A new teardown has revealed that Apple’s latest tablet, the iPad 2017 (9.7-inch), can be repaired with parts from the original iPad Air, which could be good news for consumers.
The findings once again comes to us from professional gadget breakers iFixit, who followed up their initial 2017 iPad teardown with a more detailed analysis of the device’s internals.
While the first teardown revealed the new 9.7-inch iPad to be basically an updated iPad Air, we now know that it’s so similar, parts from the old Air should be able to be used to repair the more recent model.
Sing “same old Apple, always cheating” until you’re blue in the face, but this is potentially good news for buyers of the new iPad.
Why?
Well, not only will Apple repair outfits be operating in familiar territory – likely resulting in a quicker repair – but you might be able to opt to repair your new iPad with older parts on the cheap.
iFixit’s teardown showed that most components in the new iPad could be swapped with parts from the Air, with a handful of exceptions, including the Home button, front camera, and power and volume buttons.
None of those are common breakages, however.
Usefully, the original Air’s LCD panel can apparently be reused in the new iPad, though not without some significant trade-offs.
“An iPad 5 LCD will work in an iPad Air 1 (and actually give it a brightness boost). An Air 1 LCD in an iPad 5 also works, but the display was very dim (~200 nits versus an expected ~440 nits). And the left edge had weird backlight bleed,” the site explains.
As such, we wouldn’t necessarily recommend going the cheap and cheerful old part route, but it’s worth knowing about all the options available to you – especially if you like to DIY your gadget repairs
After all the teardowns, do you still feel the new iPad is ‘new’? Share your thoughts in the comments below.
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Editorial independence
Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
