iFixit has just published the results for its teardown for the new 11-inch iPad Pro along with the Apple Pencil 2. To be clear, we were sure that the company will conduct the teardown of both these products as soon as they were officially announced at the October Apple launch event. The company noted that the thinner bezels of the new iPad Pro along with curvy LCD corners made opening up the iPad “a bit more harrowing” that the earlier iPad Pro devices. While trying to open the iPad Pro, the company realized that the outer case of the device “is a little thicker” near the Apple Pencil 2 charging area.
According to the teardown, Apple used “huge patch” of glue to stick the logic board and battery to the inside of the device making it quite difficult for modders to reach these components. iFixit folks were also “left speechless” by the amount of glue used to keep the battery in place. To make sense of the glue, they could simply guess that it was probably done for “rigidity reinforcement”. The report noted that Apple went all in when it came to audio by adding four woofers and four tweeters for a total of eight speakers in the new iPad Pro.
Watch: Apple iPad Pro 2018 Hands-on
The teardown noted that the Face ID module was based on “the same basic hardware” with IR camera, dot projector, and a selfie camera when compared to the iPhone X and the iPhone XS lineup. It also noted the large number of magnets that Apple added in the device to ensure that Apple Pencil 2 was securely attached to the side of the device. The report awarded the iPad Pro a 3/10 repairability rating indicating that it was not safe for anyone to just open the device and make any changes.
In addition to the teardown of the device, the company also conducted a teardown of the Apple Pencil 2 with the help of an ultrasonic blade. The pencil packed welded steel layers which means that iFixit was not able to reveal all the components of the table. However, the company noted “a large black ribbon cable” from around the Pencil 2 body indicating a “capacitive grid”.
It speculated that this grid is used for tap input but the hardware is capable enough for complex gestures in the future.
