When Apple announced the new 10th Gen iPad, I had mixed feeling about it. While the new design with flashy colors, the landscape camera, and the USB Type-C port make compelling cases, the display not being laminated and still relying on the weird 1st gen Apple Pencil alongside the increased price, make the new iPad, hard to recommend. The one logic to justify all of these compromises could have been the repairability, but the 10th Gen iPad isn’t as repairable as we might have thought.
10th Gen iPad Repairability – The Expectations Were Higher
iFixit recently took the 10th Gen iPad apart and the results were definitely now what we were hoping for. First, let’s get the big question out of the way. Yes, the top glass is easily removable, thanks to it not being laminated. So, if you drop your iPad and break the top glass, you won’t need to replace the entire display like the other iPads (Mini, Air, and Pro) out there. Sadly, that’s where the repairability advantages end.
Apple mostly made bad decisions when it comes to the inside of the new iPad. The logic board is glued down to the frame, making it much harder to remove, and without removing the board, you can’t remove the battery. Thankfully, once you get to the battery, it has four pull-tabs underneath that help to get the battery out safely. But, the fact that the glued-down board needs to be removed for battery replacement, goes against that whole repair-friendly mantra.
Another issue is the USB port. Apple switched to USB Type-C this year which is a welcome change, but even then, the company didn’t make the USB-C port modular and it’s still attached to the logic board. That means if your USB port is damaged, you’ll need to replace the entire logic board to get it fixed.
Also Read: Apple May Launch A Foldable iPad and Foldable Mac by 2024
2nd Gen Apple Pencil Support Could Probably Have Been Implemented
The primary reason why the device doesn’t have the 2nd Gen Apple Pencil support seems to be the new vertical front-facing camera. It is located right where the Apple Pencil charging hardware rests on the other iPads (see the photo in the above section). So, of course, the company couldn’t place the wireless charging hardware exactly in that place if they wanted the front camera there.
However, it is clear from the iPad Air 5 that the charging area isn’t that huge, and considering how much space is left over above and below the selfie camera, Apple could have placed the charging hardware someplace else instead. Yes, the Pencil wouldn’t stay exactly at the center, but it still could have worked.
Sure, it would take some extra effort to make this system work, but it feels like Apple just skipped over this part as they didn’t want to spend any extra RnD for their cheapest iPad. Anyway, I expect both a vertical front camera and Gen 2 Apple Pencil support to appear in a future iPad Pro.
Source: iFixit
