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Honey, I shrunk the iPhone
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November 14: iPhone 12 mini Teardown Part 2


How did Apple cram all of their standard iPhone components and 5G hardware into a tiny new form factor? We sized up two iPhone 12 minis (US and EU models) in a two-part teardown to find out.

We were honestly surprised by the mini’s similarities to other models in this year’s lineup. Apple saved a lot of space by successfully miniaturizing some major components: Taptic Engine, speakers, and even the MagSafe ring (the standard loop of magnets doesn’t quite fit, so the right and left edges have been lopped off). Unfortunately, the minification process also required shrinking the battery. Reduced battery life means more frequent charging, and may mean more battery replacements over the mini’s lifetime—so maybe put a curfew on TikTok usage. At least the battery replacement procedure is as easy as any other recent iPhone.

In happier news, we can confirm that the 12 mini does not share the controversial camera repair issues found in the standard iPhone 12. Both the iPhone 12 mini and 12 Pro passed our tests with flying colors, so we’re hopeful it’s just an oversight that’s isolated to the regular iPhone 12, and will be resolved with a future update. Whether or not it was intentional, it forced us to think long and hard about component pairing and its role in repair. We’ll be actively considering that as we score all devices moving forward.

The iPhone 12 mini earned the same respectable 6/10 on our repairability scale as the other iPhones 12 so far. Stay tuned for our final iPhone 12 teardown, the 12 Pro Max, coming in a few days.

Feel free to use up to three images in your story—as long as you credit iFixit as the source with a link back to our teardown. If you have any questions, concerns, or if you just want to send us a virtual high-five, please feel free to reach out to olivia@ifixit.com.

 
 
 
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