March 13, 2011

iFixit gets inside the iPad 2 - 512MB of RAM, 900MHz dual-core processor and 4/10 repairability

iFixit loves tearing down devices and tinkering whatever is inside it, have opened up the iPad2 which comes with it confirmation of it's specifications. When the iPad 2 was unveiled, it had with it an Apple A5 1GHz dual-core processor. The truth is, it may be 1GHz on paper but the processor is "dynamically underclocked at 900MHz" to reduce power consumption.




Confirmed by software, the iPad 2 features 512MB of RAM. But aside from these, the iPad 2 is still an eye popping device with the help of the PowerVR SGX543MP2 GPU. The graphics processor blows any other device when it comes to graphics prowess giving the iPad 2 a GLBenchmark test result of 57.6 fps. Compare that to the Motorola Xoom that packs an nVidia Tegra 2 chip to only give a 26.7 fps. 

"Though the new chip didn't quite demonstrate 9X the graphical prowess of its predecessor, it rendered 57.6 frames per second in a GLBenchmark test where the (admittedly higher-res) Tegra 2 tablet managed only 26.7fps, and last year's iPad pulled only 17.6fps." - Endgadget
The iPad 2 also sports a thinner LCD panel which eventually helped Apple in making the tablet device thin. And not only that, the LCD is now adhered into the device, since Apple have switched from clips to secure the LCD panel (iPad 1). This is a result of the iPad 2's tapered edges design. But what really amazed me when iFixit did the dismantling of the iPad 2 is the different brands of the tablet's internals.

The ARM A9 Cortex based Apple A5 dual-core processor "seemed to be marked by Samsung". This is yet to be confirmed though. The Flash disk (storage) is manufactured by Toshiba. What makes the iPad 2 theoretically last up to 10 hours is with the help of a 6570 mAh battery and of course some genius power saving settings, hardware, and the underclocked processor.

And oh the camera! The rear camera is only VGA so no high-res photos from this device.

iFixit gave the iPad 2 a 4 out of 10 rapairability ratio.





Source: Endgadget (1), (2), PhoneArena


0 Comments :

Post a Comment