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See inside the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus with new teardown

Intrepid wreckers have broken into the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus to reveal their secrets -- and found out how easily they smash.

Richard Trenholm Former Movie and TV Senior Editor
Richard Trenholm was CNET's film and TV editor, covering the big screen, small screen and streaming. A member of the Film Critic's Circle, he's covered technology and culture from London's tech scene to Europe's refugee camps to the Sundance film festival.
Expertise Films, TV, Movies, Television, Technology
Richard Trenholm
2 min read

ifixit-iphone6-teardown.jpg
iFixit

Some people just want to watch the world burn. And some people can't get their hands on a new piece of technology that costs a month's salary without wanting to immediately smash it. Fortunately, thanks to these intrepid wreckers, we get to find out what's inside the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus .

Repair site iFixit has performed its latest teardowns on the new iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus to explore the closely-guarded components inside Apple's latest smartphones. And Dave Rahimi of PhoneBuff, who flew from the US to Australia to be the first person in the world to buy an iPhone, performs a streetside drop test, sending both new phones crashing to the ground to see how they stand up to punishment.

Get to know the iPhone 6 (pictures)

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Apple's new smartphones go on sale today, with queues forming outside Apple Stores across the world. Measuring 4.7 and 5.5-inches respectively, the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus are the largest iPhones yet, but there are few other major differences compared to last year's iPhone 5S.

Given its larger size, the 6 Plus contains a larger 2,915 mAH battery -- almost twice that of the 5S and larger than the 6's 1,810 mAH power pack, although it does have that bigger screen to maintain.

Both devices are powered by Apple A8 APL1011 system-on-chip processor and M8 second-generation motion coprocessor, with a Qualcomm MDM9625M LTE modem connecting to 4G.

Both phones also contain NFC modules, manufactured by NXP. The NFC chip is, however, locked to Apple Pay -- which isn't available in some countries, including the UK -- so the iPhone won't be able to do the clever NFC stuff most Android phones are capable of.

Aside from the larger screen and battery, the 6 Plus is also distinguished by optical image stabilisation for the 8-megapixel camera.

Watch this: iPhone 6 vs. iPhone 6 Plus

Another interesting find is a new rubber gasket surrounding the volume and power buttons, which seem designed to protect the buttons from water and dust better than on older models.

Speaking of protection, it seems the larger devices are no tougher than previous iPhones -- take a look at the video below for the results.

Still, at least he meant to do that -- one of the first customers in Australia accidentally dropped his phone just minutes after buying it. On the bright side, we're pretty sure it's still in warranty.