iFixIt Pod touch 5th Generation 16 GB Teardown

iFixit Chief Information Architect Miroslav Djuric reports:

Sneaky, sneaky Apple. Thought you could pull a fast one on us by releasing a new, stripped-down version of the current iPod touch without your customary fanfare? Not on our watch: It’s teardown time.

Of course, this new iPod is less revolutionary and more iterative than most Apple releases. Aside from the lack of a 5-megapixel, rear-facing camera, there isnt much that distinguishes the iPod touch 5th Generation 16 GB from its (slightly older) forebear. So, for this teardown, we played a game of spot the differences. Here’s what we found: theres a gap on the logic board where the camera cable used to connect, the microphone moved from the back of the iPod to the top, and the baffling post for the loop has been nixed.

Given the lack of major changes between permutations, the iPod touch 5th Generation 16 GB received a 3 out of 10 on our repairability scale – the same as its higher capacity counterparts.

Teardown Highlights:

• The exclusion of two main components has earned the iPod touch 5th Generation 16 GB a new model number from its 32 and 64 GB brothers: A1509.

• We used our trusty iOpener to loosen the adhesive securing the front panel to the rear case. We’re getting used to this opening method, as it melts adhesive as fast as water melts a wicked witch, without risking screen warp.

Photo Courtesy iFixIt

• The first obvious internal difference between the touches is the lack of a wrist strap post inside the rear case. The speaker, originally curved to surround the post, remains unchanged.

Photo Courtesy iFixIt

• With the exception of the flash memory, it appears that the ICs on the 16 GB model’s logic board are the same as those found on the 32 and 64 GB models:
– Apple A5 dual-core processor, with 4 Gb (512 MB) of Mobile DDR2 RAM.
– Toshiba THGBX2G7B2JLA01 128 Gb (16 GB) NAND flash
– Apple 3381064 dialog power management IC (similar to the Apple 338S1131)
– Murata 339S0171 Wi-Fi module
– Broadcom BCM5976 touchscreen controller
– STMicroelectronics low-power, three-axis gyroscope (AGD3/2229/E5GEK)
– Apple 338S1116 and 338S1077 Cirrus Audio Codec

Photo Courtesy iFixIt

Thank you,

Miroslav Djuric
iFixit Chief Information Architect

You can chek out the full teardown at:
http://goo.gl/Ki6Lq

iFixIt Tablet Repairability Index

iFixit CEO Kyle Wiens says:

Every time you walk into an electronics store, you’re making a choice. Every gadget you buy is a vote cast. We want people to make informed decisions, as their votes influence how hardware manufacturers choose to design in the future.

Some may care that their tablets are easy to repair and upgrade; others may not. For those that do, we’ve aggregated our repairability scores for the best-selling tablets into one convenient page:

We weren’t able to list every single tablet, but this list is a good start. We have to disassemble each tablet to score it, so additional hardware will show up as we perform more teardowns. Our hope is that through customers’ votes, manufacturers will create long-lasting, easy-to-repair hardware that we can all love.