First iPhone 5s and iPhone 5c Teardowns Show Touch ID Home Button, Nearly Identical Internal Layouts

Australian iPhone repair firm iExperts has already gotten its hands on the new iPhone 5s and iPhone 5c models (via TUAW), working to perform teardowns of the two devices to examine their internals. While the company has yet to start digging into the chips on the main logic board, it has been able to reveal a few details about the devices.

iphone_5_5s_5c_open

Left to right: iPhone 5, iPhone 5s, iPhone 5c

Unsurprisingly, the internal layouts of the new devices are consistent with that seen in leaked part photos and generally in line with that of the iPhone 5. Battery capacities have increased from 5.45 Whr in the iPhone 5 to 5.92 Whr in the iPhone 5s and 5.73 Whr in the iPhone 5c. That iPhone 5s number is slightly different than what appeared in regulatory documents last week but is consistent with what we saw on a December 2012 prototype, albeit with a newer part number on the battery.

A direct comparison of the logic boards from the three devices also shows how Apple has slightly narrowed the boards on the new devices compared to the iPhone 5, making room for a slightly larger battery.

iphone_5_5s_5c_logic_boards

Left to right: iPhone 5, iPhone 5s, iPhone 5c

Other tidbits discovered during the teardown include a metal clip holding in the new cable providing a connection for the Touch ID sensor in the home button, as well as a new coating on the power button believed to be designed to increase durability.

iphone_5s_touch_id_flex

iPhone 5s home button flex cable with integrated Touch ID sensor

More information from the new iPhones is undoubtedly forthcoming, with the teardown experts at iFixit also drawing upon their own extensive experience to delve into the details on the various components.

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Top Rated Comments

SockRolid Avatar
157 months ago
Which, let's all say it together, just sucks for what's supposed to be a top of the line smartphone. It may run fine this year, but I imagine it will have a shorter lifespan than most.

They really needed to boost the RAM this time around.
LOL. The number and quality of technical issues that haters can whine about has diminished.
Hasn't it longofest?

Remember the "Your wife will love the dual core Tegra processor" days?
When you could copy and paste Samsung's latest CPU GHz and pretend to brag about it.
When the entire mobile computing world was 32-bit.

No, those days are over. The haters (mostly Android apologists) only have 2 rants left:

1) "Not enough RAM."

This means zero to the average consumer. Less of a selling point than "Your wife will love..."
But high performance from just 1GB of RAM means "good engineering" to geeks.
Not coffee-shop geeks who think that learning multitouch gestures makes them technical.
Engineering geeks who read Anandtech. And understand it. All of it.

Here. Test yourself: http://www.anandtech.com/show/7335/the-iphone-5s-review
(If you're the TLDR type, just skip to the Geekbench scores.)

2) Screen is too small.

If the screen were too small, would iPhone dominate sales in the US?
Or is it that Americans have better eyesight than people in other countries?
Nope. iPhone owns the US market. Apple is the largest smartphone vendor here.
Screen size is irrelevant. Read it and weep:

http://www.i4u.com/2013/09/55660/kantar-apple-iphone-holds-434-us-market-share (http://www.i4u.com/2013/09/55660/kantar-apple-iphone-holds-434-us-market-share)
http://www.forbes.com/sites/benedictevans/2013/01/12/apples-market-share-might-be-too-high-not-too-low/ (http://www.forbes.com/sites/benedictevans/2013/01/12/apples-market-share-might-be-too-high-not-too-low/)
http://appleinsider.com/articles/13/09/06/apples-iphone-holds-40-share-of-us-smartphone-market (http://appleinsider.com/articles/13/09/06/apples-iphone-holds-40-share-of-us-smartphone-market)
http://news.yahoo.com/iphone-u-market-share-continues-grow-even-without-223039381.html (http://news.yahoo.com/iphone-u-market-share-continues-grow-even-without-223039381.html)

Most haters have given up on tech spec-rants. The 64-bit A7 has ended all of that.
Good for you for keeping the faith though. It just wouldn't be MacRumors without mindless trolls.
Score: 4 Votes (Like | Disagree)
840quadra Avatar
157 months ago
A bit rushed?

Not exactly the quality of photos and info we are used to seeing from iFixit . Neat to see the items, but looking forward to the detail reviews and info that iFixit can gather for us!
Score: 4 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Michaelgtrusa Avatar
157 months ago
I'm looking forward to reading these reviews. The new phone looks good.
Score: 4 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Sedrick Avatar
157 months ago

2) Screen is too small.

If the screen were too small, would iPhone dominate sales in the US?

My personal belief is that the iPhone dominates sales in spite of the smaller screen, not because of it. Important distinction.
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)
longofest Avatar
157 months ago
Any word how much RAM the 5S has?

1gb, same as 5. (source: anandtech)

Several of the reviews have said it has 1GB of ram

1GB LPDDR3 (http://www.anandtech.com/show/7335/the-iphone-5s-review)

Which, let's all say it together, just sucks for what's supposed to be a top of the line smartphone. It may run fine this year, but I imagine it will have a shorter lifespan than most.

They really needed to boost the RAM this time around.
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)
croooow Avatar
157 months ago
I'm looking forward to reading these reviews. The new phone looks good.

Really?:rolleyes:
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)