If you’ve ever watched a teardown video of one of the best iPhones, you know how carefully Apple’s devices are designed, and how many components the tech giant manages to cram into the smartphones’ slim frames.
Well, the iPhone’s interior could get even busier in 2025, as Apple is reportedly working on a thinner and lighter motherboard that would allow it to pack that year’s iPhone 17 with even more components and potentially improve battery life. can extend.
That’s according to Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, who has a strong track record in Apple predictions. Writing on MediumKuo claimed that Apple would use a material called RCC, or resin-coated copper. This “can reduce the thickness of the motherboard,” says Kuo, “and make the drilling process easier because it does not contain fiberglass.”
However, this new material will not appear in the 2024 iPhone 16, Kuo believes, due to “its fragile properties and inability to withstand drop tests.” That sounds like there’s still a lot of work to be done.
It’s about the inside
Let’s face it: many of us iPhone users are quite adept at messing with our devices and sending them into an unwanted confrontation with the ground. That’s why Apple has beefed up the iPhone in an attempt to save it from destruction, with additions like the Ceramic Shield designed to prevent accidents caused by careless butterfingers.
With that in mind, if RCC isn’t yet strong enough to pass the drop test, there’s no way it’ll end up in future iPhones until Apple strengthens it enough. Still, it seems like Apple isn’t far off from that, considering Kuo thinks it could debut on the iPhone 17 within two years.
In any case, Kuo believes that Apple should perfect its RCC motherboards before the third quarter of 2024, after which it will put the finishing touches on next year’s iPhone.
If Apple can indeed make RCC motherboards strong enough, Apple could add all kinds of features that the iPhone simply doesn’t have the internal space for right now. That could potentially lead to a plethora of exciting new features in the iPhone 17. We’ll wait and see what happens.