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iFixit’s teardown of iPhone SE reveals it uses the iPhone 5S display and more

iphone-se-teardown

We got our first look inside the iPhone SE a couple of days ago when Chipworks took one apart. The company revealed then some of the mix of old and new components, but iFixit has now provided a closer look in its own teardown.

The main finding is that the entire display assembly is straight out of the iPhone 5S – right down to the FaceTime camera, which explains why that remained a paltry 1.2MP unit instead of the 5MP version in the iPhone 6S …

We already knew that the Touch ID unit was first-gen, and iFixit confirms that it is the exact same unit first introduced in the iPhone 5S.

There are a whole bunch of minor components also taken straight from the 5S, including the speaker and vibration motor. Other components see minor changes, like the Lightning connector, while the battery is a slightly beefier 1624mAh against the 1560mAh in the 5S.

iFixit gives the phone a repairability rating of 6/10, noting that the greatest risk is tearing the Touch ID cable when opening the casing. This is slightly worse than the iPhone 6S, which scored 7/10.

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Comments

  1. Ben Miller (@bensen) - 8 years ago

    It can’t be exactly the same display assembly since the iPhone SE has Retina Flash and the 5S didn’t.

    • yuhuzip - 8 years ago

      what is “retina flash”?

      • giuseppe1111 - 8 years ago

        retina flash = the screen brightens up a sec during selfie shots…that is retina flash…

        this is what a 50-billions-a-year-profit tech company sells as innovation to moronic customers…serious journalists (before) used to call this just “getting by” feature.

    • cdm283813 - 8 years ago

      Maybe the feature is not dependent on the display but rather the CPU being used. And making a special display just to support Retina Flash does not make sense if you’re not going to include 3D Touch as well.
      This is just a front end pulled from the old 5S attached to a redesigned rear end that houses new parts made to the same external spec of a 5S. No different then adding a new 250hp engine to a 2010 Toyota Corolla which is not a bad situation. But I’d rather have a 2016 Toyota Camry (4″ to 4.7″) with the same engine.

    • Retina Flash is a marketing term. It’s simply brightening the screen during the picture taking process. There’s no new tech involved.

    • It depends on display driver and back light not on actual LCD. so its the same 3.5 year old display

      • Aaron Loy - 8 years ago

        the lcd and back light are not separate assemblies here.

    • Aaron Loy - 8 years ago

      retina flash is basically a manipulation of the brightness of a screen. you can do it with any screen.

  2. cdm283813 - 8 years ago

    No innovation other than figuring out how to Frankenstein everything together with old and new parts. But I give credit to Apple for making it cheap (by Apple standards). Much better position vs the iPhone 5C when it first came out. If I didn’t not already own a iPhone 6S I would be tempted.

  3. valanchan - 8 years ago

    Uses the same parts? Shocker!

  4. cydianerd - 8 years ago

    This is sad to hear. I was hoping Apple will give a true specs update to iPhone SE.

  5. Aaron Loy - 8 years ago

    I think apple haters are surprised that older components are reused in a non flagship phone. Maybe they should do technical breakdowns of android phones too and weep.

    Or maybe they don’t expect as much from non apple companies…. which is interesting.

  6. mpias3785 - 8 years ago

    I think the largest failure of the SE is the loss of 3D touch. A technology this import to Apple should not have been out.

  7. pdixon1986 - 8 years ago

    hmmm….i wonder if it uses recycled parts from old 5S’s

  8. Oflife - 8 years ago

    Don’t forget peeps (I won’t say sheeps), TC was (and no doubt still is) a supply chain genius, he’s about buying in parts, and getting rid of them. As a disgruntled Apple Store employee whispered to be the other day (yes, really), the SE is a smart way to unload unsold 5S stock. Yes, a good idea and better for the environment too, but Apple do what they do for Apple, not the consumer. Else they would have adopted USB-C, include stereo audio recording on video recording (as LG and Samsung have done for years), added wireless charging (as the Nexus 5 did in 2013, the LG G3 in 2014!) and such forth, all to in better the value proposition. If I’m going to record 4K video on my family on my phone, I want the sound of my nephew zipping past on his new learning bike to be in stereo for realism. So I bought a Note 4 for not much more than an SE. Come on Apple, up the game!

  9. Steven Stroehlein - 8 years ago

    Do you think they could have put the 5mp front camera from the 6s in?

Author

Avatar for Ben Lovejoy Ben Lovejoy

Ben Lovejoy is a British technology writer and EU Editor for 9to5Mac. He’s known for his op-eds and diary pieces, exploring his experience of Apple products over time, for a more rounded review. He also writes fiction, with two technothriller novels, a couple of SF shorts and a rom-com!


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