received them last week. “The Series 7 marks one of the biggest changes to the device’s design in several generations, and even that isn’t what one might deem a radical departure,” said Brian Heater at TechCrunch.

“In fact, it’s the sort of thing you can walk around with undetected. If, on the other hand, you’re a daily Apple Watch user, you’ll notice the difference on your wrist immediately… (though) the truth is that the nature of wearables generally prohibits designers from making too radical a design change because the product needs to fit on your body,” he wrote.

What iFixit found inside

iFixit states the highlights of what it found:

• This new display uses on-cell touch technology, similar to what Apple introduced in the iPhone 13. That’s a bit of a reversal—ordinarily the watch gets new display tech first as it’s a much lower-volume product.

c/o iFixit – Series 7 meets series 6.

• Apple removed the only physical port, which frees up a bit of space internally, but potentially complicates manufacturing and debugging. Is this a test for future portless iPhones? “Rumor has it that Apple now uses a high-frequency wireless interface instead,” they said.

The Series 7 scores a 6/10 on repairability. The group also published this video featuring a former Apple product designer. While the video sees that designer share many plugs for his new firm, it’s still quite interesting and a good chance to see what’s inside of Apple’s new device.

Battery also seems to have been improved, iFixIt said.

“In both 41 and 45 mm form factors, we found batteries with slightly wider dimensions than last year, with slightly higher capacity and energy density. That said, those new larger, brighter displays are likely a bit power hungry, so this translates to a net-zero gain in overall battery life. Both batteries retain the same max voltage and average voltage as prior models, so there’s likely no chemistry change to the cells themselves,” iFixit said.

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