iFixit got its hands on an iPad 2 and promptly tore the tablet down to its screws and rails. Most notable of all its finding, iFixit revealed the second generation tablet contains 512 MB of RAM, twice as much as its predecessor. This is good news for people interested in the raw hardware specs of the device. Other notable findings and part identifications include:
- 3.8V, 25 watt-hour battery which is slightly larger than the 24.8 watt-hour battery of the iPad
- the A5 dual-core processor has a 500 MHz bus and manufacture dates of late January and mid-February 2011
- Toshiba 16GB NAND Flash (TH58NVG7D2FLA89)
- Broadcom Microcontroller for the touchscreen (BCM5973KFBGH) which is the same as the original iPad
- Broadcom capacitative touchscreen controller (BCM5974 CKFBGH) which is the same as the original iPad
- Texas Instruments touchscreen line driver (CD3240B0 11AZ4JT)
- Broadcom Wi-Fi/Bluetooth/FM tuner combo chip (BCM43291HKUBC) which is the same as the original iPad and the iPhone 4
- Power Management IC (S6T2MLC N33C50V)
- ST Micro gyroscope (AGD8 2103)
- ST Micro accelerometer (LIS331DLH)
- Apple-branded SGP chip (338S0940 A0BZ1101) which appears similar to the Cirrus audio codec Chipworks found in the Verizon iPhone
The iPad 2 is given a rating of 4 out of 10 for it ability to be repaired at home. Due to its new slim design, Apple has removed the tabs that held in the glass front and the LCD. These tabs were replaced with a large amount of glue. The glue makes it difficult to remove the front glass panel and increases the chance that you will shatter the glass while trying to remove it. The LCD and the glass is also thinner on the second generation device as shown below
- iPad 1: lcd = 3.2 mm glass = .85 mm
- iPad 2: lcd = 2.4 mm glass = .62 mm
iFixit points out this thinner glass my lead to higher rates of glass breakage on the iPad 2 and could reduce the overall durability of the device.