iPhone 8 deliveries are just starting today, yet iFixit has already gotten ahold of one and stripped it down to its frame. Inside the sacrificial smartphone they looked at its A11 Bionic processor, front and rear-facing cameras, battery, and more.
The iPhone 8 is Apple’s replacement for the iPhone 7. It has a True Tone Retina display, Qi wireless charging support, Touch ID Home button, and improved camera sensors. Pre-orders started on September 15th and deliveries are starting today, September 22nd.
Along with the A11 Bionic processor, iFixit found 2 GB RAM, Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X16 LTE modem and Gigabit LTE RF transceiver, Skyworks quad-band GSM power amplifier module, NXP secure NFC module, a Broadcom wireless charging chip, and more.
The iPhone 8 rear-facing camera sports the same ƒ/1.8 6-element lens as the iPhone 7, but with a bigger sensor while sticking with 12 MP resolution. The front-facing camera is ƒ/2.2 7 MP with 1080p HD video support.
The 6.96 Wh battery seems like a step down from the 7.45 Wh version in the iPhone 7, but Apple somehow managed to keep battery life the same. Matching last year’s battery life is nice, but there will still be people who wish Apple used the same battery and extended usability time instead.
iFixit found the iPhone 8 to be difficult to take apart and repair, which is no surprise. Apple doesn’t design its phones to be user serviceable. Like other iPhone models, there’s glue everywhere, fragile cables and connectors, and displays that are begging to be cracked.
The iPhone 8 will be in stores today and the first pre-orders are arriving now. Considering the relatively subdued response this model is getting it’s looking like most people are holding out for next month’s iPhone X launch.
You can check out the rest of the iPhone 8 tear down at the iFixit website.