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

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.