iPad’s Inner Secrets Revealed In An iFixit Teardown

Thanks to the difference in time zones, Apple customers in Australia had the chance to snatch up the new iPad half a day before the next-generation tablet went on sale in the United Kingdom. It also gave repair Website iFixit the chance to tear apart an iPad purchased from a store in Melbourne.

The firm found no surprises hidden within that slim aluminium frame. However, in a series of images posted on its website, iFixit did manage to document the A5X processor, Retina Display and other features that Apple hopes will outpace any competition for at least another year.

Digging deep

The 3rd Generation iPad (Apple has not given it an official-sounding name along the lines of “iPad HD” or “iPad 3”) features a high-resolution Retina Display, an improved camera and processor, and comparable battery life to its predecessors.

In a bid to further pressure that competition, the new iPad will keep the same prices as the previous model, starting at £399 for WiFi-only versions, and £499 for those with 4G potential. Prices top out at £559 for the WiFi-only, 64GB model and £659 for the 64GB model with WiFi and 4G potential.

After using heavy-duty suction cups to remove the front glass, iFixit lifted away the LCD display, which they believed was made by Samsung. The display connectors for the new iPad are apparently different from those used in the iPad 2, meaning the respective tablets’ displays are incompatible.

After removing the display, iFixit found a logic board with a Texas Instruments CD3240 driver device, Epcos B4064 SAW (surface acoustic wave) filters, and a Broadcom BCM4330 802.11a/b/g/n MAC/Baseband/Radio with Integrated Bluetooth 4.0+HS and FM transceiver. They also uncovered Apple’s proprietary A5X processor, an upgrade from the previous A4.

Analysts have predicted the device will sell as many as a million units today, its first day of release.

“We expect Apple to sell more than [a million] iPads on 3/16, the day the new iPad hits retail stores,” Gene Munster, an analyst with Piper Jaffray, wrote in a research note. “While the sell-through number is impossible to predict, given uncertain iPad supply levels, sales of over [a million] iPads on launch day would be a slight positive relative to the Street consensus at 10.1 [million] iPads in the March-12 quarter.”

Certainly, demand for the new iPad has translated into lengthening shipment times from Apple’s online store that now stand at two to three weeks.