Teardowns

Apple Says the iPhone 8 Isn’t an iPhone 7s—Its Internals Say Otherwise

Every year, Apple releases a new phone like clockwork: tick—a new design, tock—a new feature. Until now. The iPhone 8 skips a tock, and when the clock strikes midnight (iPhone X release), this tick will turn into a pumpkin. Cinderella may have a new glass slipper, but let’s be honest—we like a phone with some personality, and this one is the ugly stepsister. While the rear glass seems to be quite a bit stronger than the glass we saw on the back of the Galaxy S8, we’re really not sure how Apple plans to replace it after the unintended parking lot drop test.

iPhone 8 internals during the teardown

Aside from the glass, the iPhone 8 felt a lot more familiar than we expected for a phone that’s supposed to be a generation all in its own. Maybe Apple’s saving their best tricks for the iPhone X? But if a more inventive phone is just around the corner, why do we need this one?

iPhone 8 Teardown highlights:

  • Qualcomm MDM9655 Snapdragon X16 Gigabit LTE modem:  ✓
    LTE futureproofing:  ✓
  • The 8 has double the battery pull tabs for double the fun! Apple gave us four shorter adhesive pull strips instead of two full-length ones—we suspect it’s to avoid tugging on that slick, new charging coil.
  • Not everything saw a spec bump this time round—the iPhone 8 battery pumps out an underwhelming 6.96 Wh (1821 mAh at 3.82 V). That’s 7% less than the 7.45 Wh iPhone 7 battery, and a whopping 40% less than the Galaxy S8’s 11.55 Wh battery. That said, Apple claims battery life is comparable to the iPhone 7.
  • Waterproofing and that hard-to-remove, crackable back glass pushes the iPhone 8 below the historical iPhone score, earning the phone a 6/10 on our repairability scale.

This is our hot-take from the teardown. Visit the full iPhone 8 teardown on iFixit.com for more images and analysis.