IFIXIT sent a team to Japan to bring readers early teardowns of the new Apple iPhone 7, 7 Plus and Watch 2. In particular, the water resistance is being put to the test via a YouTube live stream.
IFIXIT is perhaps the best-known teardown specialist and produces service manuals to support third party repairers and give consumers a look “under the sheets.”
The iPhone 7 Plus teardown (preliminary) is here.
The Watch 2 (preliminary) is here.
The iPhone 7 has not yet been completed and will appear on the teardown page here.
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The iPhone 7 Plus uses the A10 Fusion processor (as does the 7) and embedded M10 motion co-processor – this is just Apple marketing speak for a quad-core, ARM-based system on a chip. It will be interesting to see how it compares to a Qualcomm Snapdragon 820.
It has 2GB RAM and a choice of 32/128/256GB storage, and it is important to buy the largest amount you can afford as memory is not upgradeable via a microSD card.
The screen is a 5.5”, 1920 x 1080, 401ppi, IPS LCD covered in toughened glass (probably Gorilla Glass 4). The 7 has 1334 x 750, 326 ppi.
The camera is a 12MP, f/1.8, wide angle (as found in the iPhone 7) and second an f/2.8, 2X optical zoom telephoto. It uses two separate sensors and presumably combines images in the camera app. The front camera is 7MP, f/2.2.
Wi-Fi is AC, MIMO, Bluetooth 4.2 and NFC for Apple Pay only. It has a fingerprint sensor (home key), accelerometer, gyro, proximity, compass, and barometer. There is no headphone jack but a Lightning to 3.5mm cable adapter is supplied. There are top and bottom speakers.
IFIXIT encountered issues in opening the case – it says a great deal of prying was required to get past the intense adhesive - considerably stronger than its predecessor. There is a lot of black and white gooey adhesive running around the perimeter of the phone. Could this be the first sign of waterproofing or do Apple engineers simply love glue.
This is the preliminary teardown, and it will do a more comprehensive one soon. I will be interested to see things like the size/sound of the top and bottom speakers.
The YouTube dunk test is here (not live at the time of publication).
I found a great durability test from Jerry Rig worth watching.
Watch 2
The Watch 2 has all of the original watch features with the addition of GPS as part of its S2 System in a Package (what others call a system on chip). It has NFC for Apple Pay only, Wi-Fi N single band 2.4GHz, Bluetooth 4.0 and water resistance to 50 metres.
IFIXIT noted that like the iPhone 7 water resistance seems to come from a lot of adhesive instead of the more usual silicon pressure seals. It is concerned that if repaired, the water resistance will be compromised.