First Look Inside iPhone 13 Reveals Revamped TrueDepth System, Smaller Taptic Engine, and Larger Battery

New images offering us our first real-world look inside the new iPhone 13 have revealed a smaller Taptic Engine, a larger battery, and revamped components of the TrueDepth camera system.

iphone 13 mini teardown
The ‌iPhone‌ 13 lineup will start arriving at customers on Friday, a week after pre-orders went live. While a more professional teardown of the device will be shared online in the coming days and weeks, occasional leaker Sonny Dickson has shared on Twitter images that offers us our first look inside of the ‌iPhone‌ 13.

According to the images, which are likely to depict an ‌iPhone‌ 13 or ‌iPhone‌ 13 mini, Apple has made the Taptic Engine smaller on this year's ‌iPhone‌ compared to the ‌iPhone‌ 12. The size reduction was likely part of Apple's effort to free up internal space to make room for a larger battery. Apple boasts that the iPhone 13 has significantly improved battery life compared to last year's ‌iPhone‌ due to the efficiency of the A15 Bionic chip and a physically larger battery, which the images confirm.

iphone 13 internal images notch
With the ‌iPhone‌ 13, Apple has made the notch 20% smaller after years of remaining the same size. To have achieved the smaller notch, the images highlight that Apple had to move the front-facing camera to the left side of the TrueDepth camera system while moving the dot projector and infrared camera to the right side. The images also show the earpiece moved to the top bezel, further enabling a smaller notch.

While there are likely other internal changes, we'll have to wait for a more professional teardown of the device, such as those done annually by iFixit, to learn more. For comparison, check out the teardown of last year's iPhone 12 and iPhone 12 Pro.

Related Forum: iPhone

Popular Stories

iOS 18

Apple Says iOS 18.4 Will Be Released in April With These New Features

Wednesday February 26, 2025 7:15 am PST by
In a recent press release, Apple confirmed that iOS 18.4 will be released in April. From the Apple News+ Food announcement:Coming with iOS 18.4 and iPadOS 18.4 in April, Apple News+ subscribers will have access to Apple News+ Food, a new section that will feature tens of thousands of recipes — as well as stories about restaurants, healthy eating, kitchen essentials, and more — from the...
Generic iPhone 17 Feature With Full Width Dynamic Island

Latest iPhone 17 Series CAD Images in Line With Redesign Rumors

Friday February 28, 2025 2:51 am PST by
Apple is expected to embrace a new camera system design for some models in its upcoming iPhone 17 series, and the latest purported CAD images don't deviate from what we have been hearing lately about Apple's new lineup. If you do not like the sound of an iPhone with a Google Pixel-style camera bar, look away now. Seasoned leaker Sonny Dickson shared the following images in a post on X...
Generic iOS 19 Feature Mock Light

iOS 19 Rumored to Include These New Features for Your iPhone

Saturday March 1, 2025 11:00 am PST by
iOS 19 is still around three months away from being unveiled, but there are plenty of rumors about the upcoming update. Below, we recap iOS 19 rumors so far. Redesigned Camera App A leak earlier this year allegedly revealed a redesigned Camera app coming with iOS 19. On his YouTube channel Front Page Tech in January, Jon Prosser shared a video showing what the new Camera app will...
iphone 16e usb c feature

Apple Provides Reason for iPhone 16e's Lack of MagSafe

Friday February 28, 2025 4:39 am PST by
Apple has offered a reason why the iPhone 16e doesn't include MagSafe, one of the more notable omissions from its latest entry-level smartphone. According to Apple representatives who spoke to Daring Fireball's John Gruber, MagSafe is not included in the iPhone 16e because "most people in the iPhone 16e's target audience exclusively charge their phones by plugging them into a charging...
apple intelligence black

These New Apple Intelligence Features Are Coming in iOS 18.4

Friday February 28, 2025 3:17 pm PST by
iOS 18.4 was supposed to bring new Apple Intelligence Siri features, but Apple ended up needing to pull those capabilities from the update to continue testing. There are fewer new Apple Intelligence additions now, but there are still some new features that will make the update worth installing when it comes out in April. Priority Notifications Apple introduced Priority Notifications back at ...
cook trump

Trump Responds to Apple Keeping Diversity Policies

Wednesday February 26, 2025 6:32 am PST by
In an all-caps post on Truth Social today, U.S. President Donald Trump said Apple should fully end its diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) policies. Tim Cook meeting with President Trump in 2017 "APPLE SHOULD GET RID OF DEI RULES, NOT JUST MAKE ADJUSTMENTS TO THEM," he wrote. Trump's post comes one day after Apple held its annual shareholders meeting, during which a majority of...
airpods pro purple

Here's When AirPods Pro 3 Are Rumored to Launch

Monday February 24, 2025 9:14 am PST by
According to a post on X today from a leaker known as Kosutami, Apple plans to launch AirPods Pro 3 in May or June this year. The leaker also claimed that an AirTag 2 will launch around the same time. Kosutami is best known as a collector of prototype Apple hardware, but they have occasionally shared accurate information about Apple's future product plans. For example, they accurately...
apple watch ultra snow

6 Features Coming to the Apple Watch Ultra 3

Tuesday February 25, 2025 9:00 am PST by
The Apple Watch Ultra 3 is expected to launch later this year, arriving two years after the previous model with a series of improvements. While no noticeable design changes are expected for the third generation since the company tends to stick with the same Apple Watch design through three generations before changing it, there are a series of internal upgrades on the way. By the time the ...
apple c1

How Fast is Apple's First-Ever 5G Modem? The Results Are Surprising

Friday February 28, 2025 10:08 am PST by
iPhone 16e reviews are now out, and Apple's custom-designed C1 modem has been put to the test. The results so far are quite surprising, as the C1's speeds are not as slow compared to Qualcomm modems as originally expected. While the C1 does not support ultra-fast mmWave 5G in the U.S., it appears to offer comparable 5G performance to Qualcomm's Snapdragon X71 modem found in the iPhone 16,...

Top Rated Comments

xpxp2002 Avatar
45 months ago
That’s concerning that they’ve shrunk the Taptic Engine again after last year’s shrink. I’m really hoping this doesn’t affect the strength.
Score: 19 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Shanghaichica Avatar
45 months ago

Not a big fan of the smaller Taptic Engine. You could tell that vibrations were weaker on the iPhone 12.
It’s all been going downhill since they got rid of 3D Touch.
Score: 13 Votes (Like | Disagree)
dantracht Avatar
45 months ago
You had me at larger battery.
Score: 11 Votes (Like | Disagree)
alisalem Avatar
45 months ago
Not a big fan of the smaller Taptic Engine. You could tell that vibrations were weaker on the iPhone 12.
Score: 11 Votes (Like | Disagree)
lleial Avatar
45 months ago
I'm looking forward to the tear-down of the iPhone 13 Pro Max. That's the one that's interesting, specially for its battery!
Score: 9 Votes (Like | Disagree)
lleial Avatar
45 months ago

I remember those days when people said one of the reasons the iPhone would fail is because it didn’t have a removable battery. Lol.
I was heavily criticized when purchasing my iPhone 7 for not having the 3.5mm audio jack; now look at everyone! People talk crap without even knowing where the market is heading. As you mentioned, now all flagship phones have a non-removable battery, but we only b***h at Apple when they push forward with change.
Score: 9 Votes (Like | Disagree)