by Josh Kotel
Overview
To kick off my teardown of the A1673, I needed to remove the screen. I used a heat gun to loosen the glue, while gradually prying off the LCD Assembly using a palette knife. Removing the thin aluminum shield in the top left allows access to four very tiny screws. Once unscrewed, the screen can be detached and set aside. Diving deeper involves more tiny screws, flex cables (careful, they’re paper thin!) and adhesive-backed static dissipative foam.
Every iPad is made by Foxcomm, by both factory workers and machines. The plastic housings are made through precision injection molding.
Tools Needed
Heat gun
Pry tool
Small phillips screwdriver
Components
The iPad Pro’s screen assembly is comprised of the front panel/glass, touch screen digitizer, and LCD display. The glass–believed to be aluminosilicate–is polished with cerium oxide and glued to a plastic frame. The LCD is made from liquid crystals, and is housed between two polarizers.
The back case is CNC milled from a solid block of aluminum. In order to achieve its matte, scratch-resistant finish, the piece is anodized and sandblasted.
Note: Although highly recyclable (and Apple reuses aluminum from disused products when creating new housings) the difficulty in extracting aluminum from the earth means that it uses a large amount of fossil fuel.
The lithium-ion polymer battery takes up more space than any other component, and is pressed into the housing of the iPad by machine. The process of creating these batteries involves combining lithium with a metallic oxide catalyst, a dry solid polymer electrolyte and a metallic current collector. First, a lithium ingot is pressed and laminated until it is formed into a length of thin metallic sheet. The sheet is then spool-wound and baked in a vacuum oven to self adhere. Finally, the battery is sent off to a fabricator to be electrolyzed.
Apple’s A9X Chips, manufactured exclusively by Taiwan Semiconductors, used a 16nm FinFET lithography process.
Full disclosure–the flex cables broke and when removing the power button assembly, and is only partly pictured here. It shares a flex cable with the microphone, power button switch, flash, and ambient light sensor. The home button features a touch-sensor and is sealed with a soft rubber gasket.
Both rear (top) and front (bottom)-facing and cameras use scratch-resistant glass, and are sealed to the frame with either rubber and foam gaskets.
The A1673 features 4 speakers–two are located in either side of a long plastic bar housed below the top frame. All four speakers are housed in plastic, and sit below the same ESD foam-covered aluminum plating used to protect other components.
Apple is notoriously secretive about their manufacturing process, and so it was hard to understand as much as I would have liked about some of the components. I’ve worked on some of the earlier gen iPhones, so had a fair idea that I’d run into plenty of flex cables and lots of glue.
Notable Design Elements
- Ever since Apple introduced flash drives into their products, the interiors only get more minimal and more sleek–it’s almost artistic. No zip-tied cable nests, no loose logic board held in place by a wish. Hardly any component infringes on another’s real estate. The placement of the batteries are reminiscent of an aerial view of midwest crops, and the logic board like that of a city at night. This could be for two reasons. Firstly, because it’s Apple, they over engineer the inside, so that the outside can be simple. And secondly, they know consumers pay attention to the inside of their products, so it’d better be beautiful.
- I always notice the flex cables. Being paper thin makes them ideal for iPads and iPhones, and it also makes them stackable. You can have multiple overlapping cables take up just a few millimeters, and their wide surface makes them ripe for being glued down when needed.
Thanks for reading! Feel free to watch the teardown below 🙂