Apple’s 13-Inch M2 iPad Air Is Tougher To Disassemble Thanks To Its Stronger Adhesive, Latest Teardown Shows Battery Is Also Difficult To Remove

It is the first time that Apple introduced a bigger 13-inch iPad Air powered by the company’s M2 chipset, which only means that there would be various changes in arrangements of the internal components. Thankfully, the latest teardown allows us to see these immediately, revealing that this tablet is tougher to get into, unlike the M4 iPad Pro disassembly.

Bigger M2 iPad Air sports a larger and heavier battery than Apple’s M4 iPad Pro but touts a lower capacity in terms of WHr

An X-ray examination from iFixit shows that the 13-inch M2 iPad Air features a speaker rearrangement, but removing the front display from the rest of the assembly proves extremely challenging, even when the adhesive gets softened with the applied heat. With sheer persistence, iFixit’s host manages to get inside and finds two rectangular cells that are physically bigger than those in the M4 iPad Pro. With the help of several ‘pull tabs,’ the M2 iPad Air’s dual-cell arrangement can be removed, but even here, there were a few complications.

For instance, getting access to the pull tabs between one part of the battery and the M2 logic board was difficult, so if you plan on performing these replacements yourself, you must possess steel nerves and display immense patience. In typical Apple fashion, there are a copious number of connectors and screws that need to be removed, but luckily for the repair experts, the battery can be separated without the logic board getting in the way. Also, for those wondering, despite the 13-inch M2 iPad Air featuring larger cells than the ones on the 13-inch M4 iPad Pro, its capacity is smaller, at 36.58WHr.

The newest and biggest iPad Pro features a 38.99WHr battery, but before we get confused with all the battery calculations, let us move on. While logic board repairs are incredibly rare, it will be a nightmare to remove this component because it is held down in place by lots of adhesive. As for the speakers, they are bigger and thinner than the previous-generation iPad Air, with the driver magnets stuck to the aluminum chassis. Given Apple’s sub-par iPad repair track record, iFixit gave the latest one a 3 out of 10 in repairability, which is nothing unusual for these slates.

News Source: iFixit