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iFixit iPhone Air teardown
- iphone_elegance 1y ago[flagged]
- wibbily 1y agoDoes iFixit still post the traditional photo-slideshow teardowns? Their videos are fine but it’s easier to study the still images.
- GCUMstlyHarmls 1y agoThis is under "news", not a guides. Their "service manuals" have lots of photos as you would expect from them, I think this article is just a SEO hit while they prepare the diff. https://www.ifixit.com/Device/iPhone_16e https://www.ifixit.com/Device/iPhone_16e https://www.ifixit.com/Guide/Nintendo+Switch+OLED+Model+Battery+Replacement/150093 https://www.ifixit.com/Guide/Nintendo+Switch+OLED+Model+Batt...
- gertlex 1y agoWhat I think of as the classic teardown style by iFixit is not a service manual, e.g.: https://www.ifixit.com/Teardown/Microsoft+Surface+Pro+2+Teardown/18604 https://www.ifixit.com/Teardown/Microsoft+Surface+Pro+2+Tear...
- uni_baconcat 1y agoThis is teardown post, focusing more on commenting the design. There will be a teardown guide, which includes step by step instructions.
- Barbing 1y agoGood news. Also - Can anyone imagine what the impacts might be if Apple “Sherlocked” iFixIt and reviewers, and did teardowns, battery tests, etc. themselves?
- esperent 1y agoIt's very unlikely they would do that. They might be making decently repairable devices in a specific generation but if they release guides people will expect it in future generations too, and I doubt any company wants to hold themselves to this.
- GeekyBear 1y agoApple provided the repair manual on the day the product launched.
- londons_explore 1y agoI think apples lawyers would strongly advise against them publishing teardown videos. As well as opening up liability and warranty issues when users consider those as 'instructions' to disassemble apple devices, it could also be seen by courts in some countries as publishing the design and internal details which would weaken Apples IP protections in some places.
- makeitdouble 1y agoIt reminds me that Sony provided a super clean teardown video of the PS5 at launch. I sincerely doubt it matters in term of IP/patents. Apple might not want to deal with any of the press that could come with it, and for a corp doing nothing is cheaper that doing anything. IMHO the loss on Apple Store revenue ans hgiving je image of a brand you can tinker with outweigh any legal part.
- ErneX 1y agoIIRC they started doing it with the PS4, then PS4 Pro, PS5 and PS5 Pro.
- deleted 1y ago[deleted]
- makeitdouble 1y agoThe point of iFixit is being a secund/third party. They can keep helping for devices Apple discontinues and provide advice Apple might not be willing to give. Apple should provide teardowns, but that would only minimally impact the ecosystem IMHO. > reviewers > tests Would you trust a company's own product reviews and tests ?
- kaladin-jasnah 1y agoDon't know if this par for iFixit, but this sort of reads like an ad. To be fair, it sounds like the phone is not too bad in repairability. We should also have scores for software repairability and replacement.
- XRG 1y agoDon’t agree with this take; software doesn’t need repairs when you drop your phone, when it is submerged, when it is charged/discharged daily for a few years, and so on. Freedom to use your hardware however you like is more of an ideological discussion, whereas repairs are simply necessary due to the unavoidable wear-and-tear.
- kaladin-jasnah 1y agoI think that replacing your software after it stops getting security and feature updates and loses compatibility with apps extends the longevity of your phone's life and creates less e-waste. I used my old OnePlus 6 for longer than I would have if the software couldn't have been replaced because I could install a custom ROM on it.
- deleted 1y ago[deleted]
- wpm 1y agoI so desperately miss iFixIt’s older style pure text and picture only teardowns.
- nsriv 1y agoThis isn't a full teardown/repair guide, more a first-look video.
- lpln3452 1y agoAgree. I dislike this trend of putting details or entire content in video format. Text is faster to consume and much more accessible.
- kwiens 1y agoWe loved writing them, too! Traffic to the photo teardowns dropped and has been replaced by video. If you can help us figure out how to get people to pay attention to long-form articles again, we're all ears!
- schrijver 1y agoThanks for your work. The photo ones are much more practical as a reference though! I would imagine for long term traffic that still counts. You can browse through them quickly and zoom in easily. I’ve been using photo teardowns often as a volunteer in a local repair café and I hope you don’t give up on them.
- userbinator 1y agoThe real question is how many parts have been serialised and impossible to replace without Apple's proprietary software? Will there be a large parts aftermarket?
- dijit 1y agoI hope not. Modern phones (especially iPhones) are worthless on the aftermarket so they're not as strong targets for theft. (this is not to say that phone theft doesn't happen, in fact, it's pretty rampant in the UK, but they target people using their phones in the hope they're unlocked so they can be resold as entire units: components are useless).
- ohyoutravel 1y agoYeah I’m all about repairability, but I’ve found the serialization of components to be quite nice.
- phatfish 1y agoA Channel 4 documentary reckoned locked iPhones end up in Shenzhen. Because (according to someone they were interviewing) that is the only place that can deal with locked iPhones. People who's phones were stolen got pings from the Shenzhen area before they went dark. They showed location history for at least one. Of course they could just be being stripped for parts, which is probably hard for most places to do at scale and Shenzhen could also deal with. I'm sceptical that the idea of stealing while unlocked really stacks up. It seems it would be hard to keep it unlocked after an e-bike snatch. Then thief would have to stop and reset the Apple ID password before the phone locked (presumably with the access they have to the owners emails), and factory reset the phone before the owner got access to their Apple ID again.
- dijit 1y agoI recall the same documentary, but I recall that Stranger Parts used to use locked boards (he lived in Schenzen) for testing, but that they were useless and could not be unlocked by anybody. Of course I have no first hand knowledge myself- but he definitely gave me the impression that they were functionally useless aside from their components.
- GCUMstlyHarmls 1y agoSorry, whats happening around 2:40-3:00, where he discharges (?) the adhesive tape? Or is he heating it with current?
- viewtransform 1y agoelectrically-released adhesive. https://hackaday.com/2024/09/22/hands-on-with-new-iphones-electrically-released-adhesive/ https://hackaday.com/2024/09/22/hands-on-with-new-iphones-el...
- imposterr 1y agoThe new adhesives they use for their metal batteries can be undone by applying 9v for like a minute or something.
- jrockway 1y agoLooks like the battery is glued down with heat sensitive glue. Those are the terminals to connect to a built-in heater (i.e. piece of wire). This replaces a finicky 3m-command-strip-like thing. That's what I gather; I've never opened a modern iPhone.
- NetMageSCW 1y agoThe glue isn’t heat sensitive- there is no built-in heater. The glue is chemically changed by the electric current to no longer adhere.
- londons_explore 1y ago3d printed titanium USB-C port, in a mass produced device?? 3D printing is really unsuitable for mass production due to being so slow and therefore expensive. I wonder what properties this port has that apple didn't feel they could achieve any other way?
- dagmx 1y agoThe Apple Watch Ultra 3 also has a fully 3D printed body casing. So they’re definitely quite confident in being able to build in quantity and have stability.
- geerlingguy 1y agoThinness, I would presume. Titanium is hard for tooling.
- moffkalast 1y agoYeah 3D printing may be bad for volume production, but CNCing a metal part is an order of magnitude worse, as you can't even batch runs together.
- tantalor 1y agoWhat. Who says you can't batch CNC?
- moffkalast 1y agoI was thinking 5 axis, I suppose you could batch simple parts on a 3 axis mill, but that limits you a lot in terms of what you can make?
- adgjlsfhk1 1y agotitanium is notoriously annoying to work with so for a tiny part, it might just be easier and cheaper to print.
- ksec 1y agoWith that iPhone Air Mass distribution and internal component list I am very much looking forward to future iPhone Air. SoC with TSMC A20 or A14, N2 and C2 ( I expect the two will merge into one at some point ), Tandem OLED, all with better Energy efficiency, Silicon Carbon Battery with double energy capacity. All of these tech are here or ready within next 3 - 5 years. It is more of a question of whether Apple is willing to pay for it to be mass produced. With the energy efficiency gain and battery improvements I could see iPhone Air getting double the battery life. It would be better than even today's iPhone 17 Pro Max in 5 years time. This opens up the door for iPhone Air Mini. I say mini but it will probably still be 5.9", but weight the same as iPhone Mini ( I assume that is something Apple will market it as ). The only thing I wish and I dont know if it is feasible, is the Camera lans to be the same as back of the bump without much loss of photo quality. And I am willing to pay extra $100 to $200 for it. I just dont know if the tech is here in the near future.
- lofaszvanitt 1y agoHow can iFixit team up with the electronics barbarian bald guy? They immediately lost credibility.
- aikinai 1y agoWow, yeah that's disappointing.
- Biganon 1y agoWhat's wrong with him ?
- skavi 1y agoBurning the screen has always been a bit silly. And he probably should have switched to more reproducible/quantifiable tests for durability a long time ago. I don't mind his videos, but there's a clear lack of rigor and it's odd that iFixit would want to associate with that.
- StopDisinfo910 1y agoApple fans dislike him because he rightfully pointed that their phones were garbage when they were full of glue.
- simonh 1y agoI successfully replaced the batteries of several iPhone models that were supposedly ‘full of glue’ without any issues. That stuff was always way overblown. After all, Apple needed to be able to replace the batteries themselves.
- lofaszvanitt 1y agoNah he is like a modern day charlatan.
- GeekyBear 1y agoApple's own repair manual for the iPhone Air was out on day one. https://support.apple.com/en-us/123052 https://support.apple.com/en-us/123052
- mrheosuper 1y agoDo we also have board view. it sound like i'm entitled, but it's much better to replace a single IC or capacitor than replacing the entire new motherboard.
- thrdbndndn 1y agoIt was mentioned in the video https://youtu.be/woya8vjeFpo?t=455 https://youtu.be/woya8vjeFpo?t=455
- geniium 1y agoThey even have the section for the SIM card replacement …. Which does not exist on this phone
- deleted 1y ago[deleted]
- duskwuff 1y agoThe "SIM card issues" article is a generic troubleshooting document, not specific to this phone. (It even mentions that some iPhone models don't have SIM cards.)
- sauercrowd 1y agobut should it then even be listed there?
- nitinreddy88 1y agoAll the iPhones sold in India comes with SIM card slot including 17 series.
- 1y ago
- MaxPock 1y agoWould be interesting to know where the iPhone Air was built; India or China ? I'm asking because I understand it requires some very advanced tooling and expertise which the Chinese are not keen to share with the Indians and I'd be surprised if they have
- makeitdouble 1y agoIs any iPhone "built" in India ? I was under the impression India (and Brazil?) only have iPhone assembly lines, nothing producing actual parts.
- coarise 1y agothey changed the color of a same hand on their first picture.
- Pikamander2 1y agoI think that might just be a lighting difference? But you're right though, that is the same person's hand.
- serpenskisidiot 1y agois it just me or this titanium casing sounds like snake oil?
- georgelyon 1y agoI betting $10 Apple’s foldable will be two iPhone Airs where one side has 0 bezel hinged together with extreme mechanical precision and maybe some fairy dust to make the gap when unfolded unnoticeable. This creates a foldable with no durability issues and no “crease” problems. Also the two halves of the display could be on the outside when folded, avoiding the need for a third display and getting a rear display for free. I would buy 3 of these.
- eclipxe 1y agoThis is not what the fold will be like. The air and fold have no relation.
- red369 1y agoHaving the displays on the outside when folded removes all the durability advantages of closing the phone with the screens inside. I don't even know if that affects my opinion of whether you'll be right or not, because putting glass on the back is definitely more fragile than machining the phone out of a solid block of aluminium. Am I remembering this incorrectly? Was that the unibody MacBooks? Regardless, I found the aluminium backs a lot less fragile, but we all gave them up pretty easily for wireless charging. Is there something equivalent to longbets.org, but for bets which are about matters that aren't important to society? I'd take you up on the bet - not because I think you're wrong, but because I think it's fun and fairly harmless gambling that is unlikely to lead to either of us developing a habit - but has easily sending small amounts of money internationally been solved yet? I'll bet $10 it hasn't! That I can't send $10 from one country to another, without paying fees that are a significant proportion of that amount, or needing to put an unreasonable amount of effort into setting up an account with a 3rd party service or doing the transfer with that service. And the two bets above are a bad look, so I'll also bet $20 that you can't get me doing any more gambling by the end of the day.
- ashdksnndck 1y agoThe reason you need to worry about the screen of a foldable is because it’s plastic. Normal phones with glass screens are plenty durable. So if you could manage to make a foldable with glass screens, it wouldn’t matter much that the screen is on the outside when it’s in your pocket. The most popular betting website is Polymarket. Payment is via crypto. The fees aren’t super high. The typical user is more likely to lose money by making bad bets. If you don’t want to spend money, there’s Manifold.
- agumonkey 1y agoOn a sidenote, youtuber jerryrigseverything tested the iPhone air and was pretty shocked at the durability of the titanium frame. Something like 170kg of pressure on the middle line of the screen was required to break the glass panel. The LCD and touchscreen were still working. I too expected the thing to break with two thumbs only.
- Fraterkes 1y agoI was impressed too, but it was “only” 98kg i think
- ziml77 1y agoI think it's funny how expectation defying the Air is. Most people were assuming that being so thin would mean it's super easy to bend by hand. Zack certainly isn't a weak man and he was unable to easily bend it by hand. People have also been assuming the battery must be terribly small, but its capacity is larger than the iPhone 15 battery was and only 100 mAh smaller than the iPhone 16 battery was. Apple has seriously good engineers to be able to make that happen in a device that's so thin.
- justapassenger 1y agoThey do have good engineers. But they’re chasing wrong goals set my management. I don’t know many people who said “man, I wish iPhone was x mm thinner”. But I do know many who say “man, I wish iPhone battery was much larger”. And what did Apple do? Build thinner phone with an external battery pack.
- homebrewer 1y agoIs it normal for Apple to not mention the capacity of their batteries, or are they worried about how bad the numbers will look on paper? I'm pretty pissed at them (again). Over the last couple of years, we've seen significant gains in battery capacities for the first time in more than a decade — you can now buy “standard” thickness phones for sane amounts of money with 6-7.5 A·h batteries, and I expected to see 8 A·h shortly. Two times the capacity of just a few years ago with the same volume and for the same amount of money. What does Apple do with these gains? Crap out a new thinner phone, of course. Now other manufacturers will follow suit, just like they did with the 3.5" jack, and we will be back to square one. Not once do I remember thinking "I would like this phone to be thinner", yet I wish that this thing would have a bigger battery almost daily. Thanks again, Apple.
- WhyNotHugo 1y ago> Is it normal for Apple to not mention the capacity of their batteries, or are they worried about how bad the numbers will look on paper? Their numbers do look awful on paper. Battery capacities tend to be a lot lower than Android phones. OTOH, Android phones consume far more battery, so comparing raw numbers isn’t really a fair comparison.
- StopDisinfo910 1y agoIt’s purely an Apple choice. They could use good batteries and have even better battery life. They know however that battery failing is the first thing pushing consumers to change phone and being Apple they always have to take the most anti consumer stand possible. Admittedly it’s a less of a problem that it used to be. Outside of the Air their batteries are still not state of the art but they look less punny than they used to.
- simonh 1y agoSelling phones with generally longer real world battery life yet lighter batteries, and longer battery longevity due to superior battery recharge rate management is the most anti-consumer stand possible?
- adrian17 1y ago> And in a fun twist, we’ve confirmed that it’s the exact same cell found in Apple’s MagSafe battery pack. You can swap between them and the phone still boots up just fine. Are batteries no longer paired with the device? I thought that any battery replacement needs Apple's blessing via their servers, otherwise the phone will claim it's non-genuine.
- dijit 1y agoI'd bet money that it's just a firmware signature check; and magsafe batteries are signed (since they're genuine).
- grishka 1y agoMy immediate thought was that the battery packs would be a convenient source of replacement batteries for these iPhones, because otherwise genuine Apple parts are notoriously hard to obtain.
- bri3d 1y agoStarting in iOS 18 this process is self service (although it does require server-blessing and has to be done online) - there’s a built in Repair Assistant app that will guide you through the process. Also, the phone has always functioned with an aftermarket battery, just with a warning, so the iFixit statement could still be true in that situation too.
- throwup238 1y ago> We tapped in some friends in the additive manufacturing industry, who said it wasn’t quite like any metal 3D printing they’d seen before. Their best guess is that Apple’s using a binder or aerosol jet process in addition to some after-printing machining. I’m curious who they talked to. I’m no expert but this photo [1] looks like laser sintering. It’s got the telltale melt pools and the laser scanning direction from hatch passes Maybe Apple has figured out economic electron beam melting at scale? [1] https://valkyrie.cdn.ifixit.com/media/2025/09/20111617/USBC-580x-BF-1200x800.jpg https://valkyrie.cdn.ifixit.com/media/2025/09/20111617/USBC-...
- huflungdung 1y agoThose friends could have been managers or sales or HR. Not necessarily engineers. And to save face they are just parroting fab methods they heard in passing. Obviously not DED or binder jetting, and anyone who knows metal printing would see that instantly. DED has the resolution of a hot glue gun, laying down thick beads of molten metal that could never produce such a fine, intricate lattice - it's built for large-scale, rapid deposition, not delicate internal structures. Binder jetting is even more of a non-starter; you're essentially gluing powder together and then sticking it in an oven to sinter. That process leaves behind a distinctly porous, slightly grainy microstructure because the particles are fused, not fully melted, which looks nothing like the smooth, continuous, and fully dense solidified strands you see in this micrograph. This image screams high-precision, localized melting, which is the exclusive domain of powder bed fusion techniques like SLM or DMLS.
- huflungdung 1y ago[dead]
- dogma1138 1y agoThis indeed does not look like any sintering MLS or otherwise surface I’ve seen which looks like this https://assets.newatlas.com/dims4/default/0c9b8ea/2147483647/strip/true/crop/1280x866+0+0/resize/1440x974!/format/webp/quality/90/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fnewatlas-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2Farchive%2Fmicrolasersintering-5.jpg https://assets.newatlas.com/dims4/default/0c9b8ea/2147483647... Edit closed surface finish I’ve seen is indeed of a Laser Assisted DED here is a research published this year https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2214860425001009?via%3Dihub https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S221486042...
- huflungdung 1y ago[dead]
- nntwozz 1y agoSmall phones used to be all the rage, imagine a trend reversal and an iPhone mini built like this with a flush camera. Oh what a dream…
- gyomu 1y agoThis ship has sailed, 90% of the population uses their phone as their primary computing device, and wants large screens. In fact an increasing number of people seem to want 2 large screens in their phone.
- RossBencina 1y agoDo you really think it's 90%, in the west? Only 10% of workers are sitting in front of a computer all day?
- microtonal 1y agoRegardless. Apple tried, they made the 12 Mini and 13 Mini. Very few people bought it. A few million units is not interesting at Apple's scale. People want larger batteries and screens than small phones can offer. (I was in camp 'small phones', but gave up when my 12 Mini had its best time.)
- lamnk 1y agoThe iPhone 13 mini is a cute little device, I really like it, but its battery life is so abysmal — can not last even a half day.
- microtonal 1y agoYeah, I had exactly the same issue with my 12 Mini, even when the battery was still new.
- wffurr 1y agoHow much are you using your phone daily to run down the battery like that? My 13 mini regularly goes a day and a half.
- ChrisMarshallNY 1y agoIt's been a while since Apple has had a 0.7 repairability score for a phone. It doesn't seem to have been a priority for them, but we'll have to see if this shows up in their marketing.
- Gigachad 1y agoFeels like we are entering a better era. Apple probably knows if they don’t clean up their act, it’s going to bring in regulations which will be out of their control. Better to preempt the regulations and just make reparability a focus.
- rmccue 1y agoThey started doing it at least partially because of regulation, including California and EU law.
- pta2002 1y agoI think it also matters for them, since they sell a ton of Apple Care+ subscriptions. That wouldn't be profitable if it was a PITA to replace the battery or the screen, so this ends up being a win-win.
- blendergeek 1y agoStarting with the iPhone 15, iPhones have had 7 repairability scores on ifixit
- ChrisMarshallNY 1y agoCool. Thanks for the correction. Been awhile, since I looked at that (I'm still using a 13).
- MBCook 1y agoThey’ve been improving a lot in the last few years. Legal pressure from various governments is likely a big part of that.
- cramcgrab 1y agoAlways amazed at apple engineering and Chinese/Indian manufacturing
- ambarp2 1y agoThe book “Apple in China” delivers an amazingly detailed description of both, with jaw-dropping anecdotes.
- victorbjorklund 1y agoI dont want an iphone air but it is so much more impressive than I would have expected. They seem to have made a really good phone.
- leemelone 1y agoCamera bumps are stupid. That's it. That's the post
- nunez 1y ago(comment 1/2) The article that they linked to that outlines Russia's command of the Ti supply chain and mitigations Western countries have taken during the war is fascinating. https://www.efeso.com/knowledge/insight/the-impact-of-the-russia-ukraine-conflict-on-the-aerospace-supply-chain-which-are-the-options-to-replace-russian-titanium https://www.efeso.com/knowledge/insight/the-impact-of-the-ru...
- nunez 1y ago(comment 2/2) I got the Air to solve a very specific problem: taking up less space in my hip pack. It more than exceeded my expectations in this regard while also being _shockingly_ light. I have not been this excited about an iPhone since the X, and I felt like the hype was warranted. This phone is a masterpiece. It is finally a worthy successor to my Minis.
- jghn 1y ago> It is finally a worthy successor to my Minis It's much larger in every dimension that this mini lover cares about.
- notatoad 1y agoit is only about 10% larger in overall volume, so for somebody who is most concerned about how much space it will take up in a pack it's a pretty good option.
- nunez 1y agoYes, it's much larger. The Mini feels better in the hand, for sure. The Air feels good in the hand, albeit in a different way. The Air is 2mm thinner than the Mini while being only 20g heavier (which you don't feel given that the phone is larger and the weight more evenly-distributed). This, to me, is a bigger deal than having a small phone. The weight and thickness of the Pros that came before this were big factors driving my hate for large phones. This phone's ergonomics have, so far, made interacting with its large screen very tolerable (for me). Between this, a better virtual keyboard experience (by dint of having a bigger screen and iOS 26 improvements) and the 13 mini's aging processor (which makes its already-challenged battery life even worse), the decision to upgrade both of my Minis was effortless.
- lossolo 1y agoI'm interested in iPhone Air. How is the battery? How would you compare batter life to your previous phone?
- 1y ago
- ComputerGuru 1y agoAll this praise for the titanium casing makes it a real bummer that the Pro has been downgraded to aluminum.
- NetMageSCW 1y agoDifferent use cases mean different materials. The Air needs to be strong against bending forces because of the thin body, the Pros needed aluminum for thermal transfer for better sustained performance.
- DELFORS 1y ago[flagged]
- DELFORS 1y ago[flagged]
- yohbho 1y ago"thinnest iphone", well no, i am sure the Iphone (2007) or iphone 3g was slimmer. Only a big part of the device is slim with iphone air. And to not put your phone on the camera lens, I would put it in a case that is as thick as the thickest glass part, which looks not that slim.
- Retric 1y agoThinnest isn’t necessarily speaking about the widest part, or we’d consider breast circumference rather than belly circumference when saying if women are thin or not. IE the idealized hourglass 36-24-36 is considered thinner than a woman at 34-30-34.
- layer8 1y agoThe Air is more like 24-37-48 (body-plateau-lens), so I’m not sure how well the analogy translates. ;)
- Retric 1y agoThe plateau seems more like the rib cage in that analogy. Also, the numbers are top to bottom so IMO the phone would be 48-24-24, a rather absurd proportion for a person and possibly why phones seem so ugly these days.
- mvdtnz 1y agoI don't put an entire woman into my pocket.
- Retric 1y agoFair, average thickness is somewhat meaningful when you have other stuff in your pocket. However, all phones are thin enough these days it’s kind of a silly comparison. Linguistically it’s a more interesting question IMO than in terms of marketing nonsense. I think for people thin is mostly in reference to volume for a given height. But there’s a bunch of related factors involved like weight and clothing sizes which keeps it relatively ambiguous.
- klingcarl264 1y ago[dead]