Micron, Toshiba Chips Found Inside New iPhones
A teardown of Apple's latest iPhones revealed flash chips from Micron Technology and Toshiba among others in the devices, and that the iPhone XS has a smaller battery than the one found inside last year's iPhone X.
According to gadget repair firm iFixit, the new devices have no chips made by rivals Samsung and Qualcomm. Instrad of Qualcomm chips, the new devices feature Intel modems.
Qualcomm has been a supplier of components to Apple for years but the two have been locked in a wide-ranging legal dispute in which Apple has accused Qualcomm of unfair patent licensing practices.
IFixit also found the iPhones consisted different components from companies including Skyworks Solutions, Murata, NXP Semiconductors, Cypress Semiconductor, Texas Instruments and STMicroelectronics among others.
In addition, the new iPhone XS has a smaller battery than the one found inside last year's iPhone X - 10.13Wh compared to 10.35Wh. According to iFixit, the reason for this is that in moving from a design that featured a dual-battery, the iPhone XS uses a single-celled L-shaped battery. In order to create a battery with six corners, Apple had to add notches to the corners to handle thermal expansion, and this in turn reduced the capacity of the battery.
The iPhone XS Max continues to make use of a dual-battery system, and this has a capacity of 12.08Wh.
This gives the new iPhones battery capacity that's similar to that of the Samsung Galaxy S9 and Galaxy S9+, but nowhere near that of the Galaxy Note 9.
As for the waterproofing of the new iPhones being bumped up from IP67 to IP68, the iFixit team found no evidence of any improved water or dust resistance. They believe that Apple may have erred on the side of caution and undersold the waterproofing capabilities of the handsets.
iFixit also found a new Apple chip inside the iPhone XS Max - the Apple 338S00456, which is a new power-management chip.