The iPhone 5s is now on sale in North America and iFixit already has a teardown of Apple’s latest flagship. With a nearly identical exterior to 2012’s iPhone 5, not too much has changed.
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The new Touch ID sensor and associated processor are the most significant changes for the iPhone 5s, including a new cable that connects to the sensor to the chassis, something that is sure to cause headaches for do-it-yourself iDevice repairs.
Other tidbits include Apple’s promised slightly larger battery, clocking in at 1560mAh compared to last year’s 1440mAh, and the expected A7 processor in place of the iPhone 5’s A6.
Of note, iFixit could not locate a separate M7 “motion coprocessor,” one of the iPhone 5s’s highly touted features. This doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist, of course, but iFixit speculates that Apple’s description of the feature as a separate chip may be misleading and that the M7 may be special silicon built directly into the A7.
As we search for a much-anticipated M7 coprocessor, we begin to wonder if it actually is a separate IC, or if it is additional functionality built into the A7. Maybe the “M” stands for “magical,” the M7 is invisible, and Apple does use pixie dust to hold the device together. Or perhaps the “M” stands for “marketing”…
Overall, the firm gives the iPhone 5s a 6 out 10 score for repairability, down one point from the iPhone 5, and notes that users should have no problem servicing the device as long as they watch out for the aforementioned Touch ID cable and take care while removing the battery from its adhesive.
