iPhone 7 Plus Teardown

There's a lot to learn about what's hidden inside the "best, most advanced iPhone ever"—but first, let's take a moment to review what we already know:

• Apple A10 Fusion processor with embedded M10 motion coprocessor
• 32, 128, and 256 GB onboard storage capacity (jet black model not available in 32 GB)
• 5.5-inch display 1920x1080 pixels (401 ppi) Retina HD display
• 12 MP wide-angle and telephoto cameras with f/1.8 and f/2.8 apertures (respectively), 2x optical zoom, and 10x digital zoom
• 7 MP FaceTime HD camera with f/2.2 aperture and 1080p HD recording capability
• Solid state home button with Touch ID, driven by new Taptic Engine
• 802.11a/b/g/n/ac Wi‑Fi + MIMO Bluetooth 4.2 + NFC

The iPhone 7 Plus is nearly the same size as its predecessor (158.2 x 77.9 x 7.3 mm vs. 158.1 x 77.9 x 7.3 mm), and it's stamped with a new model number: A1785.

For those more inclined to the dark side, Apple is now offering matte black and scratchable jet black versions of the iPhone 7 Plus, in addition to the original silver, gold, and rose gold colors.

The 7 Plus also drops the unsightly antenna lines of old, in favor of a more subtle appearance.

Perhaps the most noticeable difference is the Lightning to 3.5 mm headphone jack adapter that is included in the box. It's going to take some courage for us to move on from the headphone jack. Sorry baby adapter. It's not you, it's us.

Before we dig into this two-eyed machine, we indulge ourselves with a sneak peek thanks to our friends at Creative Electron.

• Stay tuned for more views of the new iPhone's internals courtesy of our X-ray X-perts!

Apple may have gotten rid of the headphone jack, but clearly stays loyal to the Pentalobe. Two now-familiar screws guard each side of the Lightning connector.

Eager to see past the rose gold exterior, we perform some forceful iSclack-ing and a great deal of prying to get past the intense adhesive.

• The adhesive strip sealing the 7 Plus is considerably stronger than the strip we found in its predecessor. Could this be our first sign of waterproofing?

What is this madness? The 7 Plus bizarrely opens to the side, despite the familiar clips at the top of the phone that help align the display as in previous models.

We got lucky and didn't rip the display cables along the middle-right side. Thankfully, the top cable has some slack.

• Subtle design changes like this are where repair guides come in handy.

Opening the 7 Plus reveals lots of black and white gooey adhesives running along the perimeter of the phone.

• Our bet is that this penguin-themed stickiness is part of Apple's efforts to add water resistance. Then again, Apple's engineers might just really love glue.

Inside we find an army of courageous tri-point screws guarding the cable bracket that covers the battery connector and two of the display cables.

A second platoon of tri-points secure the bracket for the long and springy upper component display cable.

In place of the headphone jack, we find a component that seems to channel sound into the microphone. No fancy electronics here, just some sound acoustics.

Mechanical buttons are a thing of the past when you have a Taptic Engine! This sleek engine uses haptic feedback to simulate the push of a button, without having a real button.

• Anyone familiar with the touchpad in the Retina MacBook 2015 has already experienced haptics from the Taptic Engine.

We're glad to see Apple sticking with the tradition of including pull tabs for the battery. The three peel-to-remove adhesive tabs work beautifully.

• Once you get past the tri-point screws that is.
• Tri-point screws are uncommon. While you could make the argument that tri-point screws are less likely to strip, we assume if it was a choice of mechanical advantage, we'd see them throughout iDevices. Unless there is a good reason, we'd prefer good ol' Phillips screws—no special driver required—especially to access the battery and screen.

And just like that, out pops the battery!

And here's the big bad battery itself!

The battery is rated at 3.82 V and 11.1 Wh of energy, for a total of 2900 mAh, a slight upgrade over the 2750 mAh (3.8 V, 10.45 Wh) of the 6s Plus, but still a step down from 11.1 Wh, 2915 mAh cell found in the 6 Plus.

• Apple claims battery life will be up to one hour longer than the 6s Plus—that is, 21 hours of 3G talk time, approximately 15 hours of Wi‑Fi internet use, or up to 16 days on standby.

The moment we've all been waiting for: The 7 Plus camera array!

Apple's got us seeing double with two separate sensors, two lenses, and two sets of optical image stabilizers.

The two 12 MP cameras—one wide-angle (just like in the base iPhone 7), the second a telephoto—allows for optical zoom.

Both cameras also sport a new image sensor that Apple claims is 60% faster and 30% more energy efficient than previous iPhones.

• The upgraded cameras almost make it worth the bigger exterior camera bump—now built into the chassis in another suspected waterproofing/dust-fighting tactic.

We snag some sweet antenna components before we dig out the logic board.