iFixit published a complete teardown of the iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max in both written and video formats. The work records battery capacities of 4,288 mAh in the Pro and 5,567 mAh in the Pro Max, along with the variable aperture assembly, the expanded vapor chamber, and the dual-layer NAND placement. These measurements come directly from the disassembled units and confirm the shift in internal priorities compared with the prior generation.
Context
The iPhone 17 Pro carried a 4,252 mAh cell and the iPhone 17 Pro Max carried a 5,088 mAh cell. The new capacities mark increases of 0.8 percent and 9.4 percent respectively. eSIM-only units continue to ship in the United States, Canada, Mexico, Japan, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Oman, Bahrain, and Kuwait, while every other market retains a physical SIM tray. The teardown therefore documents both the incremental battery growth and the unchanged regional hardware split that first appeared in earlier models.
Details
The article and video isolate the variable aperture mechanism on both phones. The aperture blades sit directly above the primary camera sensor, and the teardown shows the actuator hardware that moves them. The vapor chamber occupies a larger share of the internal volume than before and rests against the processor and modem. NAND storage now mounts in a dual-layer stack above the main logic board rather than in a single plane.
Battery extraction follows the same adhesive-strip method used on previous models. Once the strips are removed, the cells lift out without further disassembly of the logic board or camera array. The video records each step in sequence and verifies that the added cooling hardware does not change the order of operations for battery or board replacement.
The source material notes that the eSIM-only configuration remains limited to the ten listed markets. Devices sold elsewhere include the SIM tray in the same physical location as prior generations, so service procedures for those units stay identical to earlier repairs.
Why it matters
The battery increase stays modest on the standard Pro yet reaches nearly ten percent on the Pro Max. Users who keep devices for several years will notice the difference in daily runtime on the larger model more than on the smaller one. The enlarged vapor chamber and relocated NAND show that Apple allocated extra space to thermal headroom and storage density rather than to further battery growth on the standard variant.
Repair technicians now have documented guidance on the new aperture assembly and the cooling component. That information reduces trial-and-error during part swaps. Markets that receive the SIM tray see no procedural change, while eSIM-only regions continue without tray-related hardware. The teardown therefore supplies concrete data that repair shops and long-term owners can use for maintenance planning instead of performance speculation.
The measured internal changes remain incremental. They reflect steady refinement of existing layouts rather than a redesign of the repair process itself.
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