iPhone XS and XS Max hit the stores on Friday and as always iFixit has provided teardown images of the new iPhones.
The teardown reveals the latest iPhones are pretty similar to the previous models.
Let’s take a closer look at it.
iPhone XS on left and iPhone XS Max on right. The shape of battery is completely different.
Points to keep in mind
- Glass: Apple said “the most durable glass ever in a smartphone” but the glass looks very simliar to iPhone X’s. No clue whether new Gorrila Glass 6 or not
- Antenna band: Extra antenna band added on the bottom very likely to support for Gigabit LTE (not 5G)
- IP68 water resistance: No evidence. SIM card slot also largely unchanged
- Taptic Engine: Resized and XS Max is a little bigger than XS, perhaps for bigger vibrations
- Logic Board: XS Max gets extended and different design from XS
- Battery Shape: XS has a new one-cell L-shaped unit, while XS Max has two cells like iPhone X
- Battery Capacity: iPhone XS at 2,659 mAh and iPhone XS Max at 3,179 mAh (iPhone X at 2716 mAh)
- Battery Design: Terraced battery cell like Origami (custom shaped to fit the specific contours of the enclosure)
- Camera: The wide-angle sensor size has been increased by 32% (Pixel size has also been bumped, bringing better low-light performance and contributing to the new “Smart HDR” feature)
- Earpiece Speaker: XS Max has a bit of extra speaker volume
As for the battery shape, “The extra corners and edges of the single-cell battery in the XS will be prone to extra stress,” iFixit mentioned.
Totally no big news about internal design, however this year is “S” year of tick-tock cycle. We will see completely new design a year later.
In addition, what about component suppliers?
Apple is replacing some of suppliers every year. I can’t find the names like Sony, Samsung or Qualcomm. But at least Sony may have a key role in image sensors.
Component Suppliers
- Flash Storage: Toshiba (or SanDisk)
- Audio Codec: named Apple but possibly from Cirrus Logic
- USB Power Delivery IC: Cypress Semiconductor
- Display Port Multiplexor: NXP
- Battery DC Converter: Texas Instruments
- SDRAM: Micron Technology (4 GB LPDDR4X SDRAM)
- SoC: Apple (A12 Bionic APL1W81) designed by Apple and manufactured by TSMC
- Power Management IC (possibly for Face ID): STMicroelectronics
- Power Management IC: Apple
- Power Management IC: named Apple but possibly from Dialog Systems (338S00383-A0)
- Power Management IC: named Apple but possibly from Dialog Systems (338S00375)
- Battery Charger: Texas Instruments
- WiFi/Bluetooth SoC: Apple
- Baseband Processor/Modems: Intel
- Secure MCU: ST Microelectronics
- NFC Controller: NXP Semiconductors
- Wireless Charging Module: Broadcom
- High/Mid PAD: Avago
- Duplexer: Murata
- Power Amplification Modules: Skyworks Solutions
- Transceiver: Intel
- RF Switch: Skyworks Solutions
- GPS Low-Noise Amplifiers: Skyworks Solutions
- Power Management IC (RF board): Intel
