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Friday, September 20, 2013

Apple iPhone 5S teardown reveals Touch ID fingerprint scanner, new camera module and other secrets


Apple’s latest offering has only just hit stores in select markets and already it has been taken apart limb from limb. Not surprisingly the people responsible are the team at iFixit, which gave the device their famous teardown treatment. After completely disassembling the iPhone 5S, the team not only found it relatively easy to repair, but also found the much-talked-about Touch ID sensor and a new Sony camera module among others.

While removing the front panel, the team found a cable running from the Touch ID sensor to the Lightning port assembly. The Touch ID assembly (looks same as what leaked a month back) is essentially a bunch of very small capacitors that creates an “image” of the ridges on your finger.

Like in the iPhone 4S and the iPhone 5, they found that the image sensor hidden in the rear camera assembly again comes from Sony. But the markings on the module are different and hence the sensor is not Sony’s IMX145, but a newer variant made specifically for the iPhone 5S. That isn’t surprising considering Apple had talked about retaining an 8-megapixel camera while having a bigger sensor in place for better photo quality. Lastly, on prying out the battery, they found it to be a 1,560mAh, which is much bigger than the 1,440mAh on the iPhone 5.
Overall, iFixit gave the iPhone 5S 6 out of 10 in terms of ease of reparability, with 10 being the easiest to repair. The device is overall easy to open and repair, barring a couple of parts like the Pentalobe screws, battery attached with a strong adhesive and Touch ID sensor, which make the process a bit tedious.
Check out the complete teardown here.

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