Whenever a new Apple product is launched, iFixit runs to take it apart in order to show us all the beauty inside how repairable the product is. The shuffle and nano iPods only gained new colors, remaining with the same interior; but we can’t talk the same about touch, which after three years has finally gained a significant update.
To recap, here are his technical specifications:
- A8 processor entitled to the M8 coprocessor (same as iPhones 6/6 Plus)
- 1GB of RAM (same as iPhones 6/6 Plus)
- 4-inch Retina IPS Multi-Touch Screen (1136 Ă— 640 pixels; 326ppp)
- Contrast ratio 800: 1 (against 1400: 1 on iPhone 6 and 1300: 1 on iPhone 6 Plus)
- Wi-Fi 802.11a / b / g / n / ac (same as iPhones 6/6 Plus)
- Bluetooth 4.1 (better than 4.0 on iPhones 6/6 Plus)
- 8MP iSight camera (rear) with autofocus and Ć’ / 2.4 aperture (almost the same as for iPhones 6/6 Plus)
- 1.2MP FaceTime HD (front) camera with Ć’ / 2.2 aperture
Now let’s get down to business!
Apple continues to use a lot of adhesive to attach the display to the body of the iPod touch.
Up to this point iFixit said that everything is very similar to the fifth generation model, launched in 2012.
The way Apple attaches the battery to the device’s body has changed a little bit (it is glued with an adhesive that already has a small piece ready to be pulled out, to facilitate the exchange – even though everything remains very difficult). In comparison, the 6th generation iPod touch battery is slightly better than the 5th generation (3.83V; 3.99Wh; 1.043mAh vs. 3.7V; 3.8Wh; 1,030mAh).
Under the battery we have a unique piece that houses the Lightning, the speaker, the microphone, the headphone jack and the Home button switch – all connected to the logic board by a ribbon cable.
Speaking of logic board, the components are still welded to it. There, near the sign, we have the antenna, the volume and on / off buttons, the rear camera and the microphone.
Here is a comparison of the iPhone 6 camera (left) with that of the new iPod touch (right). The size of the smartphone’s camera shows that, although both have 8 megapixels, the iPhone’s is still better and has features like automatic stabilization, sapphire crystal lens, larger aperture, ability to record videos at 60 frames per second / slow videos at 240fps, etc.
Here, in detail, the front camera of the iPod touch.
And the logic board with the A8 processor (red), M8 coprocessor (orange), 16GB Toshiba flash memory (yellow), InvenSense gyroscope and accelerometer (green), Broadcom Bluetooth / Wi-Fi module (light blue), touchscreen controllers from Broadcom and Texas Instruments (dark blue and lilac)…
Codec Cirrus audio controller (red), NXP display interface controller (orange), Texas Instruments DAC (yellow) and power manager (green).
IFixit gave a repair note of 4/10 for the 6th generation iPod touch, noting that, although very difficult to open, replacing components is not impossible (battery case). However, Apple continues to weld parts to the logic board (making it very difficult to repair), using a combination of clips and stickers, among other techniques that do not help when making a repair.
Comparatively, the 5th generation iPod touch won a 3/10 score, so we saw a small improvement in the repairability issue.