iFixit iPhone Air teardown

https://www.ifixit.com/News/113171/iphone-air-teardown

91•zdw•4h ago

Comments

wibbily•4h ago

Does iFixit still post the traditional photo-slideshow teardowns? Their videos are fine but it’s easier to study the still images.

GCUMstlyHarmls•2h ago

This is under "news", not a guides. Their "service manuals" have lots of photos as you would expect from them, I think this article is just a SEO hit while they prepare the diff.

https://www.ifixit.com/Device/iPhone_16e https://www.ifixit.com/Guide/Nintendo+Switch+OLED+Model+Batt...

gertlex•1h ago

What I think of as the classic teardown style by iFixit is not a service manual, e.g.:

https://www.ifixit.com/Teardown/Microsoft+Surface+Pro+2+Tear...

uni_baconcat•8m ago

This is teardown post, focusing more on commenting the design. There will be a teardown guide, which includes step by step instructions.

Barbing•3h ago

Good news.

Also -

Can anyone imagine what the impacts might be if Apple “Sherlocked” iFixIt and reviewers, and did teardowns, battery tests, etc. themselves?

esperent•1h ago

It's very unlikely they would do that. They might be making decently repairable devices in a specific generation but if they release guides people will expect it in future generations too, and I doubt any company wants to hold themselves to this.

GeekyBear•1h ago

Apple provided the repair manual on the day the product launched.

londons_explore•1h ago

I think apples lawyers would strongly advise against them publishing teardown videos.

As well as opening up liability and warranty issues when users consider those as 'instructions' to disassemble apple devices, it could also be seen by courts in some countries as publishing the design and internal details which would weaken Apples IP protections in some places.

makeitdouble•40m ago

It reminds me that Sony provided a super clean teardown video of the PS5 at launch.

I sincerely doubt it matters in term of IP/patents. Apple might not want to deal with any of the press that could come with it, and for a corp doing nothing is cheaper that doing anything. IMHO the loss on Apple Store revenue ans hgiving je image of a brand you can tinker with outweigh any legal part.

makeitdouble•46m ago

The point of iFixit is being a secund/third party. They can keep helping for devices Apple discontinues and provide advice Apple might not be willing to give.

Apple should provide teardowns, but that would only minimally impact the ecosystem IMHO.

> reviewers > tests

Would you trust a company's own product reviews and tests ?

kaladin-jasnah•3h ago

Don't know if this par for iFixit, but this sort of reads like an ad. To be fair, it sounds like the phone is not too bad in repairability. We should also have scores for software repairability and replacement.

wpm•3h ago

I so desperately miss iFixIt’s older style pure text and picture only teardowns.

nsriv•1h ago

This isn't a full teardown/repair guide, more a first-look video.

userbinator•2h ago

The real question is how many parts have been serialised and impossible to replace without Apple's proprietary software? Will there be a large parts aftermarket?

GCUMstlyHarmls•2h ago

Sorry, whats happening around 2:40-3:00, where he discharges (?) the adhesive tape? Or is he heating it with current?

imposterr•2h ago

The new adhesives they use for their metal batteries can be undone by applying 9v for like a minute or something.

jrockway•2h ago

Looks like the battery is glued down with heat sensitive glue. Those are the terminals to connect to a built-in heater (i.e. piece of wire). This replaces a finicky 3m-command-strip-like thing. That's what I gather; I've never opened a modern iPhone.

viewtransform•2h ago

electrically-released adhesive.

https://hackaday.com/2024/09/22/hands-on-with-new-iphones-el...

londons_explore•2h ago

3d printed titanium USB-C port, in a mass produced device??

3D printing is really unsuitable for mass production due to being so slow and therefore expensive.

I wonder what properties this port has that apple didn't feel they could achieve any other way?

geerlingguy•2h ago

Thinness, I would presume. Titanium is hard for tooling.

moffkalast•48m ago

Yeah 3D printing may be bad for volume production, but CNCing a metal part is an order of magnitude worse, as you can't even batch runs together.

adgjlsfhk1•2h ago

titanium is notoriously annoying to work with so for a tiny part, it might just be easier and cheaper to print.

danielheath•1h ago

Specifically, the tool heads need to be harder than titanium (expensive), and titanium is prone to catching fire during machining (so the work piece usually needs to be submerged during).

varjag•25m ago

Nearly all tools used professionally now are harder than Ti. HSS has been niche for decades now.

> and titanium is prone to catching fire during machining (so the work piece usually needs to be submerged during)

Using spray or mist coolant is common in machining anyway for hard materials. Also titanium fires can't be put out with water. That said Ti is not magnesium and does not burn readily: you have to be both unlucky and incompetent.

jazzyjackson•1h ago

this would be metal sand laser sintering, these machines have fairly large print volumes, they can probably produce 1000 pieces at a time if not more (to be fair, it's also surprising to me, I haven't seen these machines used this way, just speculating it wouldn't be bad for such a tiny piece)

londons_explore•1h ago

The dot pattern suggests to me it's more likely some inkjet printing a resin binder onto a metal powder.

dagmx•1h ago

The Apple Watch Ultra 3 also has a fully 3D printed body casing. So they’re definitely quite confident in being able to build in quantity and have stability.

ksec•1h ago

With that iPhone Air Mass distribution and internal component list I am very much looking forward to future iPhone Air.

SoC with TSMC A20 or A14, N2 and C2 ( I expect the two will merge into one at some point ), Tandem OLED, all with better Energy efficiency, Silicon Carbon Battery with double energy capacity. All of these tech are here or ready within next 3 - 5 years. It is more of a question of whether Apple is willing to pay for it to be mass produced.

With the energy efficiency gain and battery improvements I could see iPhone Air getting double the battery life. It would be better than even today's iPhone 17 Pro Max in 5 years time.

This opens up the door for iPhone Air Mini. I say mini but it will probably still be 5.9", but weight the same as iPhone Mini ( I assume that is something Apple will market it as ).

The only thing I wish and I dont know if it is feasible, is the Camera lans to be the same as back of the bump without much loss of photo quality. And I am willing to pay extra $100 to $200 for it. I just dont know if the tech is here in the near future.

lofaszvanitt•1h ago

How can iFixit team up with the electronics barbarian bald guy? They immediately lost credibility.

aikinai•45m ago

Wow, yeah that's disappointing.

GeekyBear•1h ago

Apple's own repair manual for the iPhone Air was out on day one.

https://support.apple.com/en-us/123052

thrdbndndn•44m ago

It was mentioned in the video https://youtu.be/woya8vjeFpo?t=455

geniium•44m ago

They even have the section for the SIM card replacement …. Which does not exist on this phone

duskwuff•13m ago

The "SIM card issues" article is a generic troubleshooting document, not specific to this phone. (It even mentions that some iPhone models don't have SIM cards.)

MaxPock•1h ago

Would be interesting to know where the iPhone Air was built; India or China ? I'm asking because I understand it requires some very advanced tooling and expertise which the Chinese are not keen to share with the Indians and I'd be surprised if they have

makeitdouble•51m ago

Is any iPhone "built" in India ? I was under the impression India (and Brazil?) only have iPhone assembly lines, nothing producing actual parts.

coarise•56m ago

they changed the color of a same hand on their first picture.

iphone_elegance•34m ago

I can't support such desecration of a holy item

serpenskisidiot•12m ago

is it just me or this titanium casing sounds like snake oil?

georgelyon•5m ago

I betting $10 Apple’s foldable will be two iPhone Airs where one side has 0 bezel hinged together with extreme mechanical precision and maybe some fairy dust to make the gap when unfolded unnoticeable.

This creates a foldable with no durability issues and no “crease” problems. Also the two halves of the display could be on the outside when folded, avoiding the need for a third display and getting a rear display for free. I would buy 3 of these.

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iFixit iPhone Air teardown

Comments

iFixit iPhone Air teardown

Spectral Labs releases SGS-1: the first generative model for structured CAD

$2 WeAct Display FS adds a 0.96-inch USB information display to your computer

Ultrasonic Chef's Knife

Slavery After Abolition: Revolt on the Amelia

Teen suspect surrenders in 2023 Las Vegas casino cyberattack case

Designing NotebookLM

In defence of swap: common misconceptions (2018)

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The bloat of edge-case first libraries

Learning Languages with the Help of Algorithms

Knitted Anatomy

Representing Heterogeneous Data (2023)

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Hyperion: Minecraft game engine for custom events

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Scream cipher

A revolution in English bell ringing

Amazon to end commingling after years of complaints from brands and sellers

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The SAT Game

After Babel Fish: The promise of cheap translations at the speed of the Web

PYREX vs. pyrex: What's the difference?

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