Keeping its tradition, the iFixit has already managed to get its hands on a second generation iPad mini – they started to be sold yesterday in several countries – and dismantled the device, showing us all the internal news.

It is worth noting that the second generation iPad mini – which has a Retina display, A7 processor (64-bit), M7 coprocessor, 1GB of RAM, 5 megapixel iSight, Wi-Fi 802.11n / MIMO, 16/32 capacities / 64 / 128GB, among other features – it is very similar to the iPad Air, which has already been disassembled by iFixit.


To open the iPad mini, the repair company encountered the same difficulty as always: glue for everything that is on the side.

The first piece to come out was the long-awaited Retina display.

If the LCD shield had 16 screws before, Apple now uses only 7.

The display of the open unit is manufactured by LG and powered by the Parade DP675 driver, very similar to that found on the iPad Air (DP655).

Broadcom’s touchscreen controller (BCM5976), used in the iPhone 5s and iPad Air, is also present in the mini.

The battery had to undergo changes to account for the new Retina display. Now, the device has a 3.75V, 24.3Whr and 6,471mAh battery, much larger than that found in first generation mini iPads (3.78V, 16.9Whr and 4,400mAh).

Here, too, is the explanation for the 0.3mm thickness of the second generation tablet. Still, the battery of the second generation mini lasts the same time as the first generation (up to 10 hours of browsing via Wi-Fi).

As always, a lot of adhesive to keep everything in place.


Above, the front (FaceTime; 1.2 megapixel) and rear (iSight; 5 megapixel) cameras.

The audio input (headphones) is the same as the Air.

Detail for the design of the double antenna.

The white space exists because we are talking about a Wi-Fi model. There, in this case, the chip found in Wi-Fi + Cellular versions of the tablet would enter. Highlighted in red we see the Wi-Fi module USI 339S0213, the same as the Air.

Here’s the brain of the second generation iPad mini. On this board we have the A7 (APL0698, the same as the iPhone 5s), LPDDR3 DRAM (F8164A1PD) 1GB from Elpida, M7 coprocessor (NXP LPC18A1), 16GB Toshiba NAND flash (THGBX2G7B2JLA01), accelerometer / gyroscope MEM33, from ST33, ST33 among other chips so that everything works perfectly.
Here, the video showing the whole process:
Due to the enormous similarity to the iPad Air, you can even imagine the repairability note of the second generation mini, right?

Who answered 2/10 was correct. For more details / curiosities of this endeavor, be sure to visit the iFixit website.