iFixit Tears Down the iPhone 5 As It Goes On Sale in Australia

NewImage
The iPhone 5 is already on sale in Australia where, because of time zones, it's already tomorrow. iFixit has sent a technician to an Down Under Apple Store so the site can be one of the first worldwide to tear down the iPhone 5.

iFixit co-founder Luke Soules trekked halfway around the world to Melbourne, Australia to be one of the first to receive the iPhone 5. Then, he flew like the wind back to MacFixit Australia's office and started taking apart our unit. The process is now well underway.

iFixit will be updating their their tear down on the fly, and we will be updating our post as they update theirs.

The iPhone 5 continues to use the 5-point pentalobe screw that Apple began using in the iPhone 4, requiring a special screwdriver to take apart the device.

NewImage
Ars Technica's Chris Foresman points out that the battery in the iPhone 5 has practically the same capacity as the battery from the iPhone 4S, going from 5.3Whr @ 3.7V to 5.45Whr @ 3.8V, or 1432 mAh to 1434 mAh.

iFixit notes that "Apple is very concerned with making sure that all the connectors are firmly seated and won't rattle lose over time." The teardown has reached the logic board, exposing Apple's proprietary A6 processor.

NewImage

The Lightning connector assembly, which includes the headphone jack and loudspeaker, comes out next.

It seems inevitable that Apple was going to switch its charging source eventually. There's no way they could have crammed a 30-pin dock connector into this assembly.

iFixit also wonders about the iPhone 5's vibration motor. They say that the 4S used a linear-oscillating vibrator and for the 5, Apple has returned to a rotational motor with a counterweight. The linear-oscillating vibrator is "quieter and less annoying" and iFixit is "scratching our heads as to why" Apple reverted to the less elegant design.

Related Forum: iPhone

Top Rated Comments

Macshroomer Avatar
151 months ago
Did they find a Google Maps app hidden in there somewhere?
Score: 39 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Caliber26 Avatar
151 months ago
Anyone replying to this post, cares.

So don't even come on here asking "who cares?"...

...YOU (https://forums.macrumors.com/showpost.php?p=15774454&postcount=7) do.
Score: 20 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Bathplug Avatar
151 months ago
Screens off already and so are my pants.
Score: 12 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Chuck-Norris Avatar
151 months ago
ARGGGGG UPS still has my iphone 5 hostage! :mad:
Score: 11 Votes (Like | Disagree)
burgundyyears Avatar
151 months ago
iFixIt discovered that the Iphone changed it's VIBRATIONS OSCILLATOR ! How am I ever going to live......

....Hey FEDex guy....screw this....I'll refuse delivery tomorrow ! I want the "new" old oscillator back.

It's Vibratorgate! The sexiest Apple scandal yet!
Score: 10 Votes (Like | Disagree)
FuNGi Avatar
151 months ago
MR: you should think about rewriting the first paragraph of this story.
Score: 10 Votes (Like | Disagree)

Popular Stories

maxresdefault

Apple Announces 'Let Loose' Event on May 7 Amid Rumors of New iPads

Tuesday April 23, 2024 7:11 am PDT by
Apple has announced it will be holding a special event on Tuesday, May 7 at 7 a.m. Pacific Time (10 a.m. Eastern Time), with a live stream to be available on Apple.com and on YouTube as usual. The event invitation has a tagline of "Let Loose" and shows an artistic render of an Apple Pencil, suggesting that iPads will be a focus of the event. Subscribe to the MacRumors YouTube channel for more ...
Apple Silicon AI Optimized Feature Siri

Apple Releases Open Source AI Models That Run On-Device

Wednesday April 24, 2024 3:39 pm PDT by
Apple today released several open source large language models (LLMs) that are designed to run on-device rather than through cloud servers. Called OpenELM (Open-source Efficient Language Models), the LLMs are available on the Hugging Face Hub, a community for sharing AI code. As outlined in a white paper [PDF], there are eight total OpenELM models, four of which were pre-trained using the...
Apple Vision Pro Dual Loop Band Orange Feature 2

Apple Cuts Vision Pro Shipments as Demand Falls 'Sharply Beyond Expectations'

Tuesday April 23, 2024 9:44 am PDT by
Apple has dropped the number of Vision Pro units that it plans to ship in 2024, going from an expected 700 to 800k units to just 400k to 450k units, according to Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo. Orders have been scaled back before the Vision Pro has launched in markets outside of the United States, which Kuo says is a sign that demand in the U.S. has "fallen sharply beyond expectations." As a...
iPad And Calculator App Feature

Apple Finally Plans to Release a Calculator App for iPad Later This Year

Tuesday April 23, 2024 9:08 am PDT by
Apple is finally planning a Calculator app for the iPad, over 14 years after launching the device, according to a source familiar with the matter. iPadOS 18 will include a built-in Calculator app for all iPad models that are compatible with the software update, which is expected to be unveiled during the opening keynote of Apple's annual developers conference WWDC on June 10. AppleInsider...
iOS 17 All New Features Thumb

iOS 17.5 Will Add These New Features to Your iPhone

Sunday April 21, 2024 3:00 am PDT by
The upcoming iOS 17.5 update for the iPhone includes only a few new user-facing features, but hidden code changes reveal some additional possibilities. Below, we have recapped everything new in the iOS 17.5 and iPadOS 17.5 beta so far. Web Distribution Starting with the second beta of iOS 17.5, eligible developers are able to distribute their iOS apps to iPhone users located in the EU...