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Video Overview

This teardown is not a repair guide. To repair your iPhone 12 Pro Max, use our service manual.

  1. iPhone 12 Pro Max Teardown, iPhone 12 Pro Max Teardown: step 1, image 1 of 1
    • Once more unto the breach! Here are the stats on this final iPhone boss:

    • A14 Bionic SoC with fourth-generation Neural Engine

    • 6.7 inch (2778 x 1284 pixels) Super Retina XDR OLED display with P3 wide color gamut and True Tone

    • 12 MP triple camera system with wide angle ƒ/1.6 (OIS), ultra-wide angle ƒ/2.4, and telephoto ƒ/2.2 (OIS) cameras, with a LiDAR module

    • 6 GB of RAM and 128 GB of storage (256 and 512 GB configs available)

    • 5G (sub-6 GHz and mmWave connectivity), plus 4x4 MIMO LTE, 802.11ax Wi-Fi 6, ultra-wide band (UWB), NFC, and Bluetooth 5.0

    • MagSafe 15 watt wireless charging

    • IP68 rating, water resistant to a maximum depth of 6 meters for up to 30 minutes under IEC standard 60529

    I like the previous tear down woman technician. She was a pro! I already forgot the name of this one. I understand she is not a teardown expert but she could’ve at the very least do a better job… with her hands

    ziayoung - Reply

  2. iPhone 12 Pro Max Teardown: step 2, image 1 of 3 iPhone 12 Pro Max Teardown: step 2, image 2 of 3 iPhone 12 Pro Max Teardown: step 2, image 3 of 3
    • In case you haven't heard, square is the new round... again.

    • Sorry to break it to you, but size does matter—at least when it comes to camera sensors. To achieve their alleged 87% improvement in low-light performance, the 12 Pro Max uses the biggest sensor in an iPhone yet. But before we nerd out on cameras, let's compare iPhones to iPhones:

    • Making our way around the iPhone clock, we've got a green iPhone 11 Pro Max, a gold iPhone 12 Pro, and a blue iPhone 12 Pro Max.

    • If big things are your thing, the iPhone 12 Pro Max delivers. Everything is bigger—even the camera bump.

  3. iPhone 12 Pro Max Teardown: step 3, image 1 of 3 iPhone 12 Pro Max Teardown: step 3, image 2 of 3 iPhone 12 Pro Max Teardown: step 3, image 3 of 3
    • Friends don’t let friends tear down devices without an X-ray blueprint. Lucky for us, we’re BFFs with the fine folks at Creative Electron who supply us with endless X-rays.

    • The basics of this iPhone look about the same as the rest of the 12 family, but the dark steel frame is Pro-only. Also, that MagSafe ring that didn't even fit in the 12 mini looks positively dinky in this Max.

    • One item we're especially interested to see: the wider L-shaped battery—especially because we were bummed by the boring rectangle in the Pro. The Max alone holds onto an L, but, hey, other iPhones? You're still a W in your own special way.

  4. iPhone 12 Pro Max Teardown: step 4, image 1 of 3 iPhone 12 Pro Max Teardown: step 4, image 2 of 3 iPhone 12 Pro Max Teardown: step 4, image 3 of 3
    • A standard-issue heat and and iSclack application persuades this big Pro Max to let its guard down and share some secrets.

    • Like the other iPhones 12, the Pro Max opens just like a book: to the left, and with a good story inside.

    • Sure, it's not exactly like a book, but you get the point. With a little help from our guides, anyone can fix their iPhone.

    • But, iFixit, what if I don't need to fix my iPhone and I just want to stare at its gorgeous guts? We've got you covered with these nifty Pro Max wallpapers.

  5. iPhone 12 Pro Max Teardown: step 5, image 1 of 3 iPhone 12 Pro Max Teardown: step 5, image 2 of 3 iPhone 12 Pro Max Teardown: step 5, image 3 of 3
    • No time for frivolity today, we've got places to go and other teardowns to attend to. We head straight for the headline Pro Max feature: the new cameras.

    • The standard wide camera (bottom left in the group of three) is the source of all the 12 Pro Max chatter. It's reportedly housing a 47% larger sensor, allowing it to gather more light and thus, better photos.

    • With X-ray vision, we see that the standard wide's sensor is definitely bigger. We can also clearly see the four magnets surrounding it—telltale signs of Apple's brand-new sensor-shift image stabilization system.

    • If you're more interested in the LIDAR capabilities, check out this video explainer.

  6. iPhone 12 Pro Max Teardown: step 6, image 1 of 2 iPhone 12 Pro Max Teardown: step 6, image 2 of 2
    • Unmasked, the iPhone 12 Pro Max's primary (wide-angle) sensor is... large. Not unlike the phone it lives in.

    • Sometimes we're skeptical when a "Pro" feature only makes it into a larger, more expensive model. But there's a decent chance this sensor wouldn't fit in the cramped corner of the smaller iPhone 12 Pro without compromises.

    • This sensor dwarfs the iPhone 12's. It's 47% larger but with the same 12 MP resolution, so each pixel is larger and captures more light.

    • This sensor also has that other trick up its sleeve: sensor-shift image stabilization.

    • That's a technology many modern DSLR and mirrorless cameras use. When your hands shake, there are two main ways to stabilize the image: you can move the lens, or you can move the sensor.

    • Most smartphones that tout image stabilization use lens-based optical image stabilization (OIS) to smooth out jitters. Many internet battles have been fought over which stabilization technique works best in professional cameras.

    • Since Apple went out of their way to bring sensor-shift to the iPhone, either they think that's the way to go, or perhaps they just couldn't adequately stabilize the larger version of their new f/1.6 lens.

    Dear iFixit, did you measure exact sizes of primary sensors in 12 Pro Max and 12 Pro? I wonder what the numbers actually are…

    Wojtek Traczyk - Reply

  7. iPhone 12 Pro Max Teardown: step 7, image 1 of 3 iPhone 12 Pro Max Teardown: step 7, image 2 of 3 iPhone 12 Pro Max Teardown: step 7, image 3 of 3
    Tool used on this step:
    Minnow Driver Kit
    $14.95
    Buy
    • The loudspeaker and Taptic Engine are a snap to remove with the help of our hyper-pocketable Minnow Driver Kit.

    • If you've got a keen eye and would like your own personal Minnow, enter our giveaway here and tell us which two steps in this teardown contain a photo shot on an iPhone with the Halide camera app.

    • The Max Taptic Engine sports a little black plastic sidecar. What for, you ask? It could help support the display, or maybe it's an extra battery bumper. Either way, it's unusual to find anything in an iPhone that seemingly just fills "unused" space—but not unprecedented.

    • Apple’s engineers seem satisfied enough with the battery capacity to give the Taptic Engine and speaker more room to boom. Compared to the mini, these bits are maxssive.

    I think the reason they included the bumper for the battery is because the L shaped batteries have the controller board on a different side so it needs something to help cushion it just like on all the models with L shaped batteries

    Judah Singh - Reply

  8. iPhone 12 Pro Max Teardown: step 8, image 1 of 3 iPhone 12 Pro Max Teardown: step 8, image 2 of 3 iPhone 12 Pro Max Teardown: step 8, image 3 of 3
    • With those lower components conquered, we have the perfect angle of attack for those stretch-release battery adhesive tabs.

    • Don’t let that “L” deceive you—the Max has the winning battery out of all the iPhones 12, not just in power, but in technology. X-ray vision shows that the Max’s battery pack isn’t quite full to the brim, but it's darn close—and the high-tech shape allows it to turn the corner on capacity.

    • The Max power source weighs in at 14.13 Wh, tipping the scales against the 8.57 Wh mini battery and the 10.78 Wh 12 and 12 Pro.

    • This is a slight step down from the 15.04 Wh pack in the iPhone 11 Pro Max, and it definitely falls behind the Galaxy Note 20 and 20 Ultra (16.69 Wh and 17.46 Wh respectively).

  9. iPhone 12 Pro Max Teardown: step 9, image 1 of 3 iPhone 12 Pro Max Teardown: step 9, image 2 of 3 iPhone 12 Pro Max Teardown: step 9, image 3 of 3
    • With the Pro Max's logic board extracted, we're tempted to say it might be even more compact than the one in the iPhone 12 mini (bottom)—but, the mini's integrated SIM reader also leaves it at an unfair disadvantage.

    • The 12 Pro Max benefits from a detached, modular SIM reader like in the 12 and 12 Pro—which also happens to be a bit more repair-friendly.

    • Here's a quick X-ray view of the board before we slice it open. We'll have to take it one layer at a time, but it's neat to see them all at once. It's an amazingly intricate city of silicon driving these iPhones.

  10. iPhone 12 Pro Max Teardown: step 10, image 1 of 3 iPhone 12 Pro Max Teardown: step 10, image 2 of 3 iPhone 12 Pro Max Teardown: step 10, image 3 of 3
    • Fair warning, there were some minor casualties in today's board delamination. A little slip of the knife at 300° C is all it took to smear some of these chips right off the board. We blame our robot intern. Here are some of the bits he managed to salvage:

    • 128 GB of Kioxia NAND flash memory

    • STMicroelectronics STB601A power management IC

    • Qualcomm's SDR865 5G and LTE transceiver, SDX55M 5G modem-RF system, and SMR526 intermediate frequency IC

    • USI 339S00761 WLAN / Bluetooth module

    • Avago 8200 high/mid-band power amplifier with integrated duplexer

    • Murata 1XR-482 mmWave front-end module

    • Looking for that sweet, sweet A14 chip with 6 GB of layered memory? Keep reading for a detailed look at the rest of the board.

    So where is the A14 processor ?

    Sharp Rast - Reply

    I added it in another step; once they approve, you should be able to see it, or you can click on the ‘unverified version’ at the top of this guide to see it now. I left space in steps just in case I can add more stuff in them.

    CChin -

    It seems missing something….

    xiajinggai - Reply

  11. iPhone 12 Pro Max Teardown: step 11, image 1 of 1
    • Let's get to that A14 straight away—and some of the chips around it.

    • Apple A14 SoC layered over 6 GB of Samsung K3UHCHC0MM-VGCL RAM

    • Apple 343S00437 power management IC

    • Possibly an STMicroelectronics wireless power receiver

    • Possibly an Apple/Cirrus Logic audio codec

    • Apple 338S00564-B0 power management IC

    • Apple/Cirrus Logic 338S00537 mono audio amplifier

    • Apple 338S00616, likely a display power management IC

  12. iPhone 12 Pro Max Teardown: step 12, image 1 of 1
    • And a few more chips on the same side:

    • Possibly a Bosch Sensortec accelerometer

    • NXP Semiconductor CBTL1614A1 display port multiplexer

    • Possibly a Maxim Integrated MAX8559 300 mA LDO regulator

    • Apple/USI U1 ultra-wideband chip

    • Texas Instruments LM3562A1, probably an LED driver

  13. iPhone 12 Pro Max Teardown: step 13, image 1 of 1
    • And finally, let's take another look at the storage side of the board:

    • Texas Instruments SN2611A0 battery charger

    • Broadcom BCM15960A0, likely Wi-Fi / Bluetooth SoC

    • Texas Instruments TPS68836 display power management

    • Apple/Cirrus Logic 338S00537 audio amplifier

    • Texas Instruments SN61280 battery DC-DC converter

  14. iPhone 12 Pro Max Teardown: step 14, image 1 of 1
    • Thanks to viewers like you, we did it! This season's fourth and final iPhone has been laid to rest in pieces. The only thing left to do? Load up some sweet teardown wallpapers.

    • The Pro Max is arguably Apple's finest iPhone-related achievement this year, adding some pretty demanding 5G tech with no obvious compromises to other components.

    • We're pleased to see this iPhone retain its high-tech L-shaped battery. Here's hoping those make a stronger comeback in the whole iPhone lineup next year—bigger batteries generally need fewer replacements over their lifetimes. (They're also just really cool.)

    • PS: We're pretty impressed with the new camera's capabilities—If you didn't already guess, the two images we shot on iPhone are here and here. Congrats to our lucky prizewinners who guessed correctly!

    • Oh by the way, our iPhone 12 Pro Max thankfully gave us no trouble in our camera repair tests—unlike the standard iPhone 12. Let's hope those bugs were just a fluke.

    Hi…. Thanks for the teardown. I’m curious, what are the hundreds/thousands of small silver ‘dots’s in a dual layer, that surround the outside perimeter of the logic board?

    Steve - Reply

    Hi Steve!

    Those dots are contact points which electrically connect the two boards together through the perimeter wall. They are basically built-in inter-board cables. Some act as grounding pins, while others carry data/power. This tech was first seen on the iPhone X and allows manufacturers to sandwich multiple populated boards together.

    Arthur Shi -

    Hi,

    Thanks for the complete teardown. What is the name of the part displayed in the image in Step 14 (first one from the top left corner). This part is pasted to the top left corner of the phone's back housing. Also can you let me know where can I buy that part.

    Suresh Kandanathan - Reply

  15. Final Thoughts
    • Screen and battery remain prioritized and reasonably accessible for replacement.
    • Most components are fairly modular and replaceable.
    • Some uncommon screws complicate all repairs, but reusable fasteners are preferred over adhesives.
    • Waterproofing helps reduce the frequency of some repairs while complicating others.
    • The glass back makes drops even more dangerous and requires a full case replacement if it breaks.
    Repairability Score
    6
    Repairability 6 out of 10
    (10 is easiest to repair)

Taylor Dixon

Member since: 06/26/18

66,782 Reputation

94 Guides authored

16 Comments

Adhesive pull tabs are wonderful. I wonder why Apple won’t use them on their Macbooks (and why more electronics designers aren’t using them as well). They’re low-cost, very convenient, take up very little space, and are satisfying to pull.

Ethan Zuo - Reply

Can’t help thinking could you retrofit a USBC port instead of lightning ?

gronager - Reply

The lightning port is probably pair the the phone like all the rest of the components.

Crystal Haugh -

i have no idea what i was typing here lmao

Crystal Haugh -

Tristan, I’ve seen plenty of port replacement videos, as far as I know, it is not paired.

As to if a USB-C port would work, or if Apple only enables it on iPadOS, I don’t know.

jjb0894 -

Would it be possible to get a closer look at the back of the camera sensor, or more importantly, how the cables connect the sensor shifting mechanism to the base frame? It’s quite possibly the one of the most interesting engineering problems in it and I can’t seem to figure out how it works from the photo above - would anyone be able to explain or share more detailed images of this mechanism?

Thanks!

Larry Qian - Reply

I would recommend the changing the repair score to like, a 1, because yeah you can replace the components, but it doesn’t restore full functionality. for example, if you replace the cameras, the phones disables 2 of them, if you replace the screen, you cant get true tone, and if you replace the battery, the phone will say the battery needs to be serviced and wont show you the battery health. And did i mention Face ID is paired like Touch ID? Apple has removed repair from this phone all together.

Crystal Haugh - Reply

oh $@$* i wrote this? i think the camera issue was a bug on the 12 and 12 pro, im pretty sure its fixed now lmao

Crystal Haugh -

Does anyone know the µm pixel size of the Ultra Wide camera?

Ameer Ali Ouarda - Reply

You don’t need a full case replacement to fix the back

jackhp39 - Reply

is it possible to do a teardown

for the camera modules of iphone 12 pro max ….both front and back

hari sharan - Reply

for my study purpose i need it .

hari sharan - Reply

Please not that this phone is completely unrepairable by anyone except Apple!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FY7DtKMB...

Luzius Jegher - Reply

I want to order all parts for iPhone

Malaha - Reply

Fake news, this guide is missing a part soldered to the logic board

Ender - Reply

What is the name of the part listed in step 14 image (first one from the top left corner). This part is basically pasted to the back of the phone's housing. Also can you let me know where can I buy it?

Suresh Kandanathan - Reply

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