Teardown of Apple's Smart Battery Case exposes 1,877mAh battery, simple design
Apple's new Smart Battery Case for the iPhone 6 and 6s uses a relatively simple construction, centered around a 1,877 milliamp-hour battery sitting behind an aluminum plate, according to a teardown published on Thursday.
The battery more than doubles the 1,715 milliamp-hour capacity of an iPhone 6s, iFixit remarked. Despite the case's name, however, most of the "smart" aspects are believed to be supported through paired iPhones, since the only two integrated circuit modules inside are a NXP NX20P3 load switch -- also used in Lighting-to-USB cables -- and the same NXP 1608A1 charging IC found in Apple's latest Magic peripherals for the Mac.
The case uses a soft but reinforced elastomer hinge to let users slide their iPhone in and out with ease. The aluminum plate serves not just as a door to the battery compartment but as further structural support, since much of the rest of the case is made of rubber and hard plastic.
As might be expected, the case is essentially impossible to repair. The battery can technically be replaced, but doing so is tough because of glue and the high chance of destroying the case's microfiber liner.
The Smart Battery Case was launched on Tuesday in a surprise announcement, and has so far proven controversial, thanks to its high $99 pricetag and a design some have called ugly. On Wednesday Apple CEO Tim Cook took umbrage at people calling the battery bulge "the hump," insisting that it's necessary to make the case simple to install and remove.
Comments
1a) Because they did a teardown, you and everyone else knows exactly what there is to repair. Surprisingly it got a 2/10 which means some readers will actually repair something or be able to rig it to work in a different way.
1b) Regardless, remember that iFixit's razor handles are these teardowns and repair guides; their razor blades are the tools and parts they sell to accomplish the repairs. On top of that, iFixit is more likely to teardown everything from Apple because, well, it's free advertising for them. For $99 and an hour of time they get how many websites and how many eyeballs from around the world seeing their name and going to their site? If they could do a Teardown of the Jobs Family megayacht, Venus, they would.
2a) If the battery actually does die, it's not under warranty, and the case is oddly in great shape, it would considerably less expensive to buy a replacement battery of that capacity. Just look what they call iPhone batteries at.
2b) Regarding the warranty, Apple has been very good about their accessories. I use their Apple-branding (not Beats) in-earphones. If anything goes wrong with them, like the rubber ear piece is ripped, missing, or if the cord gets pulled so it frays, they will replace it no questioned asked, so long as you have an Apple product that could use that accessory under warranty.
It does feel nice, but most of that is probably from the material they use. I think the bump adds to that texture somewhat when grabbing the device blind, but I'd like to see what they could do with more stepping of the battery, like in the MacBook, but they also need to consider how that's going to work with various iPhone stands.
Very smart way of handling it. Like jettisoning an external fuel pod on a fighter jet.
I have a 6+ so nothing for me.. yet.. but I like the idea. I suspect those with bigger hands will find that case more to their liking.
Here's a hint dumbasses, if you have to do a *destructive* tear-down, then what you are doing cannot by definition have anything to do with "repairability" can it? That's simple logic.
Also, when designers talk about form in regards design, they mean the shape of something, not it's attractiveness (or lack of it). "Pretty" or "not pretty" has very little to do with industrial design, or design in general.
I've had to replace the batteries on both my and my daughter's MBP's because they only had a very limited number of recharges over a few years, and were kept generally fully charge during their lifetimes.
Of course, the battery technology may be quite different between MBP's and iPhones/ipads, etc.
On the other hand, we can assume Apple knew what they were doing.