Hasta La Gadget!

Happy iPad Mini launch day! Sure the iPad Mini is cute. But the gurus at ifixit.com – home of repair manuals and parts for gadgets galore – want to get to the bottom of the device. So yes, they dissected an out-of-the-box unit earlier this week in their iPad Mini Teardown. View the step by step process at the video below or on their website.

Interesting findings along the way include:

• Held together with “lots of adhesive”
• Glass not fused to the front display – makes for easy repairability
• Same metal plate protecting internals, like with newest iPod Touch
• Confusion as to batteries real specs (information on the battery varies versus spec information released by Apple). Regardless, ifixit seems curious as to whether battery will last 10 hours – as reported – as the mini battery has about 50% of the power of an iPad 2.
• Dock connector sodered to the logic board – means connector replacement has to include a new board

As they do with other devices, ifixit gives the iPad Mini a ‘repairability  score’. I’ll let you watch the video to see the results. If an iPad Mini may be in your future but you are seeking feedback take a look and give ifixit’s findings consideration before you buy.