Today it's time to take apart the new iPhone 12 Pro Max – Apple's latest and greatest,
most powerful iPhone. And also the largest iPhone that's ever been made,
with supposedly a new trick inside that we've never seen before. I kind of broke
the last iPhone I took apart, so cross your fingers this one survives. Let's get started.
[Intro]
So the iPhone 12 Pro Max is basically just a larger version of the iPhone 12 Pro.
With Apple releasing four new iPhones this year, it does get a little confusing.
All you really need to know though is that the Pro Max has a larger screen,
larger battery, and some slightly better cameras. Which is what we are after today. If you remember,
last time I was trying to remove the screen, I accidentally pried up underneath the glass,
instead of underneath the plastic frame, and broke the display. This time I'm making sure
to lift the screen up high enough that I can get underneath the plastic part of the
display with my pry tools. Since the screen is recessed, this is much harder than it looks.
The reason we want to check out the camera units inside of the Max is because Apple has engineered
a new form of image stabilization that we've never seen inside of a smartphone before. It's called
Sensor Shift, and can stabilize an image at over 5,000 times a second. So if this is true,
it's actually pretty huge, and a pretty big step forward in the mobile camera game.
As we can see, my screen is still working so far. Thumbs up for that. We're off to a good start.
There are 4 screws holding down a metal plate over the battery connector and screen ribbon.
Once that's off, I can unplug the battery like a little Lego and then move to the second metal
plate that covers the other ribbon connector. It also has 4 screws. Once that's removed I can
unplug the remaining screen ribbon and detach the display from the body. Not too shabby.
The cameras are all under this other metal plate, but first let's take out the battery.
Usually Apple's pull tabs are kind of fun.
But not so much this time around. All of the magical pull tabs keep on breaking.
But with a dab of isopropyl alcohol, the stickiness underneath the battery dissolves
and I can pry the battery out relatively easily. The alcohol is non-conductive and evaporates
pretty quickly so it doesn't hurt the electronics. But still, battery replacements could be easier.
Now we can see what the pull tabs are supposed to be doing if we could actually grip them.
As they stretch, theoretically, they lose their stickiness
and just pull right out from underneath the battery...just not this time around.
Now it's time to check out Apple's latest innovation in mobile camera technology.
I know we don't always use “Apple” and “innovative” in the same sentence,
but here we are, and it's actually pretty impressive.
So inside the 12 Pro Max, the top camera is the telephoto, which does have optical image
stabilization where the lens does the moving. He wide angle is off to the side with no OIS. And the
main sensor is at the bottom. And it looks like it does not have OIS, since the exterior lens is
not moving. But that's actually not the case. The main camera has that sensor shift that we
talked about earlier which is actually much better and much cooler than regular OIS. But
first let's grab the main camera lens out of the regular iPhone 12 Pro so that we can compare them.
The regular size 12 Pro has it's main sensor at the top instead of the bottom.
The telephoto and main sensor locations are reversed between the two phones.
But that's not super important. All of the cameras are very securely glued into a metal
housing so they can work seamlessly with one another when the phone switches camera
perspectives. Popping the camera module out from the housing is difficult but still possible.
Remember, we're still working with the normal iPhone 12 Pro at this point, not the Max just yet.
Once the main camera is out, I can start opening up the camera module. This kills the module,
but if phone carnage made you queasy, you probably wouldn't be subscribed like you are right now.
I can break open and peel away the metal housing surrounding the camera lens and the camera sensor.
You can see that the camera lens floats over the top of the sensor
like a hoverboard from Back to the Future. The top lens is wiggling to compensate for
and stabilize the shakes that happen to the phone while you're taking a picture
or a video. This type of OIS can stabilize at about 1,000x a second, which is impressive,
but not quite as impressive as what's inside of the Max. Taking a look at both camera housings,
we can see that the iPhone 12 Pro Max is indeed quite a bit larger than the iPhone 12 Pro.
Optical image stabilization has been a big deal for flagship smartphones for the past few years.
However, professional real size cameras like this GH5 sometimes have a type of
stabilization that is called Sensor Shift. It's an internal stabilization method that
moves the sensor itself to stabilize the image instead of moving the exterior lens.
It's much faster since it happens right at the picture collection point – the sensor.
This technology has only been found in DSLRs until now.
Apple says they've included this Sensor Shift technology on the iPhone 12 Pro Max.
It's on the largest sensor of the grouping, and it's just as difficult to get inside of as the
regular iPhone 12 Pro. But pretty much anything is possible with the razor blade. I'm actually pretty
excited to get inside of this one. Seeing brand new technology from the inside is why we're here.
Once the back metal is off, we get our first look at the bottom side of the camera sensor.
And it is indeed shifting, moving around inside of the housing while the exterior lens stays in
the same spot. It looks like Apple has indeed done it. They've done something new. I'll pop
the camera lens off so we can see how it works. Apple says that instead of the normal 1,000
adjustments per second that we see with regular OIS, this new Sensor Shift method can stabilize up
to 5,000 times per second, which is a pretty big deal, and means we get quite a bit more accuracy.
The camera lens portion of the housing has several large magnets. And when I say large,
I mean the size of an ant, but still proportional to the camera it's pretty big. These magnets sit
on top of tiny coils that can ever so slightly shift the position of that sensor. The sensor
shifts around inside of its housing just like we saw on the professional camera. And at 5,000
times a second, it happens pretty fast. Of course the sensor of the Max is a tiny bit
larger than the iPhone 12 Pro, which we can see now that they are side by side. This means that
the larger sensor on the Max can absorb a tiny bit more light which is a good thing. The pixel
size themselves are also a 0.3 micrometers larger on the Max than they are on the regular. I'll let
other reviewers be the judge of the actual camera image quality. But if you want the best of the
subtle camera improvements, the iPhone 12 Pro Max is where Apple has put everything they've got.
I'll get the phone reassembled to make sure I don't break it this time around...well,
break the important parts. You know what I mean. The phone should still work without the
rear camera modules installed. Once the battery is plugged in and the metal plates are back in place,
the phone does indeed turn back on, which is a good thing.
Breaking two iPhones in a row would have been kind of embarrassing. With the cameras missing, the
camera app does still open up, but just doesn't find anything to show us. Kind of interesting.
If you think it's fun to see the insides of high-tech technology,
but also enjoy things like water resistance, warranties, and your phone still working,
you might like my Teardown Skin. It's an exact representation of what's inside of your smartphone
while keeping all the important bits covered. I'll have to update the Sensor Shift portion around the
camera lens because it looks pretty cool. But yeah. I'll put a link for the Teardown Skin
down in the video description. We're covering more than 60 devices now, so we probably have one for
whatever phone you're using. If you're curious about the large wireless charging coil, or the
ring of magnets, you can check out my full iPhone 12 Pro teardown video where I explain all of that.
I'll leave a link for that in the description as well. I think Apple's done a good job this year.
Let me know what you think of the Sensor Shift technology down in the comments. And
come hang out with me on Instagram and Twitter. Thanks a ton for watching. I'll see you around.