iPad 2 Wi-Fi Teardown
We got our hands on Apple's newest tablet, the iPad 2 on March 11, 2011. Follow us on Twitter to get all the latest updates. Finally!!! The iPad has come back to iFixit! And this time, it has a 2 in front of its name, hence the iPad 2!
Context & Ripple Effects
iFixit's iPad 2 teardown lands nine days after Apple's March 2 launch event and hours after Friday's rain-soaked overnight lines in New York, closing the loop on a rumor cycle that had run since January's "iPad 2 is coming soon!" speculation. The site has form here: its April 2010 FCC teardown of the original iPad set the template of cracking open Apple tablets on day one.
The story traveled quickly — MacRumors' same-day pickup highlighted the A5 processor, a "neat and tidy" interior, and what it called a massive-but-thin battery, confirming in retail hardware what the launch keynote only asserted. With Motorola's Xoom under intensified pressure from the launch itself, the internals are now the evidence base every competitor comparison will cite.
First-order effects
- Repair shops and accessory makers get their first verified look at the iPad 2's actual internal layout — component placement, screw types, and battery geometry — within hours of the device going on sale.
Second-order effects
- Competitors like Motorola now have to argue against measured facts rather than marketing claims: the A5 and the thin battery profile become the benchmark any rival tablet's spec sheet is checked against.
Third-order effects
- Day-one teardowns are hardening into a fixed ritual of major consumer-electronics launches, giving sites like iFixit a standing editorial franchise and manufacturers a de facto public inspection of build choices at every generation.
The trend: Consumer tablet launches now unfold as a two-stage reveal — the keynote announcement followed within days by an independent teardown that turns marketing claims into measurable engineering facts.