Tinkerers, repair shops will have mixed feelings about this iPad Pro teardown

Following the MacBook Air's destruction of the Mac mini, iFixit turned its gaze to the new 11-inch iPad Pro. Its teardown reveals lots of adhesive, even more magnets, and only a few surprises inside the newest Apple tablet.

Unsurprisingly, the super-narrow bezels make the new iPad Pro harder to get into the previous models. Awkwardlylt display ribbons make the display more difficult, but underneath it we find the usual suspects: the logic board, speakers, TrueDepth camera array, and batteries, to name a few components.

The new iPad Pro should be an entertainment powerhouse thanks to a total of eight speakers, composed of four woofers and four tweeters. Combines those with the Liquid Retina display with a 120Hz refresh rate, and you have a stellar music and video consumption device. However, the speakers proved impossible to remove without destroying a portion of them, thanks to their housings being carved into the aluminum case. Magnets also live under the speakers, and these are just a fraction of the magnets present inside the iPad Pro.

iFixit notes that the TrueDepth array-made up of the dot projector, ambient light sensor, IR camera, and other sensors-looks similar to the one inside the newest iPhones but has a "slightly modified form factor." The report did not elaborate on this, so we still do not know what we have to do. It's still possible that it's still possible to make it happen to iPhone iPhones (current X iPhone, XS and XS Max, and XR models can only use Face ID in portrait mode), but it's still unclear how difficult it will be for Apple to do n.

Apple brought back tabs to support the two battery cells inside the iPad Pro. These should make the batteries easier to remove, but unfortunately the batteries are also secured with an adhesive that eliminates any inconvenience. Adhesive also makes the logic board and the speakers, making it difficult to safely remove most of the device's crucial components. Notably, the iPad Pro actually contains a slightly smaller battery than the old 10.5-inch model: it's a 29.45Wh cell, down from the previous 30.8Wh cell.

One upside is that the new USB-C port is fully modular and independent from the main board, unlike the Lightning port that came before it on previous models. Which means it can be more easily replaced, which is a great perk to have a component that inevitably sees a lot of wear. The iPad Pro is the first iOS device to Apple's Lightning port. While it is possible for future-proofing and embracing more modern ports, it is likely that they will be entrenched in the Apple ecosystem and have many more lightning cables than they could have used to charge the new iPad Pro.

iFixit also takes its way to the new Apple Pencil, which is much harder to get into the iPad Pro. Pencil model, save for the new wireless charging components. Also, Apple appears to have capacitive grid inside the new Pencil, which could signal more complex gestures coming in the future.

The new Apple Pencil attaches magnetically to one edge of the new iPad Pros, allowing it to load using the iPad Pro's battery and stick close to the device it will be used. Unlike the old Apple Pencil, it does not need to connect to the USB-C tablet in order to charge or pair with the device. However, the replaceable tips represent the only common ground between the old and new Apple Pencils-old Apple Pencils will not work with the new iPad Pros, so you'll have to invest another $ 129 in the new Pencil if you need it.

iFixit gave the iPad Pro and its Apple Pencil a repairability score of three. Check out the full teardown for more details.