iPhone 12 mini iFixit Teardown Shows Smaller Taptic Engine, Loudspeaker, Asymmetric Antennas

iPhone 12 mini has an 8.57Wh battery that is bigger than that of iPhone SE (2020).

By Vineet Washington | Updated: 14 November 2020 12:31 IST

iPhone 12 mini iFixit Teardown Shows Smaller Taptic Engine, Loudspeaker, Asymmetric Antennas

Photo Credit: iFixit

iPhone 12 mini has the same camera sensors as iPhone 12

Highlights

iPhone 12 mini teardown shows smaller components
The phone has asymmetric antennas
iPhone 12 mini charges wirelessly at 12W, compared to 15W on other models

iPhone 12 mini has made its way through iFixit's teardown process, revealing mostly the same internal design as other iPhone 12 models with some key differences. It is known that the iPhone 12 series models use similar internal components, but some changes needed to be made with iPhone 12 mini due to its size. iFixit noted that antennas were more asymmetric on iPhone 12 mini when compared to the other iPhone 12 models. Additionally, the battery, Taptic Engine, and loudspeaker are smaller compared to iPhone 12.

While the teardown process was pretty much the same for the iPhone 12 mini as the other iPhone 12 models, iFixit noted some differences that were made to accommodate the smaller size of the handset. iPhone 12 mini comes with a 5.4-inch display and measures 131.50x64.20x7.40mm. The teardown showed that the antennas were more asymmetrical as they could not be fitted into the “small-bodied phone” – as iFixit refers to it – in the same way as the bigger iPhone 12 models. The display for iPhone 12 mini opened to the left, just like iPhone 12, but is connected with two display cables instead of three.

The teardown also showed that the battery, Taptic Engine, and loudspeaker were smaller in size. Similarly, the earpiece, Face ID, and sensors in the upper assembly were shrunken down to fit the smaller iPhone 12 mini.

While iPhone 12 comes with the same size camera module as iPhone 12 Pro but without the LiDAR sensor, iPhone 12 mini gets rid of the plastic spacer to make room for other components. Notably, iPhone 12 mini has the same two cameras as the iPhone 12.

Coming to the battery, iFixit shared that the battery in iPhone 12 mini is 8.57Wh – larger than iPhone SE (2020)'s 6.96Wh. iPhone 12 mini is limited to 12W when charging wirelessly compared to 15W on the other three models. However, all iPhone 12 models charge at the same 20W when charging with the cable.

Are iPhone 12 mini, HomePod mini the Perfect Apple Devices for India? We discussed this on Orbital, our weekly technology podcast, which you can subscribe to via Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, or RSS, download the episode, or just hit the play button below.

Affiliate links may be automatically generated - see our ethics statement for details.

iPhone 12 mini

REVIEW
KEY SPECS
NEWS

Design
Display
Software
Performance
Battery Life
Camera
Value for Money

Good
Very good build quality
Dolby Vision HDR video recording
Excellent cameras
Smooth performance in everyday use
Light and convenient

Bad
Below-average battery life
Gets warm when stressed

Read detailed Apple iPhone 12 mini review

Display 5.40-inch

Processor Apple A14 Bionic

Front Camera 12-megapixel

Rear Camera 12-megapixel + 12-megapixel

RAM 4GB

Storage 64GB

OS iOS 14

Resolution 1080x2340 pixels

More Apple mobiles Apple mobiles price in India

Comments

For the latest tech news and reviews, follow Gadgets 360 on X, Facebook, WhatsApp, Threads and Google News. For the latest videos on gadgets and tech, subscribe to our YouTube channel. If you want to know everything about top influencers, follow our in-house Who'sThat360 on Instagram and YouTube.