iPhone 7 Plus teardown confirms bigger Taptic Engine, larger battery

Manish Singh
Updated
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You shouldn't feel embarrassed if you can’t tell what’s new in the iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus. After all, Apple’s new iPhones look almost identical to its last year’s offerings. But thankfully we have the gadget repair community iFixit which tears up phones to pieces to check if there's anything new under the hood. (And we learned what replaced the headphone jack.)

SEE ALSO: iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus: the review

Again, changing the looks of the iPhone 7 Plus wasn’t something on Apple’s to-do list this year. But there are a few subtle design changes — the antenna lines have been pushed to the edges, and there is a bigger protrusion in the camera. But thankfully, there are some more noticeable changes when you dive deeper.

The Taptic Engine on the iPhone 7 Plus is noticeably bigger, according to iFixit. So much so that it feels like Apple has used the extra room it got from getting rid off the headphone jack for this. Which is understandable, since the Home button on the new iPhone doesn’t click anymore but vibrates instead.  

The other major change is a bigger battery on the iPhone 7 Plus. The reading on the battery is 2,900 mAh, which is a welcome change from the 2750 mAh that Apple shipped with iPhone 6s Plus. Sadly, it is still not 2915 mAh that you got with the iPhone 6 Plus.

But on a high note, iFixit confirmed that the iPhone 7 Plus has 3GB of RAM. There is an additional connector for the camera, which makes sense since the iPhone 7 Plus has an additional camera sensor. Speaking of which, the bigger bump on the back is likely because Apple wanted to ensure no water or dust finds its way inside.

Image: ifixit

Also worth mentioning is that the iPhone 7 Plus is something that most of us won’t be able to repair ourselves. Apple’s product aren’t really known for easy repairability, but iFixit notes that the company has only stitched things together stronger this year. While iFixit works on a final repairability score, check out the teardown here.