Teardown reveals iPhone XS has a notched L-shaped battery, iPhone XS Max has an extended logic board with an Apple-designed power management chip
Tools Featured in this Teardown … Introduction — Last year's iPhone X had a weird name and the most advanced internals we'd ever seen in a teardown.
Context & Ripple Effects
This is the fourth consecutive fall teardown cycle in the coverage arc: iFixit opened the iPhone 6s in 2015, the iPhone 7 and 7 Plus in 2016, and the iPhone X last November, where the L-shaped dual-cell battery and stacked logic board first appeared.
The XS findings read as a refinement year rather than a redesign: the notched L-shaped battery carries the X's space-fitting approach into the new chassis, while the XS Max stretches the logic board to make room for an Apple-designed power management chip — a component class previously left to merchant silicon vendors.
First-order effects
- Repair shops and DIY fixers face the immediate consequence: a notched, irregularly shaped battery pack is harder to source and swap than a standard rectangular cell, continuing the repairability drag documented since the X teardown.
Second-order effects
- An Apple-designed power management chip inside the XS Max means third-party PMIC vendors lose their highest-volume socket, pushing them toward Android customers and commoditized designs.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds across future generations, iPhones consolidate around in-house Apple silicon for functions once bought off the shelf, while mechanical layouts optimized around the notch make independent battery repair structurally harder rather than easier.
The trend: Annual iPhone teardowns trace Apple steadily internalizing its component supply chain — from batteries shaped to fit, to logic boards built around its own chips — at a rising cost to third-party suppliers and independent repair.