iFixit Tears Down the iPhone 5c [VIDEO]

iphone 5c teardown

Apple has “surprised” us this year by launching two new iPhones, the 5c and 5s. As always, iFixit was quick to open them up and following the iPhone 5s teardown, it has finished the iPhone 5c teardown as well. You can check out what iFixit found below.

Because there is an array of colours from which to choose, the iFixit team has chosen the Captain Planet blue model to dismantle, to see what’s inside the iPhone 5c that aims to replace the year-old iPhone 5.

As some of you may have expected, the iPhone 5c is essentially a repackaged iPhone 5, but it comes with improvements in terms of battery: in line with earlier rumors, the iFixit teardown reveals that the battery has been boosted, now clocks at 3.8V, 5.73 Wh, and 1510 mAh (by contrast the iPhone 5 battery specs looked like this: 3.8 V, 5.45 Wh, 1440 mAh.)

iphone 5c battery

Also, the iPhone 5c is powered by Apple’s A6 APL0598 processor, and features a Qualcomm MDM9615M LTE Modem, Qualcomm WTR1605L LTE/HSPA+/CDMA2K/TDSCDMA/EDGE/GPS transceiver. Also, it contains Elpida B8164B3PM-1D-F 8 Gb (1 GB) DDR2 RAM under the A6 system-on-a-chip.

iphone 5c logic board

The iPhone 5c scored 6 out of 10 in terms of repairability, for the following reasons:

iphone 5c repairability score

Pros:

  • Just like in the iPhone 5, the display assembly is the first component out of the phone, simplifying screen replacements.
  • The battery is still fairly easy to access, even though it’s not technically “user replaceable.”

Cons:

  • Adhesive on the antenna connectors hinder disassembly.
  • The battery has lost the 5’s convenient pull tab, and gained more resilient adhesive—it now requires heat and prying to remove.
  • The iPhone 5c still uses Pentalobe screws on the exterior, making the 5c difficult to open.
  • The front glass, digitizer, and LCD are all one component, thereby increasing cost of repair.

In the end, Apple did create a polycarbonate iPhone, but it did not compromise build quality in the process.

You can check out the iFixit video below.

YouTube video

Image credit: iFixit

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