Apple announced the iPhone 17e earlier this month, and the device brings various improvements over its predecessor. iFixit has now conducted a teardown of the iPhone 17e, and it shows why it is interesting beyond the usual internal aspects of the device. According to the test, the most meaningful change is not the A19 chip, the new C1X modem, or even the extra storage, but the fact that Apple has finally added MagSafe after leaving it out of the iPhone 16e. This makes the budget iPhone feel far less compromised than before.
iPhone 17e Teardown Reveals MagSafe Upgrade, Improved Repair Design, And Why Apple Fixed Last Year’s Biggest Omission
According to iFixit’s teardown, the iPhone 17e is still very close to the iPhone 16e in terms of overall design, but Apple changed the back panel to support MagSafe and faster wireless charging. This alone gives buyers access to the accessory system that people actually expect on an iPhone now. Moreover, it also creates an upgrade path that is surprisingly practical for some iPhone 16e owners.
What’s interesting is that, according to the teardown, the MagSafe back glass assembly could potentially be transplanted to the older model with some extra work. We would not recommend you try it yourself, as there are a handful of complexities involved, and only a professional or specialized individual should put his hands on the project.
What this means is that Apple did not reinvent its budget iPhone lineup, but it did correct one of the biggest omissions from last year’s version. For a lower-cost iPhone, this kind of fix goes a long way, especially when the missing feature was never some niche extra and was instead part of the broader iPhone experience people had already gotten used to.
Apple’s Repair Strategy Also Looks Better Here Than You Might Expect
The teardown also highlights that Apple kept some of its more repair-friendly design choices. The company published day-one repair manuals for the iPhone 17e, both the front and the back panels can be opened, and the battery still uses electrically releasable adhesive to simplify removal.
Note that this does not suddenly make the iPhone 17e easy to repair for everyone, but it shows that Apple is at least keeping repairability moving in the right direction on its cheaper hardware. It makes perfect sense for the repairability to be easier, since it is a budget device, and only those would be getting it who cannot or would not like to spend extra on the standard or the Pro models.
With that said, iFixit also gave the iPhone 17e a 7 out of 10 repairability score, which is relatively strong for a modern smartphone and reinforces Apple’s gradual step toward making its devices easier to service.
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