Apple surprised us yesterday by releasing the Retina display iPad Mini. The company had announced the tablet in late October but didn't give a release date. Early Tuesday morning, the company updated its website to include both the WiFi and WiFi + Cellular models. Of course, the guys at iFixit were first in line to get one with the sole intention of tearing Apple's newest toy apart.
Despite the fact that the iPad Mini has a brand spanking new Retina display and Apple's A7 processor with M7 co-processor, iFixit found that not a whole lot has changed under the hood. The internal architecture hasn't really changed all that much as far as construction goes. As such, the Mini retains the same 2 out of 10 repairability score that the original version was awarded this time last year.
Full specs include that all important 7.9-inch 2048 x 1536 (326 ppi) display, Apple's 64-bit A7 SoC, up to 128 GB of flash storage, a 5-megapixel iSight camera, a 1.2-megapixel FaceTime HD camera, WiFi, Bluetooth 4.0, LTE (optional) and 10 hours of battery life.
The iFixit team did find out that the display is an LG model powered by a Parade DP675 LCD driver and that the battery is significantly larger compared to the battery inside the first generation Mini. Powering the second generation iPad Mini is a 24.3 Whr battery as opposed to the 16.3 Whr battery from last year. WiFi-only models also have a hole in the logic board where the cellular chip isn't.
Chips inside include the same Apple A7 APL0698 SoC that's in the iPhone 5S (inside that is Elpida F8164A1PD 1 GB LPDDR3 DRAM), as well as Apple's M7 motion co-processor, otherwise known as NXP LPC19A1 and 16 GB of NAND flash provided by Toshiba.
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Jane McEntegart is a writer, editor, and marketing communications professional with 17 years of experience in the technology industry. She has written about a wide range of technology topics, including smartphones, tablets, and game consoles. Her articles have been published in Tom's Guide, Tom's Hardware, MobileSyrup, and Edge Up.
