iFixit Takes Apart iPhone 16e for Closer Look at C1 Modem

[MacRumors]

iFixit today shared one of its traditional teardown videos, taking apart the new iPhone 16e to take a closer look at the internal components.

The iPhone 16e has the same quick release battery adhesive as the other iPhone 16 models, with the battery adhesive able to be released using a low-voltage electrical charge.

An earlier teardown revealed a 15.55 Wh battery inside the iPhone 16e, which is bigger than the 13.83 Wh battery. iFixit says that Apple was able to place a larger battery in the iPhone 16e because there is additional space that's available thanks to the single-lens rear-camera.

iFixit's teardown gives us our closest look yet at Apple's new C1 modem. It's on the underside of the RF board, and has the same package structure as the Qualcomm X71M modem, with a 4nm modem and DRAM. The 7nm transceivers are not located in the same package as the modem.

iFixit was not impressed with some of the design decisions that Apple made, due to the repair difficulty. To get to the USB-C port, for example, all of the internal components of the device need to be removed. Still, iFixit said that the iPhone 16e makes some progress toward repairability thanks to the rollback of parts pairing in iOS and small changes like a metal bracket that protects a flex cable from being sliced when opening up the device.

Article Link: iFixit Takes Apart iPhone 16e for Closer Look at C1 Modem

 

[mrfunnypenguin]

I really liked the pre-2020 teardowns that were done in article format. But this is cool anyway. Great to hear they are making some slight improvements to the repairability.

 

[johnsawyercjs]

Since removing the display or the back of the iPhone also tears up the thin sticky-backed sealing layer around the inner front/back rims of the inside circumference of the iPhone's housing, it would seem that unless you somehow can replace that too, an iPhone that's been taken apart and reassembled would no longer meet the IP68 waterproof rating. When Apple fixes an iPhone, do they replace this thin sealing layer?

The iFixit video says Magsafe is nothing more than a ring of magnets. That's not accurate--those magnets surround the charging coil, which is a separate part. In the 16e, it's a Qi 1 charging coil, limited to 7.5 watts, not Apple's enhanced true Magsafe version that supports higher wattage/faster charging. Magsafe also uses the iPhone's NFC chip, magnetometer and Hall effect sensors, and the copper or graphite heat spreader, though those parts are used for other iPhone needs as well, so they're also in the 16e. So the parts of Magsafe Apple didn't include in the 16e are the Magsafe-specific charging coil, and the magnetic alignment ring around the charging coil. I don't know exactly how thick a Magsafe charging coil is, but some sources say about 1mm (though other sources say up to about 2mm), so it might be thicker than a 7.5 watt Qi 1 coil, which might be about 0.5mm to 1mm thick. Some sources say a Magsafe magnetic alignment ring is about 1.7mm thick, so not including it in the 16e might have freed up a significant amount of thickness to reassign to the battery.

 

[NovaEmerald]

Since removing the display or the back of the iPhone also tears up the thin sticky-backed sealing layer around the inner front/back rims of the inside circumference of the iPhone's housing, it would seem that unless you somehow can replace that too, an iPhone that's been taken apart and reassembled would no longer meet the IP68 waterproof rating. When Apple fixes an iPhone, do they replace this thin sealing layer?

Yes they do. A decent amount of time of any repair process is spent removing and cleaning the edge area for fresh application of new sealing adhesive.

 

[svish]

Good video. Nice to see the internals. Not surprised to see that it is not so easy to repair. Some of the products from Apple are better in repairability but in general it is not quite easy. Better to go to an Apple store or service center to do any kind of repairs on Apple products.

 

[Unregistered 4U]

The iFixit video says Magsafe is nothing more than a ring of magnets. That's not accurate--those magnets surround the charging coil, which is a separate part. In the 16e, it's a Qi 1 charging coil, limited to 7.5 watts, not Apple's enhanced true Magsafe version that supports higher wattage/faster charging.

Well, it IS iFixit. They don’t have to be accurate if the video makes someone go to their site to post that in the comments. Especially when they can take a dig at Apple in lieu of accuracy. They’re still parroting that the EU made Apple switch to USB-C, when Apple helped create it and switched to USB-C after their decade on lightning, which is exactly how long they said they’d be on lightning.

iFixit likely wouldn’t even have their “i” name if it wasn’t for Apple!

 

[thefrost]

Interesting to look at.

 

[Alameda]

Well, it IS iFixit. They don’t have to be accurate if the video makes someone go to their site to post that in the comments. Especially when they can take a dig at Apple in lieu of accuracy. They’re still parroting that the EU made Apple switch to USB-C, when Apple helped create it and switched to USB-C after their decade on lightning, which is exactly how long they said they’d be on lightning.

iFixit likely wouldn’t even have their “i” name if it wasn’t for Apple!

Why the putdown? iFixIt is great! They’ve helped countless people fix their stuff.

 

[Kottu]

An earlier teardown revealed a 15.55 Wh battery inside the iPhone 16e, which is bigger than the 13.83 Wh battery. iFixit says that Apple was able to place a larger battery in the iPhone 16e because there is additional space that's available thanks to the single-lens rear-camera.

Didn’t iPhone SE(2022) has a single-lens rear-camera as well?

 

[johnsawyercjs]

Didn’t iPhone SE(2022) has a single-lens rear-camera as well?

Yes, as did the prior two iPhone SE models. iFixit seems to be comparing the size of the battery in the 16e to the battery in the regular ("real") two-camera iPhone 16, so I can see how they'd say having just one camera instead of two would make a little more room for the 16e's battery than in the regular 16, whose housing dimensions are pretty close to those of the 16e.

Maybe another reason the 16e's battery is larger than in the regular 16, might be the 16e's lack of a Magsafe magnetic charger positioning ring, which is maybe about 1.7mm-2mm thick, though the Qi wireless charging coil in the 16e might be just about as thick, or only a little thinner, so having no Magsafe ring might not make much if any difference for the battery's dimensions.

 

[rettro]

Since removing the display or the back of the iPhone also tears up the thin sticky-backed sealing layer around the inner front/back rims of the inside circumference of the iPhone's housing, it would seem that unless you somehow can replace that too, an iPhone that's been taken apart and reassembled would no longer meet the IP68 waterproof rating. When Apple fixes an iPhone, do they replace this thin sealing layer?

The iFixit video says Magsafe is nothing more than a ring of magnets. That's not accurate--those magnets surround the charging coil, which is a separate part. In the 16e, it's a Qi 1 charging coil, limited to 7.5 watts, not Apple's enhanced true Magsafe version that supports higher wattage/faster charging. Magsafe also uses the iPhone's NFC chip, magnetometer and Hall effect sensors, and the copper or graphite heat spreader, though those parts are used for other iPhone needs as well, so they're also in the 16e. So the parts of Magsafe Apple didn't include in the 16e are the Magsafe-specific charging coil, and the magnetic alignment ring around the charging coil. I don't know exactly how thick a Magsafe charging coil is, but some sources say about 1mm, which might be thicker than a 7.5 watt Qi 1 coil, which might be about 0.5mm to 1mm thick. Some sources say a Magsafe magnetic alignment ring is about 1.7mm thick, so not including it in the 16e would have freed up a significant amount of thickness to reassign to the battery.

MagSafe also has it's own separate NFC antenna between the magnets and charging coil.

 

[klasma]

Since removing the display or the back of the iPhone also tears up the thin sticky-backed sealing layer around the inner front/back rims of the inside circumference of the iPhone's housing, it would seem that unless you somehow can replace that too, an iPhone that's been taken apart and reassembled would no longer meet the IP68 waterproof rating. When Apple fixes an iPhone, do they replace this thin sealing layer?

The iFixit video says Magsafe is nothing more than a ring of magnets. That's not accurate--those magnets surround the charging coil, which is a separate part. In the 16e, it's a Qi 1 charging coil, limited to 7.5 watts, not Apple's enhanced true Magsafe version that supports higher wattage/faster charging. Magsafe also uses the iPhone's NFC chip, magnetometer and Hall effect sensors, and the copper or graphite heat spreader, though those parts are used for other iPhone needs as well, so they're also in the 16e. So the parts of Magsafe Apple didn't include in the 16e are the Magsafe-specific charging coil, and the magnetic alignment ring around the charging coil. I don't know exactly how thick a Magsafe charging coil is, but some sources say about 1mm, which might be thicker than a 7.5 watt Qi 1 coil, which might be about 0.5mm to 1mm thick. Some sources say a Magsafe magnetic alignment ring is about 1.7mm thick, so not including it in the 16e would have freed up a significant amount of thickness to reassign to the battery

Since Apple, in their statement of why MagSafe is missing, didn't mention battery life, and since the battery life significantly exceeds anyone's expectations for that model, I doubt that this was the motivation. Also, none of teardowns mention the battery being thicker, and instead attribute the increased capacity to the battery being longer, thanks to the space freed by only having a single camera.

Here is a look of the MagSafe components in an iPhone 14:

 

[klasma]

Didn’t iPhone SE(2022) has a single-lens rear-camera as well?

The SE is thinner and smaller, and uses a less compact electronics layout.

SE3 on the left, SE2 on the right:

 

[surfzen21]

Every time I hear iFixit's critique of the design decisions Apple makes and repairability, I am immediately reminded of car mechanics loosing their collective minds on the decisions vehicle engineers make when designing vehicles.

Oh you need a new starter, well we decided to stick that in the bell housing.

Oh you need a new timing chain, we need to remove the whole front of the car.

Oh you need to replace a turbo, we have to lift the whole body off the frame.

This is a battle as old as time.

 

[SactoGuy18]

I expect the battery life of the iPhone 16e to be quite good, since it has a slightly larger battery and the fact it uses the more power-efficient C1 radio modem chip.

This is why I think the iPhone 17 "Air" may have surprisingly good battery life, thanks to the use of only one rear camera sensor to allow a bigger battery pack than normally and the use of the C1 radio modem chip. It may actually be slightly better than the iPhone 16 Plus even with the thinner design.

 

[johnsawyercjs]

Since Apple, in their statement of why MagSafe is missing, didn't mention battery life, and since the battery life significantly exceeds anyone's expectations for that model, I doubt that this was the motivation. Also, none of teardowns mention the battery being thicker, and instead attribute the increased capacity to the battery being longer, thanks to the space freed by only having a single camera.

Here is a look of the MagSafe components in an iPhone 14:

Sure, Apple's motivation for not including Magsafe in the 16e was mostly because the 16e is the successor to the SE series, which didn't have Magsafe either, and because this continues the differentiation between the SE/16e and the regular 16 series models. SE buyers knew (at least most of them) that the SE didn't include Magsafe, and they were fine with that, so Apple figured they'd keep making an iPhone that works for them. I'd like to think that maybe not including the Magsafe version of the charging coil, and the Magsafe magnets, would have freed up a little depth for a thicker battery, but that was my initial "hope", and on second thought the Qi 1 charging coil might still be just thick enough that not including the Magsafe parts might not have freed up much depth.

I'm tempted to buy some broken iPhones from eBay so I can tear them apart and take my own measurements of the parts Apple actually uses, rather than rely on the supposed dimensions I read online, which too often are cited as "a range for this type of part".