iPhone XR teardown reveals you can basically call this one the iPhone 9
The iPhone XR is out, at least for pre-order customers, slightly downgrading the build quality and a number of key iPhone XS specs in the name of (relative) affordability. But if you were wondering exactly what kind of under-the-hood compromises you’re looking at here, you need wonder no more.
The first comprehensive iPhone XR teardown is done, courtesy of the repair specialists over at iFixit, who have unsurprisingly found Apple’s lower-cost 2018 handset to be roughly as easy to fix at home as its pricier siblings.
iFixit naturally refers to display and battery replacements as the “two most common repairs”, with the technically unremovable battery offering decently straightforward access, and a single (proprietary) tool required to pop open the LCD panel.
The most interesting one is perhaps an iPhone 8-style rectangular battery for the XR (compared to L-shaped cells for the XS family). Even more intriguing is that the iPhone XR takes cues from the original iPhone X as well, namely in the rectangular shape of its single-decker logic board.
All in all, you can basically view the iPhone XR as the spiritual “iPhone 9” that never happened, although its A12 Bionic chipset is just one of the many things it also has in common with the iPhone XS.
Granted, the screen is also bigger, but at a resolution of 1792 x 828 pixels, it’s hardly an energy drainer, suggesting truly impressive battery life for Apple’s more affordable 2018 iPhone.
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