Teardown of iPad 2 shows few surprises, many components from iPad 1

iFixit has done what it loves to do: take a hot consumer electronic device and ripped it apart. There were few surprises when tearing down the iPad 2, which iFixit did on launch day, March 11, as most of the internals were known, but it was a wi-fi only model, so we didn't get a look at the 3G chipsets used in the Verizon or AT&T models. However, many have said the iPad 2 was more evolutionary than revolutionary, and that's certainly made clear by the repeat appearances of certain components in the device's teardown.


As we already knew, the iPad 2 carries a 1 GHz Apple A5 dual-core processor. It also has 512MB of RAM, which Apple omitted earlier when it spec'ed out the iPad 2 at the launch event. Some speculated it was because the iPad 2's RAM was low compared to the Xoom's; the Motorola Xoom has 1GB of RAM and an NVIDIA 1Ghz dual-core Tegra 2 processor.

Unlike the iPad 1, the iPad 2 had no clips holding on the front panel. Instead, it had tons, and tons of adhesive, which made it so difficult that although iFixit was OK, they indicated the layperson might be cracking their screen if they attempted the same.

Because of the iPad 2's new slimmer (33 percent slimmer) design, the battery is thinner, yet despite that is a 3.8V, 25 Watt-hour unit, slightly larger than the iPad 1's 24.8 Watt-hour unit.

A Broadcom BCM5973KFBGH Microcontroller was used for the touchscreen, and a Broadcom BCM5974 CKFBGH capacitative touchscreen controller as well, which is the same combination as with the iPad 1. Apple must have been happy with the results.

Once again, another repeater: the Wi-Fi board is powered by a Broadcom BCM43291HKUBC, a wi-fi / Bluetooth / FM tuner combo chip which was used in both the first iPad and the iPhone 4.

The iPad 2 ended up with a repairability score of 4/10. For comparisons sake, the Motorola Xoom received an 8/10 score.

Go watch the full teardown at iFixit and wonder at how they got their hands on the iPad 2 on day 1; most Apple stores locally are now sold out.