iPhone SE 2020 iFixit Teardown Reveals iPhone 8 Interchangeable Parts
Apple once struck gold with the iPhone SE which did more than just offer a throwback to a design long gone. It gave smartphone users an affordable iPhone that mixed old design with new components. Apple is seemingly striking gold a second time with the iPhone SE 2020 for the very same reason but iFixit's preliminary teardown reveals there is more to the iPhone 8 look-alike that makes it even more unique and more desirable for iPhone fans.
Calling the new iPhone SE as an iPhone 8 with iPhone 11 guts is a gross oversimplification. It gives the impression that Apple simply put nearly the same iPhone 11 stuff inside an iPhone 8 case, which is only correct in one or two senses. The iPhone SE 2020 actually shares quite a few common parts with the iPhone 8 and that's actually a great thing.
iFixit's first look inside the new iPhone SE and saw some familiar parts that could actually be swapped with iPhone 8 spares. Those include the cameras themselves (with some caveats), the SIM tray, the Taptic Engine, and, perhaps most surprisingly, the display assembly. The latter does come with the limitation that replacing the screen unofficially also means losing the True Tone feature.
Not everything can be swapped with iPhone 8 parts, of course. For security reasons, the Touch ID home button cannot be replaced with a spare from third-party services. A bit disappointing, though, is the battery which is the same capacity as the iPhone 8 but uses iPhone 11 connectors. You can't even replace an iPhone SE 2020 battery with a genuine iPhone SE 2020 battery without triggering a warning.
The iPhone SE 2020's swapping trick with the iPhone 8 definitely goes a long way to ensure the smartphone's repairability and appeal to budget-conscious consumers. Exactly the kind that this phone was made for. Of course, it mostly depends on how much spare iPhone 8 parts are still available but while those might eventually run out, it seems that supplies are still stable at the moment.