Daniel Hruska The iFixit server is busy this fall. He managed to take it apart iPhone 6 and 6 Plus, then pounced on iMac with 5K Retina display and Mac mini and immediately after iPad Air 2. In the end, the smaller brother iPad mini 3 also got under the "knuckle".
Literally only a few seconds were devoted to this device during the keynote. Compared to last year's generation, not much has changed - the Touch ID fingerprint reader was added and the iPad is now also available in a gold color variant. The specifications are otherwise identical. What about inside the body?
First, the joints between the display and the body need to be warmed up, which loosens the glue and the display can then be separated. While the cover glass and the display form one component in the iPad Air 2, the iPad mini 3, like its predecessor, has these two parts separated.
Adhesives were not spared when attaching Touch ID and its components either – they are glued to the cover glass with hot melt glue. So, if you would like to replace the cracked cover glass yourself at home, you will have to be very careful when gluing, so as not to damage the Touch ID with heat.
On the motherboard we find an Apple A7 processor, SK Hynix 1 GB LPDDR3 DRAM, SK Hynix 16 GB NAND flash memory, Universal Scientific Industrial 339S0213 Wi-Fi module, NXP Semiconductors 65V10 NFC controller, NXP Semiconductors LPC18A1 (or Apple M7 Motion Co- Processor) and other components. The NFC chip is worth noting here, thanks to which even the smaller iPad can be used for online payments with Apple Pay.
The repairability rating according to iFixit is 2/10, i.e. an almost unrepairable device. You can replace the cover glass and the battery, which is not soldered (just glued) to the motherboard. On the other hand, the Lightning connector is permanently attached. The rest of the components, such as camera modules or cables, are attached with glue, which complicates possible replacement.
If you've already passed on an article from abroad, how about actually looking at ifixit to find out if it has something more than just touch ID and gold color? Does it have NFC for Apple Pay? A lot of work isn't it...
"User Experience Designer" :-D The native language is crying quietly in the corner.