DIY iPhone SE Battery Upgrade for More Power

If you're interested in upgrading the battery of your iPhone SE, take a look at this article.

How do you modify the battery of a 128GB iPhone SE to increase its capacity for daily use? Here's the process.

Things you'll need for the battery modification: a genuine Smart Battery, a Mophie iPhone 6 charging case, a thick iPhone SE case, several screws, and the iPhone SE back cover.

You'll need to dismantle both the Smart Battery and the charging case because you'll use the bulging part of the Smart Battery for the casing and the battery cells from the charging case. The Smart Battery comes in two capacities: 2365mAh and 1783mAh, while the Mophie charging case offers two options: 2750mAh and 3300mAh. Of course, if you don't need the 3300mAh capacity, you can skip the Mophie charging case; the 2750mAh is only slightly better than the 2365mAh. Additionally, if you're not going for the 3300mAh battery, there's no need to modify the phone case—just place the battery inside, and there's enough space.

If you plan to use the 2365mAh additional battery, you can simply use the Apple 7 Smart Battery and remove it. Don't buy the iPhone 6 version with the headphone jack; it's only 1875mAh, which is too small. Also, make sure to get a sufficiently thick case for the iPhone SE because the bulging part of the Smart Battery is wide, and if the case is too narrow, it won't fit.

The screws are used to secure the bulging part to the phone case, as there are several native screw holes on the bulging part. If you're not worried about sealing, you don't need all the screws; six screws will be enough.

Disassemble the Smart Battery and Mophie iPhone 6 charging case, and cut out the bulging part of the Smart Battery where the battery is installed. Remember to use a cutting tool—don't use pliers directly, as this could cause the sides to lose material.

For the wiring, you can use a hole-punching method since it's difficult to find a suitable flex cable. The hole-punching method is versatile and reliable.

This method doesn't require changing the internal battery to a better one. Simply find the positive and negative power supply terminals near the battery flex cable socket and solder the wires. This will bypass the internal battery's circuit board and directly supply power to the motherboard. This method tricks the device into thinking there's only one normal battery, so it will only detect the internal battery when checking, and don't forget to add a protection board to the external battery. This is essentially the current method for all external batteries.

One last point: since you're dealing with the battery circuit, be extremely careful with everything. Insulation must be done properly to prevent any short circuits.

Once the battery is attached, the overall thickness will increase by 5mm. The original battery was around 1877mAh, and with the 3300mAh upgrade, the total battery capacity exceeds 5000mAh.

In any case, a 4000mAh battery should last a full day. The only downside is that the iPhone SE's charging power is relatively small, and it takes over 4 hours to charge to 90% when idle. It's suitable for overnight charging.

Basic test: It took about 4 hours to fully charge after it ran out of power, which is acceptable.

Heavy usage endurance test: I edited a 359-minute video, which took an hour. After 5 minutes, the entire device felt warm, and the aluminum frame felt hot to the touch. The back battery was also warm, but it held up well. After the editing, the battery dropped by 15%, so under this kind of stress, it could still last around 6 hours.

End.