iPad Mini Teardown: Tiny Screws, Lots of Adhesive

Image: iFixit

The iPad mini isn't even officially on sale yet, but iFixit managed to get its hands on one to tear apart.

Like many of Apple's other gadgets, the iPad mini isn't very easy to open up and repair yourself. iFixit gives it a 2 out of 10 repairability rating.

Unlike with the iPhone 5, the mini's LCD and glass are not fused together into a single unit, so these parts can be replaced individually if needed. Also, the battery is also not soldered to the logic board here. Still, the battery and other parts like the front- and rear-facing cameras, front glass, and logic board are held together with "copious amounts of adhesive," according to iFixit.

Surprisingly, the camera specs of the iPad mini match the Retina display iPad more closely than the iPad 2. It's got a 1.2-megapixel front-facing shooter, and a 5-megapixel rear camera that can shoot HD video. Beneath the dual speaker grilles at the bottom of the device, it has stereo speakers, unlike the larger 9.7-inch Retina display iPad (or any other iOS device to date).

The iPad mini also uses lots of tiny, hidden screws, which can easily be lost if you play operation on this little tablet.

The display (at least on this particular unit) is manufactured by Samsung, but it seems Apple steered clear of sourcing Samsung parts as much as necessary. For example, the iPad mini uses Hynix for NAND flash memory. Like the iPod touch, the Apple-developed A5 processor has 512 MB of RAM.

For the full teardown goodness, head on over to iFixit.

Image: iFixit

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Original Page: http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2012/11/ipad-mini-teardown/

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