Trusted Reviews is supported by its audience. If you purchase through links on our site, we may earn a commission. Learn more.

iPhone 6S teardown shows smaller battery and Taptic Engine

The iPhone 6S is just landing with customers today, but it’s already received the comprehensive teardown treatment.

Established teardown and repair specialist iFixit didn’t waste any time going to work on Apple’s latest smartphone. The findings are unsurprising – we already knew much of what was going on inside the iPhone 6S prior to release – but act as valuable confirmation of a few key points.

First among those confirmations is the fact that the iPhone 6S battery is actually smaller than that of the iPhone 6 model. One of Apple’s announcement videos for the phone appeared to reveal that we were dealing with a 1,715mAh battery, and this teardown had confirmed that figure.

For reference, the iPhone 6 has an 1,810mAh battery.

iPhone 6S Xray

Also interesting is the teardown’s look at the new Taptic Engine. This is the component that provides the sophisticated physical feedback for the iPhone 6S’s 3D Touch screen.

In addition to seeing the chunky oblong component occupying a fair amount of space below the iPhone 6S’s battery (hence the shrinkage), the website X-Rays the component to reveal what’s happening inside. A couple of horizontally aligned springs shifting a solid chunk of material back and forth, it seems.

Related: iPhone 6S vs iPhone 5S: Should you upgrade?

Another point of note is the new, expanded display with its 3D Touch technology. The addition of the latter has increased the display’s weight by 15 grams over the iPhone 6.

All in all, the iPhone 6S is awarded a repair rating of 7 out of 10, which means it’ll be relatively easy to repair if it goes wrong or you drop it in a puddle.

Next, watch our smartphone buyers guide video:

Why trust our journalism?

Founded in 2003, Trusted Reviews exists to give our readers thorough, unbiased and independent advice on what to buy.

Today, we have millions of users a month from around the world, and assess more than 1,000 products a year.

author icon

Editorial independence

Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.

author icon

Professional conduct

We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.

Trusted Reviews Logo

Sign up to our newsletter

Get the best of Trusted Reviews delivered right to your inbox.

This is a test error message with some extra words