When a new phone comes out, the popular thing to do these days is to tear it down to find out exactly what’s inside these devices because clearly people want to know what they’ve spent their hard-earned money on.
While Chipworks had their go at prying open the iPhone SE, now it’s iFixit’s turn to have their way with Apple‘s latest and what they reveal is actually rather interesting.
It doesn’t take a genius to guess what smartphone the iPhone SE was based on, one look will tell you that it’s the spitting image of Apple’s older iPhone 5s. The question is, what’s new?
Well, not the display apparently. In iFixit’s comprehensive teardown, one of the first things they noticed was that the iPhone SE had the exact same display as the older iPhone 5s. So similar, in fact, that they’re practically interchangeable.
Yup, that means not only are the guides already available for those who want to DIY swap their broken iPhone SE displays for a new one, but you could theoretically use an old iPhone 5s’s panel too. The best part is that the display is plug and play between the two devices, so once you hook up the necessary connectors, the panel fires right up.
Many have labeled the iPhone SE as an iPhone 5s stuffed full of iPhone 6s parts but that may not actually be entirely accurate. The 12-megapixel iSight camera, for example, may theoretically be the same as the one on the iPhone 6s, they’re not interchangeable. It is, however, quite different from the old iPhone 5s’s snapper (note the number of connectors) on the left, which is to be expected.
You’d be happy to know that the iPhone SE also comes with a bigger 1,624 mAh battery, up from the iPhone 5s’s 1,560 mAh. Not a major upgrade, but coupled with improved battery optimisations, users should see an improvement in battery life over the iPhone 5s. Unfortunately, unlike the apparently interchangeable displays, the battery connectors on the iPhone SE differs from the 5s’s so no supercharging your old 5s.
Another interesting thing that iFixit discovered was the waterproofing seals. Apple placed foamy silicone seals surrounding some but not all of the logic board connections. Curious. Wouldn’t Apple have wanted to maximise water protection throughout their device? I guess some corners had to be cut after all, but then again you shouldn’t be too disappointed as Apple didn’t market the iPhone SE as a waterproof device anyway.
Be sure to check out iFixit’s full teardown of the device if you want to learn more. What do you guys think of the iPhone SE’s internals? Is it worth the money?
