it has been a busy day for us here at
iFixit not only did we just release a
teardown for the iPad Mini but before
tools even have the chance to get cold
here we are in to bring you the insides
of the iPad 4 as well hi I'm MJ with
iFixit and today we're going to take a
look at Apple's latest tablet the iPad 4
let's just be honest the iPad 4 is the
perfect example of an incremental
upgrade coming in just months after the
last new iPad the iPad 4 offers upgraded
performance but basically 0 external
changes on the surface the new iPad is
the same as the last new iPad same
height weight Retina display and battery
life but perhaps there are some subtle
differences lurking beneath the surface
there's only one way to find out and
that's to give the iPad for a proper
iFixit teardown getting started there
were no surprises traditionally opening
up an iPad has involved softening a lots
of adhesive and this iPad was no
exception some liberal use of our eye
opener tool and some handy guitar picks
makes lifting off the front panel a
breeze once the display was removed we
got a good look at the insides of the
iPad 4 which is basically comprised of a
very large battery and a slim logic
board if this all sounds familiar that's
because it is this basically looks
identical to the iPad 3 hmm well I'm
sure we'll find something different
further in the iPad 4's battery is well
identical to the battery in the iPad 3
down to the model number 3.7 volts 43
watt hours and eleven thousand five
hundred and sixty milliamp hours well
nothing new yet hmm oh I know the new
lightning connector the iPad 4 got the
new lightning connector and all the
other devices we've seen that got the
new lightning connector we saw a real
need for a smaller size connector
specifically I'm remembering the iPhone
5 there just wasn't any room in the
iPhone 5 for a larger style connector
but in the case of the iPad 4 space
doesn't seem to be an issue as it looks
like the Lightning connector is
basically just sitting in the same slot
the 30 pin connector would usually go in
fact a lot of people were expecting the
iPad 4 to have upgraded speakers like
the iPad Mini since there's all that
extra room down by the dock connector
but for some reason Apple Cho
to use these same speakers as it did in
the iPad 3 on the upside unlike the iPod
Touch on the iPhone 5 the iPad force
lightning connector seems to be on its
own cable which is great news because
replacing it won't require an entirely
new logic board
speaking of logic boards the one and
absolute biggest upgrade to this ipad is
the a 6 X processor which has one gig of
ram Apple claims that this new processor
will double performance of both the CPU
and GPU making the iPad feel faster and
more responsive preliminary geek fence
tests showing up on the Internet seem to
show that this is the case moving
forward we found another legitimate
upgrade the iPad 4 got an updated 1.2
megapixel HD FaceTime camera capable of
taking 720p video after fighting the
feeling of deja vu during the entire
iPad 4 teardown we were finally able to
assess it for repair ability here on
iFixit we're interested in knowing just
how repairable devices are not just
because we want to support the growing
DIY repair community but also because
repair is essential and ensuring that
we're making the best use of raw
materials possible and also that we're
on a path to responsible consumption so
to that end we score every device we
tear down for repair ability between 1
and 10 1 being the least repairable and
10 being the most repairable the iPad 4
scored a 2 out of 10 and here's why just
like the iPad 2 and 3 the front panel is
glued to the rest of the device greatly
increasing the chances of cracking the
glass when trying to remove it
copious amounts of adhesive hold
everything in place including the prone
to start a fire if punctured battery the
LCD has foam sticky tape adhering it to
the front panel increasing chances of it
being shattered during disassembly you
can't access the front panels connector
until you remove the LCD that wraps up
our teardown for the complete teardown
including gorgeous high resolution
images make sure you check out I fix it
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watching and happy repairing