iPhone 8 Still Packs Q’Comm, NXP

　　Apple continues to use a mix of Qualcomm and Intel LTE modems in its iPhone 8,according to early teardown reports.Broadcom gained an expected design win for a wireless charging chip,NXP hung on to its socket for near-field communications(NFC),and one analyst said that Skyworks may have slightly increased its content in the handset.

　　Overall,the iPhone 8 is an incremental step for Apple.The$999 iPhone X,which represents a bigger leap,will not ship until November.At press time,TechInsights was still working on a teardown of an iPhone 8 Plus and an Apple Watch 3.

　　A representative from TechInsights said,“The iPhone 8 Plus A1897 model[that]we purchased is an Intel-based phone.We see Intel’s Baseband Processor(Modem)PMB9948.We suspect that this is the Intel XMM7480 modem.”It is expected to publish its resultsonline herein the next day or so.

　　TechInsights helped identify chips iniFixit’s teardown of an iPhone 8purchased in Australia.They included on the front side of the L-shaped motherboard:

• An Apple 339S00434 A11 Bionic SoC stacked with an SK Hynix H9HKNNNBRMMUUR 2-GB LPDDR4 RAM

• A Qualcomm MDM9655 Snapdragon X16 LTE modem

• A Skyworks SkyOne SKY78140

• An Avago 8072JD130

• A P215 730N71T believed to be an envelope tracking IC

• A Skyworks 77366-17 quad-band GSM power amplifier module

• An NXP 80V18 secure NFC module

• And on the card’s backside:

• A Wi-Fi/Bluetooth/FM radio module marked Apple/USI 170804 339S00397

• A chip marked Apple 338S00248,338S00309 PMIC,and S3830028

• A Toshiba TSBL227VC3759 64-GB NAND flash

• A Qualcomm WTR5975 Gigabit LTE RF transceiver and PMD9655 PMIC

• A Broadcom 59355 believed to be a wireless charging IC

• A NXP 1612A1 assumed to be an upgrade of its 1610 Tristar IC

• A Skyworks 3760 3576 1732 RF Switch and SKY762-21 247296 1734 RF Switch

　　Apple was expected to continue to ship separate versions of its handsets using Qualcomm and Intel cellular modems in different geographies despiteongoing legal battleswith Qualcomm over basebands and patents.TechInsightsand othershad speculated that STMicroelectronics was in the running for the NFC slots traditionally held by NXP.

　　Romit Shah,a financial analyst with Nomura Instanet,released a report saying that Skyworks may have exceeded his estimate of$7.07 content per handset in the iPhone 8.The teardown showed“what we believe to be an additional Skyworks component sitting near the Qualcomm transceiver”as well as what he believed is a SkyOne Ultra 3.0 power amp,an upgraded version of the device used in the iPhone 7.

　　The teardown showed that Broadcom won the socket for wireless charging as expected.However,it did not show the amount of Broadcom content in a connectivity module or details of a separate Avago device that Shah believed“contains high-/mid-band filters,multi/hexaplexer,and a power amplifier in addition to an external multiplexer.”

　　TechInsights typically burrows into the details of the modules and chips in its teardowns.However,its de-capping and inspection processes require more time and are not always immediately made public.

　　Overall,the iFixit teardown showed that the iPhone 8 was a relatively minor upgrade,with its advances sometimes attributed more to software than hardware.

　　For example,the iPhone 8 included a 3.82-V,1,821-mAh battery expected to deliver up to 6.96 Wh of power,down from the 7.45 Wh battery in the iPhone 7.But Apple claims that battery life will be comparable to last year’s unit.

　　The iPhone 8 has the same?/1.8,six-element lens on the iPhone 7 with the same 12-Mpixel resolution.However,the new sensor is larger.“This means[that]the individual pixels are larger—letting in more light,improving colors,and decreasing noise…and the handset sports improved imaging software,”said iFixit.

　　The new model used the same 4.7-inch IPS multitouch Retina HD display with 1,334×750(326 ppi)resolution as the former handset.However,Apple claims that the display sports advances thanks to its True Tone technology.

　　Overall,iFixit gave the handset a six out of 10 score for repair-ability.

　　“The durability of the glass back remains to be seen—but replacements are likely to be very difficult…the iPhone’s lower components,once readily removed,now lie trapped under a fussy combination of brackets and delicately folded flex cables,”it said.