IPad 2 Teardown Shows Tablet's Guts

alphadogg writes "Apple's iPad 2 tablet, which became available Friday, boasts a big battery, tiny speakers, an ample 512MB of RAM and a glass front that's tricky for tinkerers to take off. That's the upshot from an initial teardown of the new Apple tablet by iFixit, which specializes in Apple product repair. IFixit warns that those who dare to peer into the insides of the iPad 2 on their own risk cracking the glass front panel, which is thinner than that from the original iPad (0.62 mm vs. 0.85 mm) and glued on rather than attached via tabs. A heat gun was needed by iFixit to disassemble the device."

Anandtech performance review is more informing

[Shivetya]

http://www.anandtech.com/show/4216/apple-ipad-2-gpu-performance-explored-powervr-sgx543mp2-benchmarked [anandtech.com]

and their review helps as well http://www.anandtech.com/show/4215/apple-ipad-2-benchmarked-dualcore-cortex-a9-powervr-sgx-543mp2 [anandtech.com]

The key items to take away from both are, yeah the cameras suck but this is truly a real upgrade from the iPad. Performance alone puts is ahead of the older model as well as many available tablets. They did find out that the dual core processor is actually running at only 900mhz. While the Xoom pushes more pixels because of its 1280x800 versus 1078x768 the iPad2 pulls far ahead of it, beyond what the pixel count would account for. As for gaming, some games are already taking advantage of the new power, Infinity Blade has been updated and looks fantastic. This brings up the issue, will there be apps sold that are marked iPad2 required?

Better yet, its cheaper than its nearest competition. The only question is, how long before really good Android tablets come along?

And here is the iFixit link

[wondershit]

Why the main article this summary is about is not linked is beyond me...

http://www.ifixit.com/Teardown/iPad-2-Wi-Fi-Teardown/5071/1 [ifixit.com]

WARNING: devxo is a Microsoft shill

[mangu]

I started counting a couple of stories back, this is the sixth first post defending Microsoft that devxo has posted in the last three days.

The other five are:
1 [slashdot.org]
2 [slashdot.org]
3 [slashdot.org]
4 [slashdot.org]
5 [slashdot.org]

Liking Microsoft products is one thing, but keeping tabs of every story and writing a multi-line first post for every other one, well that looks like a real job to me. I wonder how much Microsoft pays him. Does he get overtime, considering all this was done in a weekend?

Re:What's so ample about 512 Mb?

[ruiner13]

From what I read, they did up the system bus speed from 100MHz to 200MHz. Even if they didn't add more RAM than the iPhone 4, it should be able to access it twice as fast. They also used a different type of RAM that has lower latency. So, not just an iPhone 4. I'd expect a lot of the same improvements in the iPhone 4.5/5 when it comes out in a few months.

Re:What's so ample about 512 Mb?

[SengirV]

4X beter GPU than the Xoom, and 5.5X faster than the iPhone 4/iPad 1, but why cloud your opinion with silly things like facts.

http://www.macrumors.com/2011/03/12/ipad-2-gpu-benchmarked-with-impressive-gains/

That being said, I just bought and rooted a Nook Color.

Re:Lame - Anyone actually work in manufacturing

[Anonymous Coward]

All the talk about the glue and other things being Apple's way of messing with people are missing the point. Structural adhesive is a very good way of keep manufacturing costs down and improving the actual quality of a product. It is far easier to automate than screwing hardware. Some may disagree but having worked in manufacturing engineering and building automated systems for 8 years...that is my opinion.

Does it make it harder to repair...yes. Do modern devices like this need as much repair (I bet the p(95) MTTF is incredibly high)...no.

You know the lights in the corridor between terminals B and C at O'hare--a artistic marvel--are held up by structural adhesive.

Re:Sounds like an iPhone 4 and Macbook Air

[macs4all]

Sounds a lot like an iPhone 4 and the Macbook Air. I work for an authorized Mac sales and service center; our Mac specialist had to use a heat gun to take the screen/glass off on a Macbook Air. Research for the iPhone 4 returns similar needs.

Like the article says, a heatgun did the trick.

If you work on consumer electronics products, then you well know that the use of high-performance adhesives is very common, and certainly not limited to Apple products.

From a mechanical-engineering and "packaging" standpoint, displays are particularly well-suited for the use of high-performance adhesive attachment methods. In a former life, I worked for an industrial controls company that replaced a really problematic front panel/display attachment bracket-thing with a thin line of industrial cyanoacrylate adhesive. That method wasn't perfect, either; but it was a damn sight more manufacturable than the bracket and screws that it replaced. And this was back in 1992, so it ain't exactly a new solution to this problem. In fact, it's a widely-accepted industry practice. Loctite and 3M, to name two adhesives manufacturers, have a whole line of industrial products specifically designed for this sort of thing.

Re:Ample 512mb ram?

[Schuthrax]

I love how all the fanbois are crawling out to insist that "ample" and "adequate" are synonyms.

From http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/ample [reference.com]
ample /æmpl/ Show Spelled[am-puhl] Show IPA
–adjective, -pler, -plest.
1.
fully sufficient or more than adequate for the purpose or needs; plentiful; enough: an ample supply of water; ample time to finish.
2.
of sufficient or abundant measure; liberal; copious: an ample reward.
3.
of adequate or more than adequate extent, size, or amount; large; spacious; roomy: ample storage space.

Sucks to be as dumb as you.

Actual link

[Legion303]

http://www.ifixit.com/Teardown/iPad-2-Wi-Fi-Teardown/5071/1 [ifixit.com]

Stellar job as usual, editors, allowing someone to post a shitty blog link instead of the real article.