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iPhone 5c, 5s teardown by Australian repair shop
They're not due in the US until tomorrow, but it's already tomorrow somewhere in the world, and that somewhere is Australia. Well, that didn't make any sense, but the point is that some blokes at Sydney, Australia-based iExperts got their hands on some brand-new iPhones and did a teardown before the guys at iFixit were able to do the same. As usual, the devices are locked down with pentalobe screws and require the use of a suction cup to remove the screen. The team noticed that there's a special cable that connects the Touch ID sensor on the iPhone 5s to the charging port assembly -- not sure of the reason, but I'd speculate that it's for grounding the sensor when the iPhone is docked and charging. The batteries on the new devices have higher capacities than the one on the iPhone 5 (5.45 Whr), with the iPhone 5s coming in at 5.92 Whr and the iPhone 5c at 5.73 Whr. Those batteries, according to iExperts, are made by Apple Japan, something they've never seen before on iPhone batteries. The logic boards for the new iPhones are quite compact in comparison to the one in the iPhone 5, and iExperts noted that the 5s and 5c boards share a similar design. The team also marveled at the "incredible functionality for such little circuitry" found in the Touch ID sensor on the 5s (below). If you're one of those people with an iPhone 4, iPod touch, iPod nano (sixth generation) or iPhone 5 that had a power switch failure, you'll be happy to know that the switch assembly has been changed in the new iPhones. The iExperts team will be posting more information on the chips located on the logic board later, so be sure to visit their site to get more information as the day rolls on.
