as Apple says changes in the air and
change the air they did just a year
after the iPad air splashed onto the
scene Apple has given us a thinner and
more powerful tablet in the iPad air 2
we of course are interested in all the
new specs but we're even more interested
in seeing how its put together so we got
our hands on one and now it's time to
give it the old I fix it treatment and
tear it down
hi I'm Gwendolyn with iFixit and today
we're tearing down the iPad air 2 if you
thought the original air was thin wait
till you see the specs on the air - from
a design perspective the air 2 looks
pretty similar to last year's model but
notable changes include the addition of
touch ID in the front and the removal of
the rotation lock button that was
previously located above the volume
controls the air two's height and width
are the same as last year's model coming
in at 240 millimeters in height and 169
point five millimeters in width but the
real changes come in the depth bringing
the air to from 7.5 millimeters to a
mere 6.1 millimeters for comparison we
laid it against the six point nine
millimeter thick iPhone 6 that is crazy
thin and the air too even shaved off a
few grams
weighing in at 437 grams this isn't our
first rodeo with an iPad so we knew we
would need to bring in the heat to get
it open
secretly we were hoping to find some
external screws after Apple proved it
could make a tablet size device without
glue in the iPhone 6 and 6 plus but with
heavy hearts we headed over to the
microwave to warm up our eye openers
with the help of those hot eye openers
we began carefully heating and prying
the front panel up and away from the
iPad even though the panel feels more
rigid than in previous iPad models we
were cautious not to disturb the LCD
with the front panel off the iPad we get
our first look inside which reveals a
larger iPhone 6 plus just kidding but it
does look similar the display cables
have been moved near the lower edge of
the iPad which is a welcome change since
the previous version effectively
booby-trapped two edges of the display
at the bottom of the front panel we see
something that is very reminiscent to
the iPhone 6 and 6-plus
the home button which has an
easy-to-manage touch ID cable making
removal a snap the display itself is a
nine point seven inch Retina display
that has a resolution of 2048x1536
and a pixel density of 264 pixels per
inch that now comes with an
anti-reflective coating that Apple has
claimed will reduce glare by 56% onwards
and upwards towards the top of the iPad
where we found the cameras both cameras
came out of the case without a fight
so we took a closer look first up is the
1.2 megapixel FaceTime cam that is
capable of 720p HD video recording and
then we popped out the 8 megapixel
iSight camera while it's not exactly the
same it's extremely similar to the one
found in the iPhone 6 plus and a huge
leap forward in quality over the last
generations which was only 5 megapixels
this baby is loaded with features
including an F 2.4 aperture 1080p HD
video recording at 30 frames per second
slow mo and time-lapse videos just to
name a few after we removed a few odds
and ends we turned our attention to the
logic board which is glued in place not
only that but the lightning cable
connector is still integrated into the
logic board meaning a broken lightning
connector requires an entire logic board
to fix on the logic board we see Apple's
brand new 64-bit a8 X processor rumored
to be a triple cork 1.5 gigahertz system
on a chip
paired with 2 gigabytes of RAM the m8 Co
processor and the NXP 65 v10 NFC module
which is the same one found in the
iPhone 6 and 6 plus we're hoping to get
a confirmation of the a8 exit specs
shortly and once we do we'll update our
teardown as always removing a battery
from an iPad requires a lot of patience
and the iPad air 2 is no exception
after a good deal of heating and prying
we finally got it off our Wi-Fi model
came with a 27 point 6 2 watt hour 7,000
340 milliamp hour battery that Apple
claims will give you 10 hours of life
with general use this is a drop from
last year's iPad air which had a 32.9
watt hour capacity we've come to the end
of our teardown which means it's time to
repairability and I fix it it's our
mission to teach people how to repair
everything so we give every gadget we
tear down a repair ability score between
one and ten ten being the easiest to
repair and one being the most difficult
the iPad air 2 scored a 2 out of 10 and
here's why on the upside the battery is
still not soldered to the logic board
while the LCD in front panel are now
fused together it does simplify the
opening process but on the downside the
fused front panel increases cost of
repairing a cracked screen and increases
risk of damage to the LCD when opening
just like in previous iPads the front
panel is glued to the rest of the device
greatly increasing the chances of
cracking the glass during a repair and
finally gobs of adhesive hold everything
in place making all repairs more
difficult for the complete teardown
including tons of beautiful high-quality
images head on over to ifixit.com
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