Gadgetory

from the outside ampuls third generation iPad may look a lot like its predecessor but it's what's on the inside that really counts I'm Bill Detweiler head technology editor at CNET's sister site tech Republic and I'm going to crack open the 2012 Apple iPad the 2012 iPads design and construction are nearly identical to that of the iPad 2 unfortunately this means the new tablets case is just as difficult to open and reseal as the previous models now to begin I used a hairdryer to loosen the adhesive which holds the front panel in place I then used a series of plastic and metal tools to gently pry off the panel next I removed the new Retina display and disconnected the front panel from the motherboard I then detached the visible connectors from the motherboard and removed the motherboard and connected cellular board at this point I decided against removing any of the other components from the case most are either held in place with very strong adhesive or their connector cables are forcing them loose could damage them and I want to put this iPad back together in working order so the only thing left for me to do is remove the EMI RFI shields from the motherboard and with that my teardown was complete so what did I learn from cracking open to 2012 iPad well as I said earlier the new tablet is nearly identical to the iPad 2 in design and construction it's the same width and height and thicker by less than a millimeter this is nice as it means many iPad 2 accessories such as the smart cover will fit this year's model on the inside Apple kept the overall hardware layout the same but upgraded many of the components the most significant of which is the new Retina display this nine point seven inch screen offers a resolution of 2048 by 1536 at 264 pixels per inch this is four times the iPad 2's total number of pixels and according to Apple you won't be able to see the pixels when viewing the new iPad at a distance of about 15 inches now to run this new display Apple beefed up the tablet's GPU and ram from the evidence I've seen the 2012 iPads a 5x system-on-a-chip has a 1 gigahertz dual-core CPU and a 200 megahertz quad-core GPU now in comparison the iPad twos a5 system-on-a-chip has a one gigahertz dual-core CPU and a dual core GPU the 2012 iPad also has one gig of ram compared to the iPad 2s 512 Meg along with the upgraded graphics the new iPad also has an improved 5 megapixel iSight camera which can shoot 1080p video and the unit supports AT&T and Verizon 4G LTE networks on 4G models now to power all these new features Apple gave the 2012 iPad a battery with significantly more capacity than the previous version 43 watt hours compared to 25 watt hours given the new tablets beefier Hardware battery life though remains about the same 10 hours under normal use and nine hours on 4G on the downside Apple didn't increase the iPad storage capacity the 2012 model comes in 16 32 and 64 gig versions also the tablet still has a single speaker whereas most other 10-inch tablets have 2 lastly like the iPad 2 the new iPad is frustratingly difficult to work on it should come as no surprise but Apple doesn't really want you mucking about inside your iPad as far as pricing Wi-Fi only iPads start at $4.99 and go up to $6.99 Wi-Fi plus 4G models and 130 bucks to the price while there's nothing revolutionary about the new iPad it's definitely a solid incremental update and the Retina display puts every other tablet to shame now to see more iPad teardown photos check out my full cracking open gallery at TechRepublic com forward slash cracking open for CNET and TechRepublic I'm Bill Detweiler this has been a cracking open of the 2012 Apple iPad