Inside Every iPhone: a visual archive of 19 years of Apple teardowns
A new interactive archive called Inside Every iPhone puts nineteen years of Apple smartphone internals on a single scrollable page. Built by Akash Wadhwani of data consultancy The Data Drop and launched in April 2026, the site covers one iPhone per year from the original 2007 model through the iPhone 17, plus key variants including the 5c, SE, 12 mini, 15 Pro Max, and Air. For anyone curious about what Apple actually puts inside its phones — and how radically that has changed — it's a useful free resource.
The look
The site uses a vertical scroll layout. Each entry includes internal teardown photos and a full spec sheet: processor, display, camera hardware, and main board layout. You can trace, year by year, how the components filling that aluminum and glass enclosure have shifted from widely available third-party parts to Apple-designed silicon.
That shift is the real story here. Early iPhones ran on chips sourced from Samsung and used displays and cameras sourced from established suppliers. Later models replaced almost every critical component with something Apple either designed itself or tightly controls — the A-series chips, custom image signal processors, proprietary sensors. The archive makes that transition visible in a way a spec list alone never could.
The vertical scroll interface lets you compare internal components across 19 years of iPhone hardware.
Why it matters now
The timing connects to a live debate. iFixit awarded the iPhone 16 a repairability score of 7 out of 10 — the highest in years — but earlier Pro models locked components like LiDAR scanners to the specific device, blocking third-party replacement. Right-to-repair advocates including iFixit and JerryRigEverything have documented these design decisions; Inside Every iPhone adds a 19-year visual chronology to that argument.
Daring Fireball flagged the project as "lovely data work," and it's hard to disagree. Wadhwani doesn't speculate about margins or supply contracts — the archive just shows you the parts, year by year, and lets you draw conclusions.
What's next
New iPhone 17 models are expected in September 2026. Wadhwani has indicated the site will update when fresh teardown data becomes available, so the archive should keep pace with each new release.