[NewsPoster]

A new teardown of the latest iPad -- the 9.7-inch version of the iPad Pro -- has found only minor variances with the iPad Air 2 in most respects, after inheriting most of the components of the larger iPad Pro model, with only the battery (which is slightly smaller, but with no noticeable degradation of performance, to the one in the iPad Air 2) and some minor board changes made to squeeze nearly all of the features of the larger iPad Pro into the 9.7-inch shell. However, large amounts of adhesive means that the latest iPad is even less "repairable" than the previous models.

To be fair, iFixit -- the company that performed the new teardown -- sells repair tools and services as its business, and thus takes a dim view of devices that are difficult for owners or repair shops to get into, even if the product in question (particularly the iPad) is shown to be exceptionally durable and reliable. It has protested, however, that the increasing amounts of adhesive used by Apple in various products may also hinder recycle-ability as well as repairability.

Apart from "copious" amounts of adhesive used to secure components, the other differences are fairly minor. While the interior of the 9.7-inch iPad Pro gain considerable new features, including four speakers, for its big brother, the major differences apart from that are a shifting of the display cables, an improved camera, processor, and graphics system, and some antenna interconnect boards that do not appear to serve any purpose, but the iFixit team theorizes they may provide extra support for the weight that users will now put on the iPad's display due to using the Apple Pencil.

The improved camera also gains a "camera bump" on the outside the device, and may also feature an un-advertised optical stabilization features as seen in the iPhone 6 Plus and iPhone 6s Plus. The battery is rated at 7,306mAh -- slightly lower than the previous iPad Air 2 battery -- but due to various efficiency improvements appears to last around the same amount of time, which is rated at 10 hours of typical use. The final repairability score for the new iPad Pro was a two out of 10, one lower than the 12.9-inch iPad Pro, which scored a three out of 10 (with 10 being the most repairable).

[ElectroTech]

Of course it is iFixIt who does the 'teardown'. These Luddites would have us go back to the stone age to ensure that every single transistor and pixel is replaceable while wearing oven mitts. There is little good I can say about these scam artists.

[Inkling]

Malvina Reynolds expressed my distaste for things made of 'ticky tacky' perfectly in the 1961 folk song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VUoXtddNPAM

[Grendelmon]

"To be fair, iFixit -- the company that performed the new teardown -- sells repair tools and services as its business, and thus takes a dim view of devices that are difficult for owners or repair shops to get into, even if the product in question (particularly the iPad) is shown to be exceptionally durable and reliable."

How many of you actually used their website before they started selling their own repair tools? Before the iPhone and iPad?

How many of you know that they have many, many other repair guides for devices that aren't manufactured by Apple? Do you know how many of those devices they sell products for?

So, when they give a positive repair-ability review, everyone (MacNN) is on board with iFixit (e.g. the iPhone SE). When an Apple device gets a poor review, then it's "keep in mind they're just making money by selling tools." I'm beginning to see a pattern here.

[Mike Wuerthele]

I really like iFixit's repair guides, for what it's worth.