iPhone SE (2022) teardown surprisingly reveals bigger battery inside

The big news is that we now know the iPhone SE (2022) battery capacity, and surprisingly, we have a larger capacity on this newer model compared to the previous generation one.

iPhone SE (2022): 2,018 mAh

iPhone SE (2020): 1,821 mAh

iPhone SE (2016): 1,624 mAh

That works out to a nearly 10% larger battery cell on the new SE, a neat improvement that is also the main reason why Apple quotes 2 hours of additional video playback on it compared to the previous model.

Apple iPhone SE (2022)

The iPhone SE (2022) is available at Amazon locked to Cricket wireless. It can also be purchases with a monthly plan. The phone is available in 65, 128, and 256GB of storage.

Buy at Amazon

iPhone SE (2022) at Best Buy - unlocked

The iPhone SE (2022) unlocked is now available at Best Buy with a discount. The offer is valid with same-day activation to your carrier of choice. The phone can be activated for one of the carriers AT&T, T-Mobile, or Verizon.

$25 off (6%)

$404 ⁹⁹

$429 ⁹⁹

Buy at BestBuy

Apple iPhone SE (2022)

You can get the third-generation of iPhone SE from Apple. The company offers trade-in discounts, and the amount of the discount depends on the device (model, condition) that you decide to trade in. Check the conditions on Apple's website.

$429

Buy at Apple

The teardown also answers one important question: will the battery from the 2020 iPhone SE work on the new, 2022 model? And the answer is a "no" since Apple has ever so slightly changed the connector to the battery, and even though it physically fits in the same spot, the connector won't allow it to be used.

The other question you might be wondering is whether the screen assembly from the older model would work on the newer one? And the answer is again a "no". The connectors are the same, but it seems that Apple recognizes when you try using a screen from the older phone and software disables the touch input, so the display becomes useless.

Another interesting detail is that the 2022 iPhone SE now comes with a Qualcomm Snapdragon X57 modem, according to Nikkei xTECH. We could not find this modem listed on Qualcomm's website, so it could well be a custom model designed for Apple. This is the modem that brings one of the big new features in the SE, 5G connectivity which includes support for the new C-band spectrum in the US (but no mmWave support).

For all else, the iPhone SE (2022) appears remarkably similar to the 2020 version, with only minute differences to the size of various components.