After disassembling the iPhone 11 Pro Max, they discovered these secrets

Your iPhone 11 may have just arrived, but the "teardown maniac" iFixit has already started working on it.

As in previous years, iFixit live-streamed the iPhone 11 Pro Max's "opening surgery" process. Let's take a look at the interesting new changes inside it, as well as the things that Apple didn't tell us.

Let’s review the configuration of iPhone 11 Pro Max:

• A13 Bionic SoC and third-generation Neural Engine
• 6.5-inch (2688×1242) 458 ppi, Super Retina XDR OLED display with True Tone and HDR (no 3D Touch)
• Triple 12 MP rear cameras (ultra-wide, wide, telephoto), 12 MP front-facing camera with TrueDepth Face ID
• 64GB/256GB/512GB storage
• Support LTE, Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth 5.0, NFC
• IP68 dust and water resistance

This time, the iPhone that iFixit disassembled was the most popular Midnight Green model.

Under X-ray perspective, we can see that the battery of the iPhone 11 Pro Max is about the same size as that of the iPhone XS, and the iPhone 11 Pro Max also makes room for three cameras.

There is also a mysterious new board under the battery, which may be related to the rumored bilateral wireless charging. We will analyze this "secret" in detail later.

Disassembly begins.

Open the front panel, and you can see the same L-shaped large battery as the previous generation at first glance. The first thing iFixit took out was the ultra-wide-angle sensor/lens, which is the largest upgrade this year.

This time, the iPhone's three cameras are fixed together, but each camera has its own independent cable. Since the cables are no longer bound under the battery, iFixit disassembly is much easier than before.

Next we disassemble the mainboard structure.

Both the iPhone 11 Pro Max and iPhone 11 Pro have dual motherboards that are like a sandwich, and their integration is much higher than before.

Peeling the top plate off the interconnects reveals the latest A13 processor, along with a ton of silicon jammed onto these tiny boards.

iFixit used colorful lines to mark the different shades of black on the panel. They are:

• Red: Apple APL1W85 A13 Bionic SoC layered over SK Hynix H9HKNNNCRMMVDR-NEH LPDDR4X
• Orange: Apple APL1092 343S00355 PMIC
• Yellow: Cirrus Logic 338S00509 audio codec
• Green: Probably the U1 ultra-wideband chip
• Light blue: Avago 8100 mid- and high-band PAMiD
• Deep blue: Skyworks 78221-17 low-band PAMiD
• Pink: STMicrolectronics STB601A0N Power Management IC

Switching to another board, we can see more parts:

• Red: Apple / USI 339S00648 WiFi / Bluetooth SoC
• Orange: Intel X927YD2Q Modem
• Yellow: Intel 5765 P10 A15 08B13 H1925 transceiver
• Green: Skyworks 78223-17 PAM
• Light blue: 81013-Qorvo envelope tracking
• Dark blue: Skyworks 13797-19 DRx
• Pink: Intel 6840 P10 409 H1924 baseband PMIC

It is worth noting that iFixit also discovered Apple's improved cooling system.

In addition to the chips above, you can also see several layers of graphite heat transfer material that support the RF board inside, but compared with the liquid cooling system of Android phones, the graphite board seems a bit backward.

However, its price is relatively low, and iFixit believes that this is enough to keep the iPhone's A13 efficiently cooled without interfering with the RF board's signal transmission.

The next thing to take out is the new large-capacity battery.

Battery removal is also made easier by pulling away a few stretch-release adhesive strips to access the battery.

The iPhone 11 Pro Max battery has a capacity of 3969 mAh, which is the current standard size for large batteries. It has a 25% increase in capacity over last year's iPhone XS Max battery of 3179 mAh.

Apple tried to solve the battery capacity problem by increasing the thickness. So compared to the iPhone XS Max, the iPhone 11 Pro Max is not only 0.7 mm thicker, but also 4.2 cubic centimeters larger and 13 grams heavier. With the support of the A13 chip and PMU, this battery can provide an additional 5 hours of battery life.

In addition, Apple's cancellation of 3D touch has added 0.25 mm of space, which also gives Apple more room to make a larger battery.

Another new discovery is that in addition to the existence of the wireless charging coil, Apple has also configured two battery connectors in the iPhone for the first time ever. In addition to the main battery connector, there is also a second new cable connector, iFixit said:

There could be a number of reasons for having extra cables connected to your charging port, and bidirectional charging is certainly one of them.

There have been rumors that Apple would add reverse wireless charging to the iPhone this year, but it was not launched at the last minute.

In response to this discovery, iFixit conducted some tests and found that when the second connector is not plugged in, the phone can be charged via Lightning, but wireless charging cannot be triggered. So this may just be some modifications made by Apple based on the iPhone 11's charging solution. It is still unclear what the purpose of this design is.

Another explanation is that iFixit found in Apple's published documents that the iPhone 11 Pro Max has new hardware for tracking and managing battery performance.

But no matter which one it is, Apple has always been very cautious about wireless charging, as can be seen from the shelving of AirPower. Recently, there are rumors that Apple has currently hidden the two-way wireless charging function and will activate it through firmware updates in the future, but for Apple, to realize this function, it must be done after the charging efficiency can fully meet the requirements.

Additionally, while Apple calls this year's "most waterproof iPhone ever," iFixit found that the adhesive around the display is similar to last year's phone, as are the washers near the screws.

However, iFixit also found that all the components on one end of the phone are glued to the frame, which seems to be a little tighter than the foam adhesive they saw last year, perhaps reflecting better waterproofing.

Once the battery was out, the mysterious plate discovered by X-rays also appeared.

It acts as an interconnection carrier for the battery, wireless charging coil and Taptic Engine. The chips include "STMicroelectronics STPMB0 929AGK HQHQ96 153915, Apple 338S00411 audio amplifier, TI 97A8R78 SN261140 A0N0T", so its existence is also closely related to the charging system.

Then, we removed the display, Lightning connector assembly, etc.

The display is the most fragile part of a phone, and this iPhone has all three flex cables gathered in one place, which makes the display easy to remove, which is also a good thing for phone repairs because the display is the most fragile part of a smartphone.

At this point, the disassembly is almost over.

Finally, iFixit gave the iPhone 11 Pro Max a repairability score of 6 out of 10 (10 is easiest to repair), the same score given to last year's iPhone XS and iPhone XS Max. iFixit reports that the battery is easier to repair than before, but if you crack the phone's glass back, you'll need to remove all components to fix it.

iFixit's summary includes not only the above-mentioned "how Apple makes a bigger battery" and the discovery of "two-way wireless charging", but also a section on the recent hotly debated issue of how much memory the iPhone has.

Previously, multiple reports indicated that the iPhone 11 is equipped with 6GB of memory, but later the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology's certification information showed that the new iPhone only has 4GB of memory. However, some developers believe that the new phone's memory is 4+2GB, and the remaining 2GB is given to the camera, which cannot be accessed by users.

But iFixit didn’t find dedicated camera RAM this time, so the 6GB number seems to be just a rumor for now.

In general, the internal structure of the iPhone 11 Pro Max has not changed much compared to last year. However, if Apple launches a 5G mobile phone next year, the motherboard structure may undergo major changes, one is to place the 5G baseband, and the other is to accommodate a larger battery and provide more heat dissipation space.

So, after seeing this year's "dismembered" iPhone 11 Pro Max, would you want to "buy it"?