iFixit has posted its usual complete teardown of the iPhone 8, as usual confirming much of the information that’s already been revealed while discovering a few additional interesting details. The new iPhone 8 model appears very similar to its predecessor on the outside, and is only a fraction of a millimetre larger in its dimensions. The model is identified from the box as A1863, although the report notes that it’s now conspicuously absent from the iPhone 8’s new all-glass back, thanks to a recent law that allows this information to be displayed only in the software.
iFixit notes that at first glance of the internals, the iPhone 8 appears to reveal very little change from its predecessor, although it notes that Apple has moved away from last year’s obstructionist tri-point screws to more friendly Philips #000 screws. The report also notes that some of the display gaskets that were found in the iPhone 7 are no longer present in the iPhone 8, although both devices have the same IP67 water resistance rating. The report also reveals the battery in the iPhone 8 is a 3.82 V 1821 mAh cell that delivers up to 6.96 Wh of power, a drop from last year’s 7.45 Wh battery, although Apple claims that the iPhone 8 will still provide similar battery life to the iPhone 7, likely due to improved power management and lower power-consumption from many of the components.
The iPhone 8 camera uses the same ƒ/1.8, six-element lens as the iPhone 7 version, but makes several other improvements such as a larger sensor that lets in more light and decreases noise. The Lightning port also appears to have undergone some minor improvements, which iFixit speculates may be to support the new fast-charging capabilities.
Looking to the logic board, iFixit also identifies the collection of chips, including Apple’s own A11 Bionic CPU with 2GB of LPDDR4 RAM and a Qualcomm modem chip, along with the usual supporting cast of chips from Skywords, Avago, NXP, Toshiba, and Broadcom. What appears to be black tape on the rear case turns out to be the Qi wireless charging coil. iFixit also separates the rear glass from the aluminum frame and steel plate, noting that it’s an arduous process. In the end, iFixit gives the iPhone 8 a reparability score of 6, noting that water and dust seals complicate the repair process, four different driver types will be required for many repairs, and that the iPhone’s lower components “now lie trapped under a fussy combination of brackets and delicately folded flex cables.”
