bigger battery, bigger Taptic Engine and slimmer case.
As the repair company has become customary iFixit has taken over the new Apple Watch Series 6, presented alongside the Apple Watch SE, and has completely disassembled it. In the process they have discovered interesting novelties of this watch, such as the size of the battery and the haptic motor, as well as the thickness of the case.
Component simplification and improvement
The model that iFixit has disassembled is the 44-millimeter Apple Watch Series 6 with LTE connection. The changes begin with the same way of mounting and dismounting the device, since now the watch opens to the side. This system is also notably easier thanks to the fact that it does not include the dedicated Force Touch layer.
In the case of 44mm model the battery has increased to 1.17Wh, which represents an improvement of 3.5% compared to the Apple Watch Series 5. The change in the case of the 40mm model is even greater, with a 1,024 Wh battery representing an increase in capacity of 8.5%. As stated on the repair website, the Apple Watch thus progressively recovers the battery capacity that was lowered between the Series 3 and Series 4.
The screen of the Apple Watch Series 6 has also undergone a slight redesign, especially focused on a simplification of the wiring that connects it to the rest of the components. In addition, this new model accommodates a larger Taptic Engine, which seems to indicate more precision when emitting haptic responses as well as more force, so we should notice more clearly the alerts on our wrist.
For the internal components iFixit has discovered some new integrated circuits in the SoP (System on a Package), as well as the inclusion of a Skyworks brand chip number 239.7. According to the company, none of these chips appear to be the U1 whose presence was confirmed by Apple itself during the keynote.
On the whole the Apple Watch Series 6 is slightly thinner, flatter, mainly due to the redesign of the case as well as the removal of the Force Touch component. The same iFixit recognizes that it is “impressive” that Apple has been able to fit more battery and the new Taptic Engine in this Apple Watch.
They keep polishing this thing to a higher and higher shine and they are very crafty as they don’t tell you anything about this. They keep all the focus on the coolest health features.
It is clear that there is a lot, a lot of technology inside an Apple Watch and that with the simplicity and naturalness with which Apple presents its devices, it is easy to lose sight of the enormous engineering work behind it. Really fitting all the components into an increasingly light and small structure requires a lot of dedication, as Craig Federighi already commented in the last keynote “now it is very easy for us to take technology for granted”, but what is inside an Apple Watch is really impressive.
Images | iFixit
