iPhone 15 Pro Max Teardown: X70 Modem for Faster 5G, 5x Optical Zoom Lens, A17 Pro Chip, and More
Repair website iFixit today shared a video teardown of the new iPhone 15 Pro Max, providing a closer look inside the top-of-the-line device.

While the iPhone 15 Pro Max has a similar internal design as the iPhone 14 Pro Max, the device has a redesigned frame that allows the back glass panel to be easily removed, resulting in lower repair fees for cracked glass for customers without AppleCare+ coverage. This change was first made to the iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Plus last year.
The teardown provides a brief glimpse at the iPhone 15 Pro Max's upgraded Telephoto lens with a tetraprism system, which enables 5x optical zoom. iFixit said the Main and Ultra Wide lenses on the device appear to look the same as the ones on the iPhone 14 Pro Max, in line with information shared on social media last week. This suggests camera improvements beyond 5x optical zoom are the result of the A17 Pro chip and software optimizations.
iFixit says the iPhone 15 Pro Max has a similar logic board as the iPhone 15 Pro. In addition to the A17 Pro chip, the teardown confirms that the device is equipped with Qualcomm's Snapdragon X70 modem, which
reportedly enables faster 5G speeds as expected.
Overall, iFixit gave the iPhone 15 Pro Max a low repairability score of 4/10, in part due to Apple's parts pairing requirement that it says harms independent repair shops.
Popular Stories
The all-new MacBook Neo has been such a hit that Apple is facing a "massive dilemma," according to Taiwan-based tech columnist and former Bloomberg reporter Tim Culpan.
In the iPhone 16 Pro models, the A18 Pro chip has a 6-core GPU. During the chip manufacturing process, however, sometimes a CPU or GPU core can turn out to be faulty. Rather than discarding the leftover A18 Pro chips with...
Apple today announced it will be permanently closing three retail stores in the U.S. in June, including Apple Trumbull in Trumbull, Connecticut, Apple North County in Escondido, California, and Apple Towson Town Center in Towson, Maryland.
Apple Towson Town Center in Maryland
Apple issued the following statement to MacRumors:At Apple, we are constantly striving to deliver exceptional service...
Apple today released a minor iOS 26.4.1 update for the iPhone 11 and newer. While the release notes for the update only mention unspecified "bug fixes," we have since learned about two specific changes that are included in it.
First, 9to5Mac spotted an Apple Developer Forums thread suggesting that iOS 26.4.1 fixes an iOS 26.4 bug that affected iCloud syncing in some apps.
Second, an...
Popular Stories
Repair site iFixit today took apart the iPhone 17e, which is the new low-cost iPhone that Apple launched last Wednesday. The iPhone 17e is almost identical to the iPhone 16e in design, but it does include a MagSafe back panel that supports MagSafe and faster Qi charging than the iPhone 16e.
When disassembling the iPhone 17e, iFixit found that the MagSafe panel for the device is the same...
Repair site iFixit did its traditional teardown on the MacBook Neo, and was pleasantly surprised with the laptop's repairability. "We haven't been as happy about a MacBook since 2012," says iFixit.
iFixit took apart the more expensive $699 version of the MacBook Neo that comes with a Touch ID keyboard, but both models are "suspiciously easy" to get into. The lower case is still held...
A teardown of the new MacBook Neo by Australian YouTube repair channel Tech Re-Nu reveals what may be the most modular and repair-friendly Mac laptop in recent times.
The Neo is shown being taken apart in just six minutes, suggesting Apple has prioritized simplicity across the board, using standard Torx screws (T3, T5, and T8) and a clean cable routing design.
To open the aluminum body,...