We have already seen the insides of the iPhone 8, iPhone 8 Plus and Apple Watch Series 3 (GPS + Cellular). It was missing the Apple TV 4K, Is not it? Well, not anymore.
THE iFixit already dismantled the new set-top box of the Apple!
According to them, it is not a completely new box, but there are good differences between the fourth and fifth generation models. In fact, you don’t even have to open the Apple TV 4K to notice two big differences: a redesign of the bottom for much more efficient thermal ventilation and the removal of the USB-C port – points that we mentioned in our unboxing.
Opening Apple TV is much simpler and easier than an iPhone or an Apple Watch, thanks to friendly plastic repair clips that protect the bottom panel (that’s right, no glue, stickers or proprietary screws).
One of the internal differences is that, apparently, Apple merged the new fan with the EMI heatsink / shield of the fourth generation model, combining them to form a single cooling solution – it is worth noting that the fan, fixed by Torx screws , is fully repairable / replaceable.
The Apple TV 4K logic board, like its predecessor, is very easy to remove. There are the A10X Fusion chip, the Broadcom Thunderbolt chip for Gigabit Ethernet Plus USB 3.0 (BCM57762), 3GB of RAM, the Apple memory controller (343S00150, with identification very similar to the 2015 MacBook), the Wi-Fi module / Bluetooth Murata (339S00381), Toshiba’s 32GB flash memory (THGBX6G8D2LLDXG) and the Megachips DisplayPort 1.4 to HDMI 2.0 converter (MCDP2920A4).
Like the fourth generation Apple TV, it looks like the power is transmitted to the logic board by the heatsink screws. Comparatively, the new model has a 12V to 1.083A power supply, against 12V to 0.917A of the old one.
Apple TV 4K earned an 8 out of 10 for “repairability”; pluses include the plastic clips that make it easy to open, the modular components that make it easy to disassemble and repair, the modular power supply (which has a removable AC inlet) and the Torx screws (which are industry standard) . On a negative point, we only have the fact that the main components are soldered to the logic board, which means that repairing something will require soldering at the board level or a replacement of the entire board.
