iPhone 7, 7 Plus teardowns reveal 2,915 mAh battery, 3GB RAM for Plus, bigger Taptic Engine where headphone jack used to be, Intel modem in some iPhone 7 models
As it does every year, device repair site iFixit is putting all of Apple's new devices through the teardown process.
Context & Ripple Effects
The annual iFixit ritual continues: after last year's iPhone 6s teardown documented a 1,715 mAh cell and an x-ray look at the Taptic Engine, this year's pass over the iPhone 7 and 7 Plus shows what Apple did with the space freed by dropping the headphone jack — a 2,915 mAh battery, 3GB of RAM in the Plus, and a physically larger Taptic Engine sitting where the analog port used to be.
The other notable find is supply-side: some iPhone 7 units carry Intel modems, meaning Apple split its cellular radio sourcing across at least two vendors for this generation.
First-order effects
- Repair shops and accessory makers now have a confirmed parts map for the jack-less iPhone: haptics, not audio hardware, absorbed the reclaimed interior volume, so Lightning- and wireless-based audio accessories become the default path for new buyers.
Second-order effects
- Intel gains a shipping socket inside the iPhone for the first time in this coverage, giving it volume leverage in cellular modems, while the enlarged Taptic Engine raises per-unit demand on Apple's haptics supply chain.
Third-order effects
- Trading ports and symmetry for internal density hardens into Apple's design pattern — the following year's iPhone X teardown shows the same logic pushed further with a stacked logic board and an L-shaped dual-cell battery — making each fall teardown the public ledger of how far Apple will compress internals to add capability.
The trend: Apple's flagship design cycle is converging on sealed, densely packed interiors where removed legacy ports fund bigger batteries and haptics, with iFixit's yearly teardown serving as the industry's primary window into those trade-offs.