The iFixit tear-down of the 10.9″ iPad Pro reveals that the tablet is mostly an iPad Air 4 with some odd shortcomings.
What it Lacks?
Apple unveiled its new 10.9-inch tablet at an event in San Francisco today. It features improved specs including a USB-C port, a portrait mode front-facing camera, and a keyboard dock. But it doesn’t come with Apple Pencil 2 support or Magic Keyboard compatibility.
Teardown of iPad
Instead of finding a new 9th-gen 10.2-in iPad, they found what appeared to be an iPad Air 4. They then went through the teardowndesigns of both devices to determine which parts were different from one another.
Similarities
The speakers, TouchID, and battery are the exact same between the 10.5-inch iPad Pro and the iPad Air 2.
Camera
The landscape selfie camera seems to be in the way of where an Apple Pencil magnet might go, and there doesn’t seem to be enough room for one.
iFixit calls Apple’s new 10.9-inch tablet “baffling,” “interesting,” and “disappointing” at once. They recommend people just get an older iPad Air 4 instead.
Internal Layout
The teardown displays the internal layout of the iPhone X, including its three-cell 2,716 mAh battery, logic boards with the A11 Bionic chip and M9 coprocessor, and more.
After looking at the teardowndetails, we can see that components for the iPad’s landscape-positioning front camera take up the location where the wireless charger coil would be placed for the second generation Apple Pencil.
Because of this, the iPad Pro is only compatible with the original Apple Pencil. An adapter is needed to pair and charge the Apple Pencil.
Battery
iFixit also found that the iPad Pro has stretch-releasable batteries like the fifth-gen iPad Air and the sixth gen iPad mini, making it easy for repair stores and customers to replace the batteries.
Compared to the 9th-gen iPad and many other older tablets, the 10th-gen iPad has completely glued-in batteries.
USB-C Port
iFixit was surprised by the fact that the iPad’s USB C port is soldered to its motherboard. They were also disappointed that Apple’s self-servicing program doesn’t include any replacement components, which makes it difficult for customers to perform their own repairs.
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