Apple's latest iPad "mostly inherits hand-me-down features" from previous iPhones and iPads, according to a teardown report by iFixit. Despite many "repurposed" features, though, including an iPhone 7 A10 Fusion processor, iFixit called the update to Apple's tablet a "solid incremental improvement."
The 10.2-inch iPad, unveiled during Apple's iPhone 11 event earlier in September, starts at $329 (£349, AU$529) and is available Sept. 30 with the new iPad OS. It's a bigger version of the previous 9.7-inch iPad.
Despite having the same battery as last time with a bigger screen, Apple retained the 10-hour battery life with better power efficiency, iFixit said Friday. The publication also praised the addition of a Smart Connector so keyboards can be attached, and the RAM improvement to 3GB.
"This turned out to be a pretty light refresh! Just a size increase, the addition of a Smart Connector, and an extra GB of RAM," iFixit said. "With great size comes big responsibility: the new iPad finally gets Apple's Smart Connector for keyboard compatibility. Yay for productivity!"
However, the company gave the new iPad a repairability score of just 2 out of 10 because of "a solid barrier of very strong adhesive" as well as the Lightning port being soldered to the logic board.
The new 10.20-inch iPad comes in space gray, silver and gold, and in 32GB and 128GB options (the latter starts at $429). The Wi-Fi + cellular iPads cost $429 for 32GB and $559 for 128GB.
"iPad is a magical piece of glass that can be anything we want it to be," Greg Joswiak, Apple's VP of product marketing, said during the Apple event on Sept. 10.
Apple didn't immediately respond to a request for comment on iFixIt's findings.
