Every two years, when Apple releases new iPhone generations, the redesigned phones are packed with new parts and features that help them stand out against older models.
Apple has taken a totally new direction with the new iPhone SE. It's a mashup of old, current, and brand new parts. It's basically a "Frankenphone."
Tech site Chipworks performed a teardown of the iPhone SE, and it said "this is not your typical Apple release," adding that "there are very few new parts."
Throughout the initial teardown of the iPhone SE, Chipworks revealed that, indeed, the iPhone SE is made up of parts from three different iPhone models, including the iPhone 5s, iPhone 6, and iPhone 6s. It also contains a few new parts of its own that Chipworks hasn't seen before.
From the iPhone 5s, the SE borrows the overall design, as well as the "touchscreen controller," which helps the iPhone make sense of your taps and swipes when you use the touchscreen.
The only part Chipworks found from the iPhone 6 was a modem and transceiver, which are both used to communicate and process radio signals for phone calls and data.
The majority of the parts that Chipworks encountered actually come from the iPhone 6s, including the A9 chip. We also know that the SE has the same 12-megapixel camera as the iPhone 6s. However, it should be noted that the front-facing FaceTime camera on the SE is not as good as the FaceTime camera on the iPhone 6s.
We can't say that we've ever seen an iPhone that borrows from so many older models as the iPhone SE. And yet, Apple's mix-and-match worked out well. Chipworks concluded that "it is the combination of all the right parts that make a successful product. Finding that just-right balance of old and new, and at such a low cost, is no easy feat."
Indeed, $450 for what is essentially a smaller version of the $650 iPhone 6s is pretty good value. It's also the cheapest iPhone Apple has made to date.
