14 DAY TRIAL // The famous repair shop iFixit has released its teardown analysis of the iPhone 5. The company’s founders flew to Australia and waited in line to buy the handset, to be among the first to touch it.
“After months of rumors and leaked product-images, the iPhone 5 has finally arrived. We sent our co-founder Luke Soules to Melbourne, Australia to be one of the first people in the world to get his hands on an iPhone 5 so that we could give it our customary teardown-treatment,” says iFixit.
MJ, the lovely female geek in charge with the YouTube introductions, reveals that Apple’s iPhone 5 is similar in construction (to some degree) to the iPhone 3GS.
“In this video, we give an overview of our major teardown findings, including the larger 4" retina display, the A6 system on a chip processor, the Qualcomm MDM9615 chip, and updated lightening connector,” says the repair shop.
The most notable feature that gives the iPhone 5 a good repairability score on iFixit’s scale is the easily-removable display assembly.
“Compare this to the iPhone 4S, where it took 38 steps to isolate the display assembly, and this iPhone may be the most repairable iPhone we've seen in a while.”
The battery, however, is harder to remove than it was with the iPhone 4 and iPhone 4S, says the repair shop. The voltage is also a tad higher (3.8V).
The full teardown offers a close look at every component, including the logic board – a treasure trove of technical details for any geek.
Check out the images on the side, as well as the video featuring MJ with a summary of the teardown. For the full scoop, visit iFixit here.
The company parodies Apple’s iPhone 5 marketing materials, saying this is “the biggest thing to happen to teardowns since teardowns.”
