Apple’s iPhone 11 introduces a powerful dual-camera system, offering an intuitive camera experience with the highest quality video in a smartphone and Night mode for photos. iPhone 11 is powered by the A13 Bionic chip to perform the most demanding tasks, while getting through an entire day on a single charge, and is designed to withstand the elements with improved water resistance.
For the first time ever, Apple released three new iPhones all at once, and our teardown team has never been busier. We focused most of our efforts on the iPhone 11 Pro Max teardown last week, but we also took a look inside the mid-sized and decidedly non-professional iPhone 11. This minty green machine may be the middle sibling in this year’s iPhone lineup, but it’s no less worthy of time under the screwdriver.
As we slowly lift the screen out of the way, our first glimpse inside the iPhone 11 confirms our suspicions: this is an iPhone XR with some iPhone 11 Pro tech inside… On the logic board, we identify a few chips and take some guesses as to what they might be. The APL1W85 is Apple’s A13 Bionic system-on-chip, layered over SK Hynix H9HKNNNCRMMVDR LPDDR4X RAM—SK Hynix’s documentation doesn’t contain a decoder for this model number, but it’s seemingly 4GB of the stuff. Rounding out the chips is a chip labeled H230FG82D6AD0-BC 922Y / M1TPAR31HA1 (probably storage) and another with a model number I7J9, perhaps Apple’s new U1 wireless positioning chip…
MacDailyNews Take: “We were suspicious when Apple alluded that the new A13 chip and PMU alone were responsible for the extra five hours (five hours!) of battery life,” iFixit reports in their iPhone 11 Pro Max teardown. “Turns out you can just make a phone a little thicker for massive battery life gains. Who would have guessed?”
Hmm…
What’d be wrong with slightly thicker iPhone with more battery life and a flush camera assembly?
Yes, we know Apple thinks thinness sets iPhone apart from all other so-called smartphones (actually, it’s the operating system, the software and the ecosystem), but the iPhone 6/Plus and iPhone 6s/Plus are simply too thin to house their camera assembly.
iPhone 6s is 0.28 inch (7.1 mm) thin. Samsung’s Galaxy S6 is 0.27 inch (6.8 mm). The “thicker” iPhone 6s easily outsells the thinner Galaxy S6. Obviously, at this point, the selling point of “thinness” is overrated.
iPhone 6 and 6s have battery life issues for heavy iPhone users (hint: get an Apple Watch. You’ll use your iPhone less and the battery will easily outlast even the longest day).
The law of diminishing returns can also be applied to industrial design. Apple’s eternal quest for thinness eventually runs into issues such as bulging camera assemblies, battery capacity, strength (breakability), etc. – is Apple’s quest for thinness now bordering on the quixotic?
So, is it “you can never be too thin” or is it “thin enough is thin enough?” – MacDailyNews, December 21, 2015
If Apple made an iPhone model that was the smartphone equivalent of the Panasonic Toughbook — thick, heavy, full of battery, and virtually indestructible — they’d never be able to make enough of them. — MacDailyNews, November 2, 2018
Thank god Jony’s gone. Mr. Thin Man.
iPhone XS is 0.30 inches thick.
iPhone 11 Pro is 0.32 inches thick.
Way to go out on a limb Apple. You added 0.02″ to the battery thickness and got about 5 hours more battery life.
How about going to 0.33 or, god forbid 0.35″. Would that add another 5 hours or more?
That would be nice.
Then you’ll complain it is too thick. Why not an inch thick iPhone? Or are you not as thick as some?