The iPhone SE recently went on sale this weekend, and various YouTubers have already started digging through their units. The aim is to see what’s underneath the new compact and affordable smartphone, and just much of it is the iPhone 8 from back in the day. iFixit has done the same and their detailed video of the iPhone SE 2020 teardown reveals the phone’s insides completely.
As we saw with a couple of reports from last weekend, the new iPhone SE is mostly the old iPhone 8. What has changed is the new A13 Bionic processor, the battery connecting cable, and a few new camera features. It is still under wraps if the new camera features are entirely due to software updates.
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As per the video, the iPhone SE 2020 featured a score of 6 out of 10. Here, 10 is the easiest to repair and 1 is the hardest. The phone offers relatively easy access to two major components that often require replacement. These are the display and the battery. That being said, trying to open up the new iPhone SE yourself is a bad idea since you still need some experience.
iPhone SE insides are just like the iPhone 8
Apart from the ease of opening and replacement, many components of the phone are replaceable with the iPhone 8. The new IP67 rating for protection from the elements does make the fixing up of the iPhone SE 2020 post-repairs a little harder. Those seals are, however, important to your phone in case of a water/dust related accident. These will again, lead to lesser need to open your devices. The back glass of the smartphone, as per the report, is very hard to replace.
Coming to the logic board, one can see that barely anything has been moved here since the iPhone 8. There are minor antenna reworks and the position of a few chips has been changed, However, that is about it. Even the speaker setup and the taptic engine are the exact same.
Apple should have been able to put in a slightly larger battery due to the absence of 3D touch. This was a feature on the iPhone 8 that required a slightly larger display assembly. However, that too is exactly the same in terms of capacity. Note that replacing the iPhone 8 screen on the SE will not allow 3D touch support.
