In its full teardown of the iPhone X, iFixit found the device to be drastically reconfigured inside to maximize performance in the smallest space possible. The stacked logic board is of special interest, taking up only around 70 percent of the space of the iPhone 8 Plus’ board but cramming in even more chips and connectors by being folded in half. That design leaves more room for the two battery cells that give the iPhone X a small edge on the iPhone 8 Plus despite coming in a much smaller footprint.
Internal brackets, spot welds and foam hold the front-facing cameras firmly in place so they can pull off delicate features like Portrait Mode, and the rear-facing Face ID camera technology comes out of the display when it’s separated, making the OLED display replaceable without fiddling with the cameras embedded within it.
The device also has a ton of waterproofing inside that can gum up repairs, but on the flip side they make it a lot less likely that water damage repairs will be necessary in the first place. Extreme water tests conducted by YouTuber EverythingApplePro (via iPhone in Canada) found the iPhone X held up in a meter of water for 30 minutes with no damage or functional problems. The device also survived 5 minutes 20 feet below the surface of a river and made it through a full rinse cycle in the washing machine unscathed.
In its drop tests, SquareTrade found the iPhone X to be “the most breakable, highest-priced, most expensive to repair iPhone ever,” with screen malfunctions, swipe failures, display separation and edge scratches after 1 drop from 6 feet onto the device’s side. Face-down and back-down drops shattered the glass on each side respectively, and a 60-second tumble test also shattered the glass and causes Face ID failures. While it should be noted that SquareTrade is in the business of selling extended phone warranties and most users will have their device snugly inside a case, the drop tests do somewhat undermine Apple’s claim that the iPhone X features “the most durable glass ever in a smartphone.”
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