The cool people at iFixit have torn apart the new iPhone 7 Plus. As expected, there are a lot of new changes, like the new camera system, waterproofing, and, of course, the death of the headphone jack.
Getting rid of the headphone jack actually meant that Apple had more room for other stuff in the chassis. And in that space is a larger Taptic Engine. There was a Taptic Engine on the iPhone 6S and 6S Plus, but the new one is larger to power both 3D Touch and the new solid-state home button. As iFixit explains, “The Taptic Engine interprets the strength of the contact made on the home button and translates it into spring oscillation.”
The teardown also confirmed a previous report that the speaker grill on the left side of the iPhone is purely cosmetic. It literally doesn’t go anywhere or do anything, it’s just there for design symmetry. There is a second speaker, however, located at the top of the phone.
Other interesting tidbits:
- The battery on the iPhone 7 Plus is larger, at 2900 mAh. That’s still a smidge smaller than the battery on the iPhone 6 Plus, however.
- There are rubber gaskets galore to waterproof the iPhone 7 Plus, protecting the Lightning connector and SIM tray from water.
- The volume and power buttons are now built into the case itself, also likely for waterproofing reasons.
- The iPhone 7 Plus has 3GB of RAM. That’s the most RAM we’ve seen on an iPhone.
- The camera bump is now built-into the chassis of the phone.
[iFixit]