HOW IT WORKS
The iPhone plateau
Discover what’s in the big bump introduced at Apple’s ‘Awe Dropping’ event
Apple says the internal structure with the plateau up top ensures there’s lots of room for the battery.
Image credit: Apple Inc
YOU WILL LEARN
How the plateau makes a difference to the iPhone’s functionality as well as its looks
Key fact
According to iFixit, which tears down technology to discover how repairable it is, the iPhone Air’s plateau makes it easier to replace parts by enabling most of the components to be placed towards the top of the device. Most notably, the plateau enables the battery to dominate the centre.
This makes the battery especially simple to access and remove.
When Apple unveiled the iPhone Air, it proudly declared it the thinnest handset the company had ever built.
Measuring just 5.64mm, it shaved more than a millimetre off the iPhone 6’s slim 6.9mm profile yet look at it from the side and you’ll spot an anomaly. At the top of the iPhone Air is a so-called ‘plateau’ – a posh-sounding name for what is essentially a bump. It’s the thickest point of the device, boosting its thickness to 11.32mm, almost double that of the rest of the phone.