Gadgetory

with its larger screen and rounded edges the iPhone 6 is Apple's first major redesign of their phones exterior since the iPhone 4 but they also made lots of changes on the inside which make the six faster able to store more data and as I'll show you easier to open and repair I'm Bill Detweiler and this is cracking open unlike the similar looking iPhone 5 and 5s there's no mistaking the iPhone 6 for one of Apple's previous handsets it's 4.7 inch display is larger than anything Apple has released before its case is much thinner and the rounded edges give it a distinctive look now unfortunately they also make it harder to hold them any other iPhone but I digress now thankfully cracking open the 6 is actually easier than opening previous iPhones now you still need to remove the two pentalobe screws along the bottom edge with a special screwdriver but Apple relocated the ribbon cable on the home button which means you no longer need to worry about carrying it when popping open the front panel now with the front panel open the first thing we're going to do is to remove several metal plates which cover the connectors for the battery front panel and other components then we'll disconnect the battery and remove the front panel the overall hardware layout is the same as on the iPhone 5s there's a speaker and lightning connector assembly at the bottom battery along the left side motherboard along the right and the camera assembly at the top now attached to the front panel are the display front camera and sensors earpiece speaker and the home button there's also a new metal plate that sits behind the screen while I would usually begin our teardown by removing the battery I'm going to leave it in place as I remove the other components this will keep me from having to glue it back in later so the first component to come out is the new rear facing camera it has the same 8 megapixel count as last year but with improved autofocus and exposure control a small antenna is next and then removing a few screws and standoffs and attaching the remaining connectors we can lift out the motherboard now unfortunately the shields that cover the iPhone 6's motherboard are soldered in place obscuring our view of the new a a processor a mate motion tracking chip and it's NFC chips as I want to put this phone back together in working order I'm going to leave the shields in place the last pieces to come out are the speaker assembly and the vibration mechanism which is different than the one in the iPhone 5s still attached the case are the headphone and lightning connector assembly volume buttons ringer switch power button and a slew of connector wires now most of these components are held to the case with both screws and adhesive if any of these components were damaged removing and replacing them wouldn't be too difficult but I don't want to risk damaging them during removal so I'm going to leave them where they are despite its bigger screen and new case design if you just looked at the iPhone 6 on the outside you definitely miss some of the most interesting design changes Apple made and I'm glad that Apple actually made the phone easier to open and repair kudos for that now if they would only settle on a single size screw for attaching the internal components I'd really be happy for a complete list of specs pricing and real-world performance tests check out Scott Stein's full CNET review to see more teardown photos and read my full hardware analysis go to TechRepublic comm forward slash cracking open I'm bill Detweiler thanks for watching