we tore down a lot of devices in 2016
more than 30 to be exact so while we
give our tools a much-needed break let's
talk about some of the cool new tech and
design choices from last year here are a
few of the most interesting revelations
we saw in our teardown table in 2016 the
new MacBook Pro line was released late
2016 and it's lighter than ever even
with all the new tech including the
brand new touch bar as Apple's second
OLED equipped device the touch bar also
shares some family ties with the Apple
watch we found two custom apple chips
right where the touch bar interfaces
with a logic board also in keeping with
Apple watch tradition the touch bar is
covered in glass it's a fun piece of
tech and more versatile than the
standard function keys but unfortunately
it's also unrepairable and since we're
on the subject of Apple devices let's
keep it in the family and talk about the
brand new iPhone 7 on the outside the
iPhone 7 looks a lot like the iPhone 6s
but it's a goldmine of new design
choices inside starting with the way it
opens past model iPhones have hinged
open from the top after dispatching the
familiar pentalobe screws we open the
iPhone 7 but this time we opened it from
the side like a book the display cables
are now attached to the right side of
the phone instead of clustered at the
top we also discovered never before seen
in an iPhone try point y double zero
screws guarding the usual repair
suspects battery display home button and
more while this is not a proprietary
screw like the pentalobe it is a
difficult bit to find and a possible
attempt to keep owners from venturing
very far in their phones
lastly the new iPhone introduced us to
the solid state home button it's more
like a home touch sensor really no
buttons about it a replaceable home
button is great news for consumers the
mechanical home button has been a point
of failure on past iPhones the move to a
non mechanical button should improve
overall reliability and reduce the need
for replacement like the iPhone 7 LG
gave us a brand new design for opening
their g5 without opening the phone we
were able to remove and replace the
battery
and after just a few screws and some
private clips we popped open the display
with these no fuss no adhesive LG
finally figured out the modular unibody
the display is seamlessly mounted in the
rear case making for a luxury feel while
still maintaining battery access we hope
this trend catches on moving on to VR
headset tech we found that the oculus
ditched the interchangeable lenses in
favor of a pair of built in lens mounted
displays the asymmetric lens shapes
allows users to focus the displays to
suit their eyes by moving the headset up
and down no more swapping lenses or
complex adjustments for your differently
sighted friends the suite tech behind
this fancy focus is a hybrid frontal
lens combining the best of frontal and
traditional lenses makes for some sick
optics this is just a short list of
interesting things we saw in 2016
during our tear downs let us know your
favorite developments in tech in the
comments below be sure to check out all
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