iFixit Examines iPhone 15 Components Under a Microscope

Repair site iFixit last week shared a video teardown of Apple's new iPhone 15 Pro Max, and now iFixit is back with a deeper look inside the standard iPhone 15. iFixit's iPhone 15 teardown includes an examination of many of the components with a microscope, giving us a view of the device we don't typically get.


With the microscope, iFixit is able to provide a closer look at the iPhone's casing, adhesive, and display, showing off individual pixels. There are zoomed-in views of everything from the battery connector to the magnets inside the Taptic Engine.

Compared to the ‌iPhone‌ 14, the ‌iPhone 15‌ is remarkably similar, which makes sense because the design has not changed. There is a larger 48-megapixel camera, though, which iFixit confirms is not, in fact, the same 48-megapixel camera that's in the ‌iPhone 15‌ Pro Max. The quad pixel "buckets" in the ‌iPhone 15‌'s camera are around 22 percent smaller, which means that the camera is not able to perform as well in low lighting conditions as the camera in the ‌iPhone 15‌ Pro Max.

iFixit's ‌iPhone 15‌ teardown isn't revealing anything that we didn't already know, but it is a fun read thanks to the closer look at multiple components.

Related Roundup: iPhone 15
Related Forum: iPhone

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Top Rated Comments

Crowbot Avatar
19 months ago

they should examine their relevancy under a microscope.
Their relevancy is that they are the premier group that does disassemblies of all Apple devices. What's inside very often is more important than how nice the outside looks. These people know what they are doing and have quality info.

They also give detailed disassembly (and re-assembly) instructions so we can service our stuff. Their guide for taking apart the iMac was instrumental in my being able to open and clean my 27" iMac successfully.

Check them out. iFixit.com
Score: 38 Votes (Like | Disagree)
bmustaf Avatar
19 months ago
Yes, if you want to just throw away stuff as soon as it breaks or buy brand new stuff and trust the Reality Distortion Field for all your advice, they're irrelevant, I guess, but I know a lot of people (smart, successful, and just outright good people) who use their goods & services to fix their devices and buy parts. Hell, I buy parts from them all the time to repair things that the only economical and ecologically tenable thing to do is repair (which Apple may do for a very high price or may not even offer).

For example, my wife has an iPod her father gave her with some very personal, thoughtful recordings from him on it so she had certain things to keep once he dies, in his voice, and she has a connection that iPod (not just the data on it, which is backed up, of course). So we bought a few batteries and a repair kit for it, even though Apple doesn't support it and doesn't even offer that stuff any more, let alone a repair for it).

That's really relevant and meaningful, and they've built a big enough, successful enough business around it that they can fund these kind of teardowns & things, and I really love seeing it, if for nothing else, for geekery that I don't have to destroy a $1500 phone, a bunch of my time, etc.

iFixIt's guides and parts have also saved many of my company's computers, helped me repurpose my old ones for family (my niece uses one of my old MBPs that I was able to repair, when Apple's "official" solution was to trade in my old machine for a brand new MBP/MBA for her, which actually she didn't need at all, would have cost me $1000 more than just the parts and 45 min, and actually would have been way worse ecologically, too), and the like.

They've saved me from tons of unnecessary "upgrades".

Incredibly relevant, no matter how rich or busy you are, IMO. Unless you enjoy throwing away money and screwing up the environment completely unnecessarily...then, ok, yeah, they're irrelevant.

they should examine their relevancy under a microscope.
Score: 22 Votes (Like | Disagree)
vegetassj4 Avatar
19 months ago
"Compared to the iPhone 14, the iPhone 15 is remarkably similar"

Thank you....


Attachment Image
Score: 15 Votes (Like | Disagree)
lkrupp Avatar
19 months ago

Their relevancy is that they are the premier group that does disassemblies of all Apple devices. What's inside very often is more important than how nice the outside looks. These people know what they are doing and have quality info.

They also give detailed disassembly (and re-assembly) instructions so we can service our stuff. Their guide for taking apart the iMac was instrumental in my being able to open and clean my 27" iMac successfully.

Check them out. iFixit.com
iFixit are extreme self-repair radicals who want nothing less than to return to discrete component days with everything socketed and screwed together with Phillips head fasteners (just like Woz used to build ‘em), no glue either. Notice that they don't offer ANY repair services themselves, only tools and user submitted articles for how to disassemble stuff.
Score: 8 Votes (Like | Disagree)
jakeuten Avatar
19 months ago

Typical of Apple. Incremental upgrades and presenting them to AppleHeads as something profound, unique and worth shelling out your hard earned cash. Nothing more than bragging rights and accessory status. However, there are the few outliers who use their phones to the absolute max.
Again, different strokes for different folks.
Oof, that username clocked you
Score: 5 Votes (Like | Disagree)
indychris Avatar
19 months ago

Do they do this with all smartphones? What is the point other than anything Apple brings them page views?
Ahhh…so they get clicks which indicates that they create interest and therein you just found your answer.

People are curious about apple stuff. They dissect and often explain apple stuff. They’ve been around forever. I’ve used them countless times to help disassemble and reassemble Mac’s over the years. It’s an invaluable service at times. They started off just as guys who were curious and turned it into a great business. It’s wonderful when people who could never do what they’ve done are critical of how they’ve done it.
Score: 5 Votes (Like | Disagree)