Update: iPhone 14 is easier to repair — but we have bad news, too.
An iPhone 14 Pro Max teardown video has exposed what the new phone's features look like in real life, including its new chip, larger camera and reworked Face ID module.
PBKreviews takes apart the new iPhone piece-by-piece in a new YouTube video, showing us what differences there are compared to the iPhone 13 Pro Max. Plus, watching people pry open impenetrable-looking devices like the iPhone 14 is fascinating in its own way, so the video is well worth watching even if you aren't curious about what an mmWave antenna looks like.
Once PBKreviews takes off the display, the phone's new chip, the A16 Bionic, is easy to spot thanks to its prominent marking. So is the Taptic Engine, the module that powers the iPhone's vibrations and haptic feedback, in the bottom left. Most of the other components are hidden, though, concealed beneath graphite pads that are there to dissipate heat and prevent throttling.
Going deeper, PBKreviews finds the iPhone's battery, which was recently confirmed by regulatory data to have a 4,323 mAh capacity. It is smaller than the iPhone 13 Pro Max's 4,352 mAh battery, but that hasn't harmed the new model's battery life. In fact, our testing for our iPhone 14 Pro Max review shows the Pro Max lasts over two hours longer on a single charge than the previous model, when running our custom web-browsing-based battery test.
The most interesting thing we saw in the teardown was that the iPhone 14 Pro Max (technically) has an under-display camera. Apple moved the proximity sensor, previously part of the sensor family within the Face ID notch, under the display and below the main cameras, making the required cutout size smaller. This in turn allows for the iPhone 14 Pro models' new Dynamic Island notification/activities alert system.
Having under-display non-camera sensors isn't unique to the iPhone, though, as the best Android phones also hide their proximity sensors beneath the display glass.
Three out of four of the iPhone 14 Pro Max's cameras remain the same as the last generation, but the 48MP main camera is new, and very obviously larger when the phone's turned over. No wonder Apple needed to expand the camera block size yet again for the iPhone 14 Pro models.
The iPhone 14 Pro Max, iPhone 14 Pro and regular iPhone 14 are all going on sale tomorrow (Friday, September 16), but iPhone 14 preorders are still open if you want to reserve a new device before then. Sadly, the iPhone 14 Plus, Apple's new larger non-Pro model, won't be coming until October.
