iFixit’s teardown of the iPhone Air shows Apple managed a super-thin phone (about 5.6 mm) without wrecking repairability.
The inside is mostly battery: Apple moved the logic board above it, so parts sit side-by-side instead of stacked. That flatter layout makes common repairs less risky.
The headline discovery: the Air’s 12.26 Wh battery is the exact same cell (down to the markings) used in Apple’s MagSafe battery pack, which iFixit previously suspected. Swap the cells and the phone boots normally. In other words, yes—the MagSafe pack’s battery works inside the iPhone Air.
The Air’s pack is metal-encased (more bend-resistant) and mounted with electrically debonding adhesive: apply ~12 V for about a minute and the strips release, so the battery lifts out with no prying. Despite being small, the battery is dense—about 28% of the phone’s total weight.
Check out their video below showing the iPhone Air teardown:
To hit the thinness, Apple trimmed features (no lower speaker, a single rear camera), but the logic board still carries A19 Pro, a new C1X modem, and an N1 Wi-Fi chip. The USB-C port is modular and replaceable in theory; Apple doesn’t sell that part, but the design helps independent repairs. Around the port, iFixit found a 3D-printed titanium housing with a distinctive, bubble-like microstructure—evidence of Apple’s additive manufacturing approach to shrink the part for the thin frame.
How strong is thin? A frame-only bend test snapped at the plastic antenna passthroughs (the reinforced middle held up), but regular use shouldn’t see that kind of stress with all the parts inside. External torture testing elsewhere also suggests the Air isn’t especially bend-prone, as we saw from JerryRigEverything.
Repair verdict: iFixit gives the iPhone Air a provisional 7/10. You get early battery access through the back glass, safer battery removal, and mostly modular internals—plus Apple’s day-one repair manuals. Parts pairing and Apple’s follow-through on spare parts will determine whether that score sticks, but the takeaway is clear: thin doesn’t have to mean unfixable, and the MagSafe battery discovery is a neat bonus for future repairs.
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