An interplanetary exclusive, the iPhone 8 Plus has been completely disassembled by SOSav!
SOSav just loooooooves to eat the forbidden fruit
We were the first to pitch our tent in front of the Apple Store a few weeks ago, and we’ve hardly had the time to repack it in excitement for this moment… we have already managed to get our hands on THE beast!
The iPhone 8 and its big brother the iPhone 8 Plus were the stars of the show in our office today. They’re nearly exact replicas of the iPhone 7 and 7 plus visually, but will their internal components also be the same? Will the screen and maybe even other parts be inter-compatible? Will the iPhone 8 be capable of reading our thoughts?
The iPhone 8 & 8 Plus : Attack of the clones!
Except for the glass back, the iPhone 8 Plus is strictly identical to the iPhone 7 Plus. So much so, that when we had them both dismantled in our studio we mistook them for the same phone, and took pictures of the 7 Plus by mistake!!! Ahh, those jokers at Apple!
So, are the screens the same? Physically, there’s no difference…
Even when we zoomed in on the screen connectors: the iPhone 7 is on the left, the iPhone 8 on the right (in case you couldn’t tell…).
So, can they be swapped? Nearly… Both screens turned on (after disconnecting the FaceTime camera) but the touch screen doesn’t work, on either the 7 or the 8. It probably means the chip for the touch screens isn’t recognised by iOS, and the compatibility is blocked by apple.
And the rest?
The battery on the 8 Plus doesn’t have the same connectors as the 7 Plus. The front camera is nearly the same physically, but features a more powerful light sensor, so can’t be compatible. The home buttons are identical and can be swapped over easily, but the Touch ID function and the ‘click’ no longer work and an error message displays on the screen (again most likely due to software incompatibility). The Taptic Engine has been described as a “superb novelty” since its appearance on the iPhone 7, but simply means the home button is no longer hardware, but software… Yipeee -_-
See the physical resemblance between the parts for yourself (the iPhone 7 Plus on the left, the 8 Plus on the right)… and yet nothing inside the phones
*iPhone 7 Plus components on the left and the iPhone 8 Plus on the right
The big change: the glass back.
For this new generation of iPhone Apple added a glass back, just like the iPhone 4. This glass back allows you to charge wirelessly via induction thanks to the NFC cable, but we can assume that it’ll be ridiculously easy to break…
On the (ancient) iPhone 4, the back of the phone came off after simply unscrewing two screws… That’s not the case here. The iPhone 8 & 8 Plus are opened via the screen like the iPhone 7 & 7 Plus, opening in the same way as a book.
So if you break the rear glass you have two options:
● Replacing the entire frame of the phone (like the iPhone 6 and the following models).
● Or, trying to unfix the rear glass from the frame.
Like mad scientists, we launched our bodies and souls in the fight to achieve the second solution. The result? It was a nigh on impossible mission! We had to use a heat gun set at 330°C to succeed in removing the rear glass, and not without problems. The frame of the phone became bent as a result, and the end product wasn’t a clean removal… We noted that the rear glass didn’t even crack during this torturous mission – it’s tough! Which is good as in order to replace the glass you’d have to replace the entire frame…
What does this mean? Replacing the rear glass will be risky, and nearly impossible for rookies, and if you go to a professional it will probably incur a lot of labour costs as they’d have to replace the entire frame.
To conclude, a beautiful exploded view of the iPhone 8 Plus!
The last word: from our technician
The iPhone 8 and 8 Plus are quite easy to disassemble as they’re almost completely identical to the iPhone 7. However, the rear glass will definitely break at some point but is the hardest part to replace, you have to replace the complete frame. Likewise for the home button, as it loses all functionality when replaced – the ne part simply plugs up a hole… like the iPhone 7.
Once again there’s that feeling of déjà vu… Apple has limited its research and development costs by keeping an almost identical manufacturing process as the previous model!
For overall reparability, the iPhone 8 and 8 Plus earn:
6.5/10
Our iPhone 8 + complete teardown
But what about the iPhone 8 teardown?? Well, it’s the same as the 8 Plus, just smaller! For more info, just have a look at our iPhone 7 guides…!