Teardown specialists iFixit just did with the iPhone 11 Pro Max what they do best, pry open and reveal all that goes into the making of what undoubtedly is the best that Apple has to offer in the smartphone segment. And there sure are some very interesting tech bits that have come to the fore.
For instance, there is the extra battery connector with the iPhone 11 Max Pro which once again has brought back rumors of the dual wireless charging feature that many had said would be a standard feature of the phone. Unfortunately, while that proved to be a dud, the iFixit discovery has led many to believe Apple sure could have given it a serious thought before debunking it in the last minute.
Some still are hopeful of the feature becoming a reality on the phone sometime soon. They believe the hardware support is built into the phone, it’s only that the feature needs to be activated via a software update. Unfortunately, there is no conclusive proof of that yet, with the second battery connector could be for supporting battery monitoring and managing hardware.
Among the other things that have come to the fore is the new L shaped battery which also has a higher rating than its predecessor. Apple never revealed the exact figures, but the teardown revealed a 3969mAh battery for the iPhone 11 Pro Max, which provides for 15.04Wh of total power. That comes out to be 2.96Ah more than iPhone XS Max. Apple had nothing more to reveal than claiming an extra 5 hours of extra juice compared to the XS Max.
The fitment of a bigger battery has a toll on the phone’s profile as well given that it has added 0.4 mm to the phone overall thickness. And Apple had to give up on 3D Touch to minimize the extra girth, to some extent at least as iFixit found that was enough to shave off 0.25 mm but not more. The result is, the new iPhone 11 Pro Max is that tad bit thicker than last year’s model, but no one will likely ever be aware of that during normal usage.
The presence of an Intel modem has also taken many by surprise given the manner Apple chose to sort things out with Qualcomm outside of the court. Maybe the phone’s spec sheet was fixed before the settlement was eked out and a last-minute change of modem wasn’t feasible.
Memory is another aspect that Apple never reveals about its phone and that naturally makes everyone all the more curious. For the record, the iFixit teardown has revealed a 4 GB RAM for the iPhone 11 Pro Max though there was no trace of an extra 2 gigs of memory dedicated solely to the cameras, something that Apple mentioned during launch.
Also, a 4GB RAM might seem minuscule compared to what Android flagships or even mid-range phones have to offer.
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However, Apple has the advantage of customizing the hardware exactly as per what the OS can deliver and vice-versa. This leads to better hardware-software optimization and the iPhone 11 Pro Max performance seems ample proof of that.
