Inleiding
We’ve been digging through the cornucopia of Apple’s fall lineup, and today, we're thankful to have the last morsel on our teardown table. We’re wrapping up in the biggest way we can—with the iPad Pro, Apple’s response to the Surface Pro (which was Microsoft’s response to the iPad). Will the new high-end hybrid please repair professionals, or will the iPad Pro prohibit repairs? Stick around and we'll provide all the details.
Apple season may be over, but there's plenty more teardown where that came from. Check us out on Instagram, Twitter, or Facebook to always get the first look at the latest hardware.
P.S. Thanks for the X-rays, Creative Electron!
Wat je nodig hebt
Video overzicht
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It's time to pluck the last fall offering from the Apple tree. These are all the juicy details we have so far:
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Fully laminated, 12.9" Multi-Touch LCD with a 2,732 × 2,048 resolution at 264 ppi and anti-reflective coating
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3rd generation 64-bit A9X chip paired with M9 motion coprocessor
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Self-balancing, four-speaker audio
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8-megapixel 1080p rear-facing iSight camera + 1.2-megapixel 720p front-facing FaceTime HD camera
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802.11a/b/g/n/ac MIMO Wi-Fi + Bluetooth 4.2
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Touch ID fingerprint sensor + 3-axis gyro + accelerometer + barometer + ambient light sensor
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32 GB or 128 GB on-board storage
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This 12.9" display has a prolific number of pixels per inch—264 of them to be exact—just a hair shy of the 267 ppi screen on the Surface Pro 4.
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With Apple's new A9X chip and a 78% larger display, the Pro packs nearly twice the performance of the iPad Air 2, at less than twice the price.
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This also means, thanks to Multitasking, you can use a full Air-sized app, and a secondary app at the same time.
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Enough about doubling. The Pro's buttons, microphones, and rear-facing camera are the same size and in the same location as the Air 2's setup.
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Peeking along the edge of the iPad, we spot a new accessory port—Apple's Smart Connector—making its debut appearance.
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On the bottom edge, two of the four speakers in the highly touted speaker array live on either side of a now-familiar Lightning Connector.
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Turning our attention to the rear case, we find all the usual regulatory information, including a never-before-seen model number: A1584.
Is this the new Pro, 2021? Or the last generation. 2015 (Ibelieve). And WHERE does one find the MODEL NUMBER? The one listed in “about” is not like the “A-then numbers” model numbers commonly used. PLEASE don’t let it be the infinitesimal gobbledegook printed on the back of the Pad. UNREADABLE.
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It's time for a face-off between the two biggest contenders in the tablet category!
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The iPad Pro has a slightly larger 12.9" display—as opposed to the 12.3" display found in the Surface Pro 4.
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Despite the larger screen, the iPad Pro manages to be lighter than the Surface Pro 4 (1.57 pounds vs. 1.73 pounds for the i5 and i7 models of the Surface).
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The iPad Pro is also thinner than the Surface, with a thickness of 6.9 mm vs. the Surface's 8.45 mm.
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For the spec geeks out there, the iPad Pro's dimensions are: 305.7 × 220.6 × 6.9 mm, while the Surface Pro 4's dimensions are: 292.10 × 201.42 × 8.45 mm.
The edge of the Surface looks like a squished laptop, complete with oversize ports that really get in the way (AFAIC). Most people will put a case on both of these, meaning the Surface needs a bunch of port holes through the case, making the case less rigid.
I've never seen a case on a surface pro, most treat it like a laptop and use a sleeve. Because it is a laptop, in tablet form.
Wixted -
Did you see the blue cased Surface Aaron Rodgers tossed after he threw an interception to end the game against Carolina Sunday? Looked like it was in a case to me. Not sure what version of Surface it is but I expect most people who care about their laptop/tablet/whatever they call the Surface to put it in a case but maybe most people don't care.
What is the actual power brick supplied with the iPad Pro? Is it the same old good 12 Watt 5.2 Volts, 2.4 Amps friend? Must know, Thx.
Yes, according to the Buy page on the Apple website, the iPad Pro comes with a 12 watt USB power adapter while all other iPad models now ship with the 10 watt version.
Dillo -
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After a little heat-to-heat with our iOpener, we bring in our opening picks and heavy duty suction cup to open up the conversation.
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The Pro's display is packing the same adhesive as its smaller counterparts—it's tough and there's way too much—but it's still no match for our seasoned teardown hands.
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With the adhesive finally out of the way, we get our first glimpse of the Pro's interior.
step5
How will you use the iopener heating time and temperature?
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Now to remove that (massive) display...
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This isn't quite what we're used to! With the logic board situated in the center of the iPad, the display cables connect in the very middle of the device, so we can't even lay the display down while we work.
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Instead, we first have to support the weight of the display while removing the screws that secure the display cable bracket.
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Is this a giant iPad? Or a giant iPhone?
What's under the can in the top right of the third pic? My guess is that it's Apple's "secret sauce" timing controller.
It's not a phone in general of there is no front face speaker on top like actual phones have, plus that you can't call on it without continuity because there's no phone app.
Wish it was a giant phone aswel
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On the back of the display, we find some juicy silicon!
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2 × Broadcom BCM15900B0 Touch Screen Controller
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NXP Semiconductors 8416A1 (NVT8416) Touch ID Sensor
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Parade Technologies DP695 Timing Controller
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Texas Instruments TPS65144 (Likely an iteration of the TPS65143A LCD Bias found in the Air 2)
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Renesas (formerly Intersil) ISL24879 precision programmable LCD reference voltage generator
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Rohm BR24G64NUX-3A 64 KB Serial EEPROM Memory
OK !?! Please Help... I see from the photos that relay I.C. board that has 4 four connections: the LCD, the Home Touch I.D., the Digitizer, and some odd flex cable that hides on the bottom left corner (must be for the apple pencil). It is apparent on how the other cables are connected but how is the Digitizer Connected???
Dude the daughter board is micro soldered to the display. You can buy a replacement from ifixit with daughter board attached its about $60- more than the replacement display without daughter board..
Does anybody know function of BCM15900B0?
They say it makes you aware that you need to sleep!
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And now back to the body!
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A logic board relocation isn't the only easily-recognized layout difference between the iPad Pro and previous iPads. While the iPad Air 2's interior real estate was dominated by a proportionately massive battery, the iPad Pro dedicates a significant amount of room to speaker enclosures.
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That's space that could have potentially been used for an extra 50% battery capacity. We're sure Apple was very careful setting the balance between battery capacity, weight, and sound quality.
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Next, we lend a hand to the FaceTime HD (left) and iSight cameras, which are trapped behind a bracket not unlike the one we dug up in Microsoft's new laplet.
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While just about everything in this tablet has been billed as bigger and better than previous devices, these cameras seem to be the same as those found in the iPad Air 2.
Where are the auto/wake sensors or magnets? I know it has auto/wake, but they're not in the same place as the iPad Air 2.
This is the biggest letdown on the first gen 12.9’ The cameras on this thing are a joke wow 8MP with no flash on rear cam and a total rubbish front 1.2MP on the front and they call it a Pro and yes i do own one
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Here's a first in iPad history: we have to remove the logic board's EMI shielding to remove the logic board itself.
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As we continue to mine deeper into this iPad Pro, the next
Balrogcomponent we find is the headphone jack. -
Just like the 3.5 mm jack in the iPad Air 2, the ribbon cable on this headphone jack harbors one of the Pro's two front-facing ambient light sensors.
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Finally, we get to (one of) the highly anticipated self-balancing speaker drivers.
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Although these speakers share a common design, their function changes depending on the tablet's orientation. Whether in portrait or landscape mode, the Pro always sends higher frequencies to the topmost speakers to produce a more balanced sound.
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The speakers are nice, but what makes them really sing are the fancy back volume chambers, machined directly into the unibody enclosure.
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After removing the carbon fiber caps, we find the enclosures are filled with foam. Apple's own renders don't actually show this foam, but we're betting that it's used to amplify the effective volume of the enclosure.
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That, or the stuffing indicates Apple got into the Thanksgiving spirit early this year.
Double check that wikipedia reference. Stuffing increases apparent volume (as in cubic inches/meters), not audio volume or loudness.
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On our way to the logic board, we stop to smell the
flowersantennas. -
Just like the iPad Air 2, the Pro's two antennas use MIMO technology to provide 802.11ac Wi-Fi speeds of up to 866 Mbps, and LTE speeds of up to 150 Mbps.
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There are just a few things left standing between us and the logic board.
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A bit of deft spudgering frees the remaining speaker connectors, and a flex cable that appears to run beneath the left battery cell to drive the Smart Connector contacts.
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At long last we've extracted the logic board—and its (sadly) soldered on Lightning connector.
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We've finally found the brains of the operation, the logic board!
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Apple APL1021 A9X 64-bit Processor
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SK Hynix H9HCNNNBTUMLNR-NLH 16 Gb (2 GB) LPDDR4 RAM (2 GB × 2 = 4 GB total)
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Toshiba THGBX5G8D4KLDXG 32 GB NAND Flash
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InvenSense MP67B (MPU-6700B) 6-axis Gyroscope and Accelerometer Combo
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NXP 65V10 NFC Controller (also found in the iPhone 6/6 Plus, as well as Nexus 5X and 6P marked NXP 54802)
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Apple (Cirrus Logic) 338S1213 Audio Codec
Will you measure the logic board for us? With a logic board this small, I could see a stripped version that would provide a pretty good blade-type server with the proper software. 32GB of on-board storage is plenty (actually too much) while it would be nice to at least triple the onboard RAM. Of course, a Thunderbolt driver would be needed for external storage but there's room on that board for that. Apple has the capability to create a very small and powerful server if they wanted to. I just wish they could justify this type of a product.
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Even more chips on the logic board:
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Fresco Logic FL1100SX 2-port USB 3.0 Host Controller
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Universal Scientific Industrial 339S00045 Wi-Fi Module
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NXP Semiconductor 1610A3 (also found in iPhone 6s/6s Plus, likely an iteration of the 1610A1 found in the iPad Mini 4) Display Port Multiplexer (likely)
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Dialog Semiconductor 343S00025-A1 Power Management
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Dialog Semiconductor 343S00052-A1
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Maxim Integrated MAX98721CEWV (likely an iteration of the MAX98721BEWV found in the iPad Air 2) Audio Amplifier
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Fairchild Semiconductor FDMC 6683 MOSFET
With the Fresco Logic FL1100 4-port USB 3.0 Host Controller can you determine the pin outs for the Lightning port? How are they accommodating the additional 2 differential pairs for USB 3.0?
343S00025-A1
343S00052-A1
Looks like these are Dialog Semiconductor chips for main power management, as well as the new fast charging functionality
Interesting! Do you have a source we could cite?
Andrew - just scratch off or dissolve the covering of the chips. You should see the Dialog logo and their internal Dialog part number (not the one Apple puts on top).
Starting to see rumor sites picking up on the USB 3.0 thing. iFixit didn't spend any time on that Lightning port in Step 15. Any chance you could dig deeper and see if the Lightning connector receptacle is now electrically double-sided? That sh/would provide the pin-count needed for USB 3.
Would also be interesting to see if the USB Type-A connector in the included now-6' Lightning cable is USB3 capable; how many conductors are in the cable.
Interesting you bring that up, I just looked inside the lighting port on my iPad pro and it indeed looks like this is a modified port. There are 8 pins on each side and then the grounding on the sides (anyone remember when lightning was rumored to be 9 pins?)
That's what I was expecting, @jacobzacks123! The Lightning port prior was single-sided, so if you're seeing pins on two-sides, that is new. And indeed something iFixit should be looking at. Still to be seen if the Type-A connector is 4-pin USB 2 or a USB 3 Type-A with the added hi speed pins at the back of the tongue.
When Apple (Phil Schiller) announced the Lightning connector, the slide shown stated "All-digital, 8-signal design". Most reporting since then has mistakenly (IMHO) conflated that "signal" with "pins". But that's wrong. 8-signal would indicate 4-lane and has profound implications for what Lightning is REALLY capable of (and directly comparable to USB 3 Type-C when you strip away the cruft for backwards compatibility).
Scott -
The two unnamed chips in Step 17 are confirmed by Chipworks to be from Dialog Semiconductor: 343S00025-A1 and 343S00052-A1 are Dialog chips D2231A and D2257A respectively, based on the die markings on their photos.
The D2231A is probably the fast charging chip. Apple might introduce it for the iPhone - fast charging would be a great function to have (lets see if the rumoured smaller iPhone will have it in March next year).
Gentlemen, anyone know where I can fix my iPad Pro 1st gen, I suspect the charge controller went out completely. It started to restart by it self faster and faster until it would restart every two minutes then just died. Would not charge.
fmdc 6683 is a p-channel mosfet
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Even, even more chips on the logic board:
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AKM Semiconductor AK8963C 3-Axis Electronic Compass
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Bosch Sensortec BMA282 Accelerometer
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Bosch Sensortec BMP282 Pressure Sensor
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STMicroelectronics STM32L052T8 32-Bit Arm Cortex-M0+ Microcontroller w/ 64 Kb Flash
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Diodes Incorporated PI3USB102E 480 Mbps USB 2.0 Switch
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Texas Instruments TPS3898 Adjustable Voltage Monitor
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ON Semiconductor FXMA2102 2-Bit Voltage Translator/Buffer/Repeater Isolator
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Great Scott! Do our eyes deceive us?
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We must have been extra good this year—we've received the gift of adhesive pull tabs under iPad batteries.
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We've only been asking for iPad tabs since the very first pull tabs showed up in the iPhone 5s...
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These new pull tabs are even cooler than their iPhone counterparts; there's no need to worry about tweezer grip or stubby fingers—these tabs have a handy spudger hole!
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We have so much fun pulling out these adhesive tabs that we thought we'd include a video.
Are those replaceable too?
How do you get all that whateveritis BACK into its slot?
when you put a new battery in, it should come with new adhesive tabs.
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The last component we'll try to remove on the road to teardown glory is the Smart Connector port cable.
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''Try'' being the operative word...
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There are no visible screws, and after a lot of Jedi mind tricks, i.e. elbow grease (and totally mangling the cable bracket), the port is still not budging.
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After literally smashing the contacts through with a hammer, we manage to free the cable.
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iPad Pro Repairability Score: 3 out of 10 (10 is easiest to repair)
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The battery is not soldered to the logic board, and can now be removed with adhesive tabs, greatly simplifying battery removal.
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The Smart Connector port is virtually impossible to replace—but incorporates no moving parts and is unlikely to fail.
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The LCD and front panel glass are fused together. This slightly simplifies the opening procedure.
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The fused front panel increases the cost of screen repair, and the risk of damaging the LCD when opening.
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Gobs of adhesive hold everything in place making all repairs more difficult.
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27 opmerkingen
The display seemed to come off really easily, and your pics don't show all the messy glue residue we normally see. But you don't mention its thickness or strength, compared to the wafer-thin (and shattering) Microsoft Surface Pro 4.
Also, that unibody shell is one helluva lot of machined-out (and so pretty thin) alumin[i]um - has Apple used the same 7000 series alloy as in the iPhone 6S/6S+ - or are we waiting for Bendgate Pro?
Brian
I'd like to know the same. I have an iPad pro and there's a dent in it. I didn't notice until I got home. However, Apple was right on it by sending me a new one. Just by holding both the 6s plus, which is 7000 and the iPad pro. I must say the iPad pro doesn't seem like it's the same 7000. This is my best guess is because the iPad pro feels a lot like the original 6, which had issues with its housing. Hope this helps.
i actually did a bit of searching on this and it turns out that the ipad pro is mad of 7000 series aluminium to prevent the ipad from bending in bags for example
Did you find anything specific to the iPad Pro that would tie the use of the Apple Pencil to it? I'm wondering if the Apple Pencil will be able to be used on other iPads, or if there is any hardware in the Pro that makes it work?
Thanks!
More than enough space to add a SD card reader! Even with "PRO" in its name, Apple forbids users to have more storage than what they offer, at a premium price.
Shame on you Apple. Shame on you.
I have pondered about why Apple makes such a small storage for a tablet designed for professional use . It only requires few large-size videos and other images for it to be filled up.
Can you Xray the A9X
Greeting all. I damaged my screen and I found a LCD for cheaper than Apples 600$ fix. If I was to try to replace the LCD by myself, would I just have to go to step 6?
This is a teardown and should not be followed as a repair guide, the iPad opening procedure is fairly similar for most models, but the cable and antenna locations vary by model. Take a look at the iPad Air front panel replacement guide to get an idea of how to open the iPad Pro before doing anything else. The iPad Pro will be different of course, namely it has a fused display, but at least you can see the heating and prying procedure. Good luck!
you can replace it yourself, but good luck finding quality parts! only apple sells those! And make sure you use an antistatic wrist strap.
What about the sound chip and sound components? I wasn quality sound output as I want to use it with my 12 speaker Bose tower system. The speakers on the iPad are not really important to me. But the quality of the sound output is extremenly important. I want the best sounding iPad or iPod available to use with my Bose speaker system
Where is magnetic sensor on the right side of iPad Pro located?
I have problem with it, my Smart Cover can not snap on the right place and I think the problem is not with the cover because I tried with another magnetic cover and the problem still there. It seem there is reserved polarity on magnetic sensor in my iPad Pro.
Will the fingerprint Sensor ID still work on moving the Home Button from the Customers Original Broken Screen to the new Screen?
Do you have to go to 20 steps just to replace the battery? How much should I pay for a 12.9 ipad with a battery that won’t hold a charge?
I’m having issues with a jammed power switch. It’s jammed down and I can’t pull it back up and now I can’t put my iPad in sleeper mode nor completely turn it off (doing so will cause it to repeat the boot up processes till the battery dies). I can’t find any information on this so any help would really help on this.
Yeah, good teardown, but I was really hoping you’d take apart the display so we’d find out exactly what extra hardware the Apple Pencil requires to run. Hmm, I’ll check out the teardown for the latest iPad (2018) - which now includes Pencil support, so maybe you’ll be more interested in that this time round :D
Hey I’ve got a 12.9 and tried replacing the screen and found that the replacements ribbon wiring was different? Do I need to get a sepecif version to get the right screen or ?
what type of connector or cable does the battery have? wondering if i can remove and replace without any issues
In step 20 you can see the metal contacts between the two battery cells. The logic board has spring contacts underneath it, connecting it to the battery.
MAKE SURE YOU DO NOT INSERT ANY CARDS/PICKS/SPUDGERS MORE THAN 1/4 inch tops!! YOU WILL DAMAGE THE SCREEN. Just replaced the battery in my iPad Pro 12.9 (A1652). Unfortunately I did not read this until completed. I now have several areas on my $1000 iPad where the white screen has orange burn looking marks around the edges. Looks like it was a $200 oops. Live and Learn. I’m now a member and will utilize this website for future endeavors…
I love my i-pad pro but I want to know what’s with the empty area up to-p where the speakers and head phone jack are , is it empty cause something may be coming in the future , on the out side at the top on the back there are two minute holes , small enough for a paper clip to be inserted maybe to open or reset something, since Apple does not design their product willy nilly , I see a mystery , anyone know what it’s for?
