Teardowns show iPhone 6s is more waterproof -- and get iFixit app pulled from the App Store

For the curious-minded, iFixit is an essential resource. The hardware teardowns on the site have become legendary, revealing the innards of the latest and greatest phones and tablets better than anyone else. Two recent iFixit teardowns have had interesting results.

Following the release of the iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus, analysis of the internals suggested that the handsets would be more waterproof than previous models -- not something Apple has shouted about. But the outcome of the Apple TV and Siri Remote teardowns were rather less pleasing for the site: they resulted in the iFixit app being pulled from the App Store. By Apple.

It goes without saying that ripping apart a phone or tablet will invalidate its warranty -- but if you want to do it, that's entirely up to you. When it comes to dismantling developer preview hardware, however, it's a slightly different story. In taking apart preview developer models of the Siri Remote and Apple TV, iFixit rather irritated Apple. So much so that the company decided to get revenge by delisting the iFixit app from the App Store. The famous deconstructors say:

We weighed the risks, blithely tossed those risks over our shoulder, and tore down the Apple TV anyway.

A few days later, we got an email from Apple informing us that we violated their terms and conditions -- and the offending developer account had been banned. Unfortunately, iFixit's app was tied to that same account, so Apple pulled the app as well. Their justification was that we had taken "actions that may hinder the performance or intended use of the App Store, B2B Program, or the Program."

Oops!

Of course this did nothing to deter iFixit from ripping apart more hardware. In the iPhone 6s and 6s Plus teardowns, a 'mystery adhesive' was found holding the screen in place, in addition to screws. But the suspicion was that this was less about sticking the screen to the front of the phone, and more about keeping water out. Further investigation revealed that every single connector on the logic board was covered with a silicone seal (as iFixit notes Apple filed a patent for waterproof silicon seals earlier in the year).

Some brave souls have tried giving their trusty phones the dunk test. Some suffered water damage, but the general consensus is that there is an improvement in waterproofing. You might not want to take your iPhone 6s swimming just yet, but perhaps you could be less worried about water splashes; the chances are it will be fine.

Check out iFixit's video to see what the inside of the new iPhone looks like, and to hear more about the claims of extra waterproofing: