What’s Inside Apple’s iPhone 5S: Revealed by iFixit

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Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)’s iPhone 5S was dissected by Tech experts at iFixit to take a look into the entrails of the phone just a few hours after it went on sale in Australia. Tech experts have opened the phone’s hardware to take a peek into the internal hardware specifications and compare it with its predecessors.

What's Inside Apple's iPhone 5S: Revealed by iFixit

Internal Specs Of Apple iPhone 5S

The logic board of the iPhone 5S looks refurbished, with improvements in the antenna connection, which has been shifted and is no more mesh of flex cables. There are holes in the EMI shielding for better cooling.

Overall, iPhone 5S internals are much the same as iPhone 5 except for a bit A7 APL0698 SoC and Touch ID. Towards the bottom, the Touch ID sensor is connected with the home button through a cable to the lightning port assembly. The high-tech gadget has Murata 339S0205 (based on the Broadcom BCM4334) Wi-Fi module and a Qualcomm MDM9615M LTE Modem.

iFixit revealed that iPhone 5S batteries are 3.8V-5.92Wh-1560m Ah compared to 5.45Whr in the iPhone 5. The battery is manufactured by Desay Battery Co., Ltd in Huizhou, China. However, manufacturers vary for units as the other phone opened by iFixit sports a battery manufactured by Simplo Technology Inc.

iFixit did not reveal anything about chips’ placement on the logic board.

Repairs a bit complex

The battery of the iPhone 5S can be easily accessed, but it cannot be replace—much like in every other iPhone model. However, removing the battery is not as easy as it was in iPhone 5 (by just pulling a tab). For iPhone5S, heat and prying is needed to remove the glue and access battery.

The fingerprint sensor cable is at risk, as it can come out of the socket if the user is not attentive while opening the battery. Further, Pentalobe screws are used by Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL), to make it tough to open an iPhone.

The front glass, digitizer, and LCD are all one component, which heightens the cost of repair. Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) has used pixie dust to hold the device together.

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