iFixit’s M4 iPad Pro teardown.
Right on schedule for past releases, iFixit has done a teardown of Apple’s new, redesigned iPad Pro. It found that the iPad itself has one big improvement in repairability over its predecessor but that the Apple Pencil Pro is basically unserviceable.
The first step in the teardown video revealed arguably Apple’s most interesting new tech: the “Tandem OLED” screen. It doesn’t reveal anything we didn’t already know and describe in our review last week, but it’s neat to see what it all looks like up close.
The teardown also found that there are not one but two metal brackets all the way through the middle of the iPad to help with durability. Some worried that the new, thinner iPad Pro would be thinner than past models to snap in half, but durability tests have shown that’s not the case. This could be part of why.
Moving on to the battery, the 38.99 Wh battery (down from 40.33 Wh) in the 13-inch M4 iPad Pro was a hassle to remove, but it was still a notable improvement over the previous unit. Before, you had to remove basically everything to get to the battery. Now, opening it still involves navigating a complicated series of screws, pull-tabs, and so on, but you can get there without removing much else.
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A glimpse at the Tandem OLED display.
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It was easier than before to get to the battery, though not exactly trivial.
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Here’s the M4.
All told, the iPad Pro is still tough to repair, but it is feasible—and in some ways, easier than before.
The Apple Pencil Pro, which iFixit also tore down, is another story. Watch the video for the details, but you’ll be watching more for the entertainment of seeing just how ridiculously impractical (nigh impossible, really) the process is rather than a how-to. It was time-consuming and filled with tasks that required extreme precision to avoid irreversible damage. iFixit concludes that it’s simply not realistically possible to perform repairs on that $129 device.
Listing image by iFixit