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Teardown shows iPad mini 3’s “hastily glued” Touch ID Home button makes for difficult screen repairs

iPad-mini-3-teardown-01

Following a teardown of the new iPad Air 2 earlier this week, our friends over at iFixit have now opened up Apple’s other new tablet: the iPad mini 3 … 

While the new iPad mini 3 was more of a minor refresh compared to the iPad Air 2, it does add some notable new features like the Touch ID fingerprint sensor. iFixit also found some other tweaks made to the device on the inside:

Yes—that is hot glue holding the home button bracket to the front panel. Good luck transferring that to your replacement glass. (Which you’re going to have to do, to keep the Touch ID functionality after a cracked screen repair.)

Apart from the additional glue on the home button making for more difficult screen repairs, iFixit notes the rest of the device is almost identical and thus earns the same low 2/10 repairability score as the previous generation.

So maybe the Mini fell out of step with technology’s march just a little. But hey, now you can use your new iPad Mini to pay for things (online, where supported). This is thanks to the inclusion of a Touch ID-equipped home button, hastily glued in place… The crummy cabling of the new home button wasn’t enough to earn the iPad Mini 3 a lower repairability score, but it was a close call.

The teardown also reveals a NFC chip that we’ve confirmed with sources is for use as the Secure Element in Apple Pay for in-app purchases only on the new iPads. In addition, a 24.3-watt-hour 6471mAh battery is present which, unlike the iPad Air 2, is the same size as the previous generation.

The new Home button bracket for Touch ID can be seen below:

iPad-mini-3-teardown-home-touchid-01

Chips and other components found in the iPad mini 3 that aren’t listed by Apple include:

– Apple A7 APL0698 SoC
– SK Hynix H9CKNNN8KTARKR 1 GB LPDDR3 DRAM
– SK Hynix H2JTDG8UD1BMR 16 GB NAND Flash
– Universal Scientific Industrial 339S0213 Wi-Fi Module
– Apple 343S00004-A1
– NXP Semiconductors 65V10 NFC Controller
– NXP Semiconductors LPC18A1 (Apple M7 Motion Co-Processor)
– Apple (Cirrus Logic) 338S1213 Audio Codec
– Apple 338S1199
– Fairchild Semiconductor FDMC6676BZ and FDCM6683 MOSFETs
– NXP 1610A1 Display Interface IC

A teardown of the iPad Air 2 earlier this week revealed a number of minor tweaks and, as expected, an approximately 15% smaller battery compared to the previous generation Air.

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Comments

  1. rettun1 - 9 years ago

    The mini released this year sure is quite curious. $100 for a gold case an Touch ID is a hard sell. But at least the mini 2 now goes for 299

    • lycius84 - 9 years ago

      I agree. If I were to buy a mini this year I would save myself $100 and go for the mini 2. Touch ID is very nice but not worth $100 for convenience.

  2. rogifan - 9 years ago

    iFixit whining about something 99.9999% of people will never attempt to do. Yawn.

    • houstonche - 9 years ago

      They are whining because the area they support cares about this sort of thing. Why is that an issue??

      • PMZanetti - 9 years ago

        Because iFixit is a rip-off outfit that cares more about repairability (their rip-off business) than the quality of actual products.

      • houstonche - 9 years ago

        How is repairing devices a rip off? They are a third party company, no different than non apple affiliated case makers. They give a rating of devices based on the ability to repair a device without going back to a company. If that’s the sort of thing that’s important to you, then it’s valuable information. If it isn’t, then it shouldn’t influence your decision to buy one or not. There is really no issue here.

    • giskardian - 9 years ago

      Yeah, they won’t attempt to do it because Apple makes it so hard to do!

      Replacing a battery in a device should not require an experienced technician with specialized tools. If you enjoy being abused by Apple then please keep it to yourself and stop whining about those of us who can think for ourselves.

  3. Mr. Grey (@mister_grey) - 9 years ago

    So it looks like they *literally* took the exact same computer and hot glued a new Home button in with a crappy “one off” cable. But far be it for any tech sites to actually criticise Apple about this or make it seem “bad.”

    On a separate note:

    Please stop posting links to iFixit from with your articles, they all fail due to lack of authorisation anyway.

    • chrisl84 - 9 years ago

      “But far be it for any tech sites to actually criticize Apple about this…” HA do you read anything other than 9to5, most sites call the mini 3 a do not buy and some were pretty vocal about the nonupgrade upgrade. But, far be it for this poster to criticize anything from Apple that isnt hardware related….I mean you are the iOS 8 is “literally” bug free guru.

      • Mr. Grey (@mister_grey) - 9 years ago

        I don’t know what tech sites you are reading, but that just isn’t true.

        The worst thing most tech sites will say about the new mini is that “It *might* not be the *best* upgrade.” and that only after a long article typically singing the praises of Apple and describing every detail of the thing as if it were a brand new device.

        The thing is literally last year’s device, with a hot-glued in new Home button. It’s a disgrace, and it’s been marketed by Apple in a clearly deceptive way.

        They literally should have just said “The iPad mini 2, now with a new Home button!” and sold it at the same discounted price that they are selling the mini 2 at. It’s not like they don’t have an entire warehouse full of millions and millions of TouchID buttons. It’s not like these TouchID buttons actually cost that much considering how many of them are made.

        It’s last years computer, with a new button hot-glued in, sold to people as a new thing (when it’s not), and at the same price you’d expect for a new iPad. I don’t think it’s going too far at all to call it an absolute disgrace.

  4. Looks like the watch was more important.

  5. Laughing_Boy48 - 9 years ago

    I can only imagine how many consumers will attempt to repair this device. One out of a million, maybe? Take it back to Apple and get a replacement. Sorry, but Apple is definitely trying to make these things non-repairable. Profit margins – 1, user-accessibility – 0. I used to like to repair devices but have mostly given up and I don’t feel that badly about it.

    • giskardian - 9 years ago

      “Take it back to Apple and get a replacement.”

      I wasn’t aware of an Apple program to replace devices with worn-out batteries. Perhaps you meant to say “take it to the landfill and buy a new one”?

      Sure Apple will replace the battery for you, for an extravagant fee. Easier to do it yourself IMO. Anyone with a bit of sense, time, and good hands can replace the battery on an iPad. Just gotta man up and do it.

      I agree though that most of the fanbois won’t do it themselves, because their cognitive powers are too feeble to even attempt a battery replacement.

  6. Edison Wrzosek - 9 years ago

    In all honesty, I don’t think this will be much of an issue… While I’m surprised in Apple’s choice of mounting Touch ID the way they did, in the event you do crack the screen, one should be taking it to a qualified tech, preferably Apple, to have the unit repaired. If you take it to one of those Chinese shops, or attempt it yourself, you’re asking for trouble.

    In fact, I’ve yet to see a single iPad Mini with a cracked screen in-the-wild…

  7. celnation - 9 years ago

    I feel screen replacement is the easiest part that I can do in an iPad. But not sure, it will again work or not :P

Author

Avatar for Jordan Kahn Jordan Kahn

Jordan writes about all things Apple as Senior Editor of 9to5Mac, & contributes to 9to5Google, 9to5Toys, & Electrek.co. He also co-authors 9to5Mac’s Logic Pros series.