we've already done tear downs for the
iphone 12 12 pro
and 12 pro max so there's just one left
till we're 4 for 4.
today we're looking at the iphone 12
mini it's basically a standard iphone 12
but hit with a shrink ray how did apple
fit all the features of an iphone 12
into this tiny phone let's do a mini
teardown and find out
the iphone 12 mini may be small but
getting it open requires a large amount
of heat and suction
the entire lineup of iphone's 12 has
proven to be more difficult to open than
previous generations
thanks to tougher adhesive but since
this is our fourth iphone 12 in two
weeks we're already getting used to it
with the display lifted off we can see
some notable differences from the iphone
12 right away the iphone 12 mini has two
cables connected to the display instead
of three
and take a look at that teeny tiny
little battery and taptic engine
the first components out are the rear
camera modules the mini camera has the
same
f 1.6 wide angle and f 2.4 ultra wide
angle cameras found in the regular
iphone 12.
the wide angled module features optical
image stabilization
and we have the x-rays to prove it
thanks to our friends at creative
electron
speaking of x-rays this 3d spin gives us
an amazing look at the layout of the
iphone 12 mini
next out is the teeny tiny taptic engine
it may not be as small as the one found
in the apple watch but it's by far the
smallest one we've seen in an iphone
interestingly we've found three
different sized and shaped taptic
engines in the iphone 12 lineup
the speaker comes out next and that
gives us access to the two adhesive pull
tabs on the bottom of the battery
thankfully these don't give us any
problems and once they're removed we can
coerce the battery from its own
oh sure there were more pull tabs at the
top of the battery but they were so tiny
that they barely did any adhering
plus that new 5g antenna cable is in the
way of removing them properly
so for this mini teardown we just left
them be this mini battery packs a
surprising 8.57 watt hours
that's more juice than the iphone se
2020 is 6.96 watt hours
but understandably short of the 10.78
watt hours in the standard iphone 12.
the logic board is secured by a few
standoff screws and several cables
including the same 5g antenna cables
that run along the side of the phone
that we saw on the other iphone 12s
compared to an iphone 12 logic board the
12 minions is actually bigger
due to the sim card reader being
soldered on once we've separated the two
halves of the board we can spot the
apple a14 bionic system on chip
layered over 4 gigabytes of micron lp
ddr4 memory
which is the same as the iphone 12 and
12 pro elsewhere on the board is the u1
ultra wide band chip and some qualcomm
x55
5g silicon the iphone 12 and 12 mini are
so similar you won't be surprised to
hear that the iphone 12 mini scored the
same on a repairability scale as the 12
a 6 out of 10. the two most common
smartphone repairs display and battery
are well prioritized and most major
components are modular enough to be
accessed and replaced independently
but as in all iphones there are a number
of specialized screws and waterproofing
measures make mini repairs more
difficult
worst of all fragile glass covers the
rear housing which means a single drop
could necessitate replacing the entire
body of the iphone
if you haven't already make sure to
check out our live teardowns of the
iphone 12 and the 12 pro max
and make sure you're subscribed to our
channel to stay up to date on all of our
latest teardowns all the iphones may be
done but there's more to come
you