A recent teardown of the Apple iPad Air has revealed a device that is incredibly hard to repair if you are a do-it-yourself handyman. Not only is the next-generation iOS 7 tablet hard to repair, getting the thing open is even difficult.
The results of the tear down shouldn’t come as a surprise, after all, the iPad Air is much thinner and lighter than the 4th-generation iPad, yet it features the same amount of hardware-based technology.
Admittedly the new iPad Air looks well put together when opened, showcasing Apple’s creative placement for many different computer components.
While the LCD is fairly easy to remove, the front panel is glued to the rest of the device and the battery is extremely hard to disassemble because of an excessive amount of adhesive. In fact, that adhesive is found throughout the iPad Air.
Our friends at iFixIt took a stab at the device and their photos reveal a device that was built with every millimeter of space taken into consideration. Major components for the iPad Air are placed very close to one another and they are stacked from front to back.
While you can take the iPad Air apart without the need for highly specialized tools, you would be better off allowing a specialist to fix your device. Voiding your warrant because you want to replace a component doesn’t seem like a good waste of your time, especially because a fix could take hours to complete because of the complexity involved with the teardown.
Check out all of iFixIt’s teardown photos HERE .
iFixIt has not rated the iPad Air teardown on its 1-10 scale, however, we assume it is still easier to repair than the Samsung Galaxy smartphone line which glues the digitizer to the devices glass panel.
Do you think Apple devices have become too hard to fix for the everyday do-it-yourself tech guy?