Every year, the world holds its breath to learn the exact specifications of the latest iPhone models. After all, while Apple has started disclosing details like the number of cores in its latest mobile SoC, the company still doesn't believe in disclosing details like the amount of RAM or the battery capacity on its smartphones. The first credible teardown of the iPhone 7 Plus is in, and we finally know these details.
Do-it-yourself repair site iFixit, best known for its comprehensive teardowns with the help of a few friends, got its hands on an iPhone 7 Plus out of Tokyo on Friday. It has been tearing down the smartphone and posting updates through the day, and now the cumbersome process is now complete. Unfortunately, we'll have to wait a little longer for iFixit's iPhone 7 teardown.
Let's get to the juicy details first. The teardown reveals the iPhone 7 Plus sports 3GB of LPDDR4 RAM, and the unit torn down by iFixit sports a RAM module made by Samsung. Also onboard is the Qualcomm MDM9645M LTE. Cat 12 modem.
As for the battery, iFixit found the iPhone 7 Plus to come packing a 2900mAh battery, which is larger than the 2750mAh battery on the iPhone 6s Plus, but negligibly smaller than the 2915mAh offering on the iPhone 6 Plus. iFixit also notes that the 128GB NAND Flash chip included in their unit was made by Toshiba.
Another notable finding was just what Apple placed in the iPhone 7 Plus in the former location of the headphone jack. It turns out the Cupertino giant has placed a piece of moulded plastic that Apple confirmed to The Verge is a barometric vent. "With the added ingress protection afforded by the watertight seal, the iPhone uses this baffle to equalise the internal and atmospheric pressures in order to have an accurate altimeter," iFixit explains. The Taptic engine controller which powers the pressure sensitive home button also takes up some of the space freed by the removal of the headphone jack.
Other major design changes noted include the presence of rubber gasket for the Lightning connector and the SIM tray, which also sports a plastic eject plug. These changes were of course made keeping in mind the IP67 rated dust and water resistance of the smartphone.
Finally, coming to the repairability of the iPhone 7 Plus. iFixit's verdict is a score of 7 out of 10 - marking it as relatively easy to repair. It notes that now the battery is straightforward to access, and, the presence of a solid state Home Button eliminates a common point of failure. It adds that while improved water and dust protection reduces the need for related repairs, it also makes some repairs more difficult.
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