iPhone 7 Plus teardown shows what Apple put in place of the headphone jack
Most of the space is taken up with the new, vibrating ‘Taptic Engine’ – not a secret headphone jack, as some trolls have suggested
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Your support makes all the difference.By now, we all know: the iPhone’s headphone jack is gone. But a related mystery over what had actually taken its place has now been solved.
The company gave a range of reasons for removing its jack – including that it wanted to take a “courageous” move, that it would help with waterproofing and that it was part of a move towards a waterproof feature. But it didn’t actually say what that space had been filled with.
Since the iPhone 7 has the same basic design as the 6 and 6s, removing the headphone jack provided some extra space that must have been filled with something. And a team from iFixit has taken the phone apart in an attempt to find out what that is.
It appears that most of the extra space has been taken up by the improved taptic engine – the motor that allows for extra-precise vibrations, unlike those in a normal phone. That component serves an important purpose in the iPhone 7, because Apple removed the real home button and instead recreates the experience of having pressed one using that Taptic Engine.
One of those was found in the iPhone 6s, but it appears that Apple has bulked out the size of the new engine. As such it appears to be far bigger, able to shake the entire phone.
Some of the extra space does also appear to have been taken up by an expanded battery. Apple says that the phone can last for up to two hours longer than its predecessor, and is its longest-lasting phone ever – some of that is a result of more efficient components like a new chip, but extra battery capacity does appear to have been added.
The iPhone 7 Plus battery, for instance, has been upgraded from 2750mAh in the 6s Plus to 2900 mAh in the new one.
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