iFixIt tears down the 10.5-inch iPad Pro; here’s what they found

The gang at iFixit — who tear apart tech items and look at their innards so you don’t have to — has conducted a teardown of Apple’s new 10.5-inch iPad Pro. They find that an open-faced 10.5-inch iPad Pro is essentially a scaled-down, streamlined version of its 12.9″ predecessor.

“Whether this is a good thing remains to be seen. One move we’re particularly happy with is the retention of the 12.9″ Pro’s danger-free display cable placement,” says the iFixIt’ers. “ No improvement on the battery front, though: it’s pinned under the logic board, firmly adhered in place, and doesn’t inherit the 12.9″ iPad Pro’s handy removal tabs. Maybe after standardization comes logic.”

Click iPad Pro 10.5″ Teardown to read the complete report, but key points include: 

• iFixIt is giving Apple a little pat on the back for using Phillips screws to secure the display cable bracket.
• In the Wi-Fi model, Apple left mysterious plastic blocks where antennas might live in an LTE model. iFixIt speculates that they add support to the display assembly, as opposed to the usual empty space seen in earlier iPads.
• This iPad gets a 30.8 Wh battery—a slight downsize from the 38.8 Wh battery found in the 12.9-inch Pro, but an upgrade from the 27.91 Wh battery in the 9.7-incher.
• The iPad Pro 10.5-inch earned itself a repairability score of 2 out of 10 on our scale.