iFixit this morning did aquick teardown of the iPhone 11 Proto provide a brief look at the new smartphone’s internals, and now the site is in the process of doing a much deeper divethrough an iPhone 11 Pro Max teardown.
The repair site is just now digging into theiPhone 11 ProMax, but has already found signs of the bilateral wireless charging feature that was rumored ahead of launch but ultimately not announced.
The
iPhone 11 Pro
teardown found two battery connectors in the new iPhones, which is a first, and further investigation by iFixit suggests the extra connector is a direct line to the wireless charging coil.
With the phone powered on, we disconnected the lower battery connector and the phone stayed on and charged via the Lightning port, but not over wireless charging. Seems this extra connector is a direct line to the wireless charging coil, which could be an important feature for bilateral charging!
What’s more, when we reconnected the cable, our phone displayed a momentary temperature warning before returning to normal. We suspect it lost contact with an important battery temperature sensor and shut itself down; this sounds a lot like a reverse wireless charging heat management feature to us.
Bilateral wireless charging would have allowed the new iPhones to wirelessly charge devices like theAirPods, theApple Watch, and even other iPhones. It was an expected feature for much of the 2019 rumor cycle, but just before the new iPhones launched, rumors indicated Apple had decided to pull the feature.
Apple analystMing-Chi Kuo, who often shares accurate insights into Apple’s plans, said that bilateral wireless chargingwas nixed“because the charging efficiency may not match Apple’s requirements.”
It’s not entirely clear if bilateral wireless charging is something that can be implemented at a later date if the hardware is in place, or if that’s Apple’s plan, but as of now, there is no two-way wireless charging option despite the hints of it in the
iPhone (Pro) ******
and Pro Max.
iFixit has also discovered a “new mysterious board” sitting below the battery that could be related to bilateral wireless charging.
The teardown so far has also revealed a slimmed down logic board to make room for the triple-lens camera setup and similar adhesive to last year iPhones despite new water resistance ratings.
iFixit is going to be working on its
iPhone 11 Pro
Max teardown for the next few hours. Those interested canfollow along on the teardown page for updates, and we’ll also update this article when new details are shared.
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