iPhone 11 Teardown
Duration: 45 minutes
Steps: 9 Steps
Apple dropped three new iPhones all at once for the very first time, making this our most action-packed teardown day yet. We dove deep into the iPhone 11 Pro Max, but couldn’t resist cracking open the mid-sized, non-Pro iPhone 11 as well. Ready for one more teardown adventure? For more behind-the-scenes looks, repair tips, and the latest gadget news, follow us on Instagram, Twitter, or Facebook, sign up for our newsletter, or check out our YouTube channel.
Step 1
- Meet this refreshing minty green gadget, the middle child of this year's iPhone family! It might not be the oldest or the youngest, but it definitely deserves some quality time with your trusty screwdriver.
- As always, the specs give us a sneak peek, and we're eager to dive into the teardown for more juicy details. Here's what we've gathered so far:
- Powering this beauty is the A13 Bionic SoC, complete with a third-generation Neural Engine.
- Feast your eyes on the 6.1-inch (1792 x 828) Liquid Retina LCD, boasting 326 ppi, True Tone, and P3 wide color support.
- Not one, but two 12 MP rear cameras (wide and ultra-wide), plus a 12 MP selfie camera equipped with TrueDepth Face ID magic.
- Storage options include a solid 64 GB, with 128 GB and 256 GB variations available for those who need more.
- Stay connected with Gigabit-class LTE, Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth 5.0, and NFC.
- And let's not forget its IP68 rating, making it pretty tough against the elements!
Step 2
And hey, these X-rays aren’t just useful—they also double as pretty cool wallpapers, just saying.
- The X might be gone from the iPhone’s name, but X-rays still give us a backstage pass to see what’s inside.
- Peeking in, we spot a rectangular battery, a double-decker logic board (check out those little vias!), and no sign of a second battery connector or mystery board. This looks a bit like an iPhone XR with some XS flavor mixed in.
- Ready to dive deeper? Let’s get started.
Step 3
That lone Apple logo might make you think these AirPods are about to start charging, but nope—it’s more of a tease than a charger. If your AirPods are drained, this spot won’t bring them back to life.
- On the outside, the plain 11 ditches the “iPhone” text that the iPhone XR had, rocking just a simple Apple logo right in the center.
- Meanwhile, the XR's camera setup has gone through a bit of a makeover. The 11 now sports a dual-camera system nestled in a raised square with rounded corners, sparking a wave of memes. Ever seen a surprised baby owl? Yeah, that vibe.
Step 4
Starting with the iPhone 6S, the trick to beating the stubborn screen adhesive is all about the rhythm: heat it up, slice carefully, and repeat as needed. Just keep an eye out for those sneaky cables!
- What exactly makes a smartphone 'Pro' is still a bit of a mystery, but here’s the deal: you definitely don’t need pro skills to open up an iPhone nowadays.
- All that ease comes alongside the upgraded IP68 water and dust resistance, stepping up from the iPhone XR’s IP67 rating. Pretty sweet! (Full disclosure: there’s another phone out there that makes things even simpler, though it skips the water resistance.)
- Just like the latest Pro models, the screen assembly cables are lined up on one side, but they’re not bundled as tightly or securely as you might expect.
Step 5
- While this phone might not be equipped with a fancy telephoto camera, it still boasts the upgraded wide and ultrawide sensors and lenses found in the Pro models. This means you're getting quicker shutter speeds, a broader ISO range, and the fantastic Night Mode feature!
- X-ray vision reveals the cool optical image stabilization in the wide-angle module (those dark spots in the image? Yep, they're electromagnets!). Plus, the TrueDepth module’s flex cables have been cleverly rerouted, so they’re no longer tucked under the battery. This means camera repairs just got a whole lot easier and faster!
Step 6
- Let's dive into the heart of your device and uncover some tasty tech treats:
- Craving more chips? Don't miss our full Chip ID steps from our 11 Pro Max teardown.
- APL1W85: Apple's A13 Bionic system-on-chip, paired with SK hynix LPDDR4X RAM. Although SK hynix's docs don't decode this model number, it seems to pack a punch with 4GB.
- Apple APL1092 343S00354 PMIC
- Intel 9960 P10PSM modem and P10 406 transceiver.
- Check out the shiny silver I7J9, which we've confirmed to be Apple's slick new U1 wireless positioning chip.
- Apple/Murata 339S00647 WiFi/Bluetooth SoC
- Cirrus Logic 338S00509 audio codec
Step 7
If you're a fan of measuring battery life in Watt-hours (because who isn't?), you've got an upgrade from 11.16 Wh to 11.91 Wh—just a little extra juice to keep you going.
- This rectangular battery is secured with six gooey battery strips, and unlike the Pro models, it doesn't have the easy-breezy removal process. To get those adhesive strips off without a hitch, you'll need to take out the loudspeaker along with the Taptic Engine. No biggie, just a little extra step!
- We do love those stretch release adhesives—who doesn't love a good pull tab?—but fair warning: it does make battery replacement a bit trickier compared to the Pro models.
- This year's battery measures 40.81 x 96.93 x 3.97 mm and weighs in at 44.1 g. Compact and ready to power up!
- In comparison to the XR’s battery, the 11's is a tad smaller, but guess what? It packs a punch with a new capacity of 3110 mAh, giving you about a 7% boost. It's not a massive leap, but hey, it might just be the secret behind that extra hour of battery life the iPhone 11 boasts.
- There's just one connector on this rectangular battery, but it's still featured in Apple's fancy new hardware that enhances battery health. Perhaps those dual cables in the 11 Pro were meant for bilateral charging, and there’s some other snazzy health-boosting tech lurking in the 11 lineup?
Step 8
- With the rear case almost hollowed out, we wrap up with an X-ray that leaves us with a few questions. Even though there’s no second battery connector in sight, we can’t help but wonder about that charging coil—what could have been, right?
- If bilateral charging had been part of the final design, we wouldn’t expect to see a completely different coil, but we’d definitely need a bigger battery and some extra thermal management. Reverse wireless charging is pretty power-hungry and inefficient, so it would throw off some heat.
- In line with the missing second battery connector, we also notice the absence of that new battery charging board we found in the Pro Max.
- And just like with the Pro and Pro Max, our trusty X-ray shows what we think are UWB-related antennas carefully tucked into the rear case.
- As for this iPhone 11? Well, we’re not seeing either of those things.
Step 9
- That's a wrap for this year's iPhones! No new ones until next year, unless...
- Let's break it down:
- What does this all mean for repairability? Keep scrolling and see for yourself.
- Whether Pro or not, all 2019 iPhones come with stacked-PCB logic boards to pack in the components and save space.
- The regular 11 only gets a modest 7% bump in battery capacity compared to its Pro cousins.
- Like the rest of the lineup, the 11 adds an ultra-wide-angle camera, some UWB tech, and leaves us wondering if reverse wireless charging was really meant to be a thing.
