A breakdown of Apple’s new iPhone XS and iPhone XS Max has revealed new and more powerful components made in China and Taiwan has found their way into the smartphone giant’s models.
A stark increase than in previous models, the finding comes in addition to Apple’s supply chain already being occupied by Chinese companies such as Huizhou Desay Battery and Sunwoda Electronic. The firms produce key components such as batteries.
Shanghai-based Universal Scientific Industrial, world’s biggest chip packaging and testing company, has replaced Japan’s Murata Manufacturing in providing Wi-Fi/Bluetooth modules.
The study has also revealed that tech present in the nearly identical iPhone XS and iPhone XS Max has not advanced significantly from last year.
Apart from that the phones have better and more powerful microprocessor and batteries. The supplier, Huizhou Desay Battery, also makes battery modules for Huawei, Oppo, Vivo smartphones and consumer gadgets like Xiaomi MiJia robot vacuum cleaners.
The teardowns, performed at hardware co-working space DMM.make AKIBA, revealed far more structural similarities than differences between the XS and XS Max. Looking more deeply inside, the new iPhones’ logic board connectors all sit in one area of the board as was the case with last year’s iPhone X. The battery is also attached to the frame with adhesive strips, a familiar Apple approach.
The XS also contains a USB charging integrated circuit supplied by Dutch maker NXP Semiconductors. Its flash memory and the USB charging IC are the same as those used in the iPhone X and iPhone 8.
Even more components were found between the two halves. Last year’s iPhone X and its replacements all use a Broadcom power amplifier module.
But the biggest change from the iPhone X concerning the motherboard is the adoption of Intel products for three kinds of integrated circuits for mobile communications, replacing Qualcomm chips.
Qualcomm’s CFO confirmed in an earnings call that this year’s new iPhone range only uses Intel’s modem chips.
But Apple has a habit of dual sourcing certain components. One day, these chips could be dual sourced as well.