iPhone 12 mini Teardown

crwdns2935425:09crwdne2935425:0

crwdns2936315:0crwdne2936315:0

crwdns2936325:0crwdne2936325:0

crwdns2931653:09crwdne2931653:0

The US face-facing cameras are once again packing a little something extra where the EU edition was bare.
We saw these mysterious squares during our iPhone 12 teardowns. They live in a snug little space between the Face ID camera modules, roughly where you might expect to find an older iPhone's ambient light sensor.
Their absence in the EU iPhone may suggest this is a third mmWave antenna of some sort (although it doesn't look like any mmWave antenna we're familiar with). We tried blasting it with X-rays, but it refused to talk.
It makes you wonder whether someone at Apple earned their paycheck for the year miniaturizing the ambient light sensor even further to free up this space. Where'd it go?
The logic board comes out from its new home along the left edge, as in its fellow 12ers, clearing space for the beefy rear-facing cameras on the right.
The US board has a mmWave antenna flex cable soldered to its underside (which we de-soldered off-stage). US fixers, beware—don't try to yank the board out!

crwdns2944171:0crwdnd2944171:0crwdnd2944171:0crwdnd2944171:0crwdne2944171:0