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iPad Does the iPad 2 has internal drop protection?

Thor774

Thor774

macrumors regular
Original poster
Sep 14, 2007
223
30
I am wondering, does the iPad 2 offer some kind of internal protection against damages produced by drops?

Apple portables like the Macbook Pro have offered anti-shock protections agains drops for some years already but I don't know if the iPad has something similar.

My iPad is protected by a plastic back case and a smartcover. I accidentally dropped it yesterday to concrete floor, it landed flat on the back case but it did not want to turn on again after this. This morning I executed a cold reset on it holding the power and home buttons and luckily it came back to life. The case was shattered on the drop bur the device appears to be working ok.

Would be nice if someone knows about this.

Thanks!
 
ucfgrad93

ucfgrad93

macrumors Core
Aug 17, 2007
19,538
10,823
Colorado
As far as I know there are no moving parts in an iPad, unlike a laptop that has a harddrive. So, I doubt there would be any internal drop protection. You might want to find a website that does a teardown of the iPad and see what they have to say.
 
I

iThinkergoiMac

macrumors 68030
Jan 20, 2010
2,664
4
Terra
The drop protection in the laptops if for the hard drive, as ucfgrad said. It protects nothing else. This is because the hard drive moves. There are no moving parts in your iPad, so there's nothing to protect, so the mechanism is not there.
 
charlituna

charlituna

macrumors G3
Jun 11, 2008
9,636
816
Los Angeles, CA
Likely not. There is some inherent 'protection' perhaps due to the lack of moving parts. Then again even non moving parts can be snapped etc. so the best protection is to not drop it.
 
M

Mic'sBook

macrumors regular
Feb 20, 2010
130
180
Hong Kong
Thor774 said:
I am wondering, does the iPad 2 offer some kind of internal protection against damages produced by drops?

Apple portables like the Macbook Pro have offered anti-shock protections agains drops for some years already but I don't know if the iPad has something similar.

My iPad is protected by a plastic back case and a smartcover. I accidentally dropped it yesterday to concrete floor, it landed flat on the back case but it did not want to turn on again after this. This morning I executed a cold reset on it holding the power and home buttons and luckily it came back to life. The case was shattered on the drop bur the device appears to be working ok.

Would be nice if someone knows about this.

Thanks!
Click to expand...

I think the mechanism for anti-shock protections agains drops you're referring to is 'Sudden Motion Sensor'.

This sensor has been used since 2005 on the PowerBook, iBook and Intel-based MacBook/MacBook Air/MacBook Pro:
http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1935

(except the MacBook Air from 2010 onwards and MacBook Pro with Retina display because they use SSDs (no moving parts) instead of traditional hard disks)

For all flash memory-based products like the iPhone and iPad, there are no such sensors.
 
TheIguana

TheIguana

macrumors 6502a
Sep 26, 2004
677
492
Canada
Mic'sBook said:
For all flash memory-based products like the iPhone and iPad, there are no such sensors.
Click to expand...

It's just a solid state accelerometer... all iOS devices have one, but its used to determine position in space not protect the devices components in the case of a fall (there is nothing it could do - barring the iPad having micro-thrusters...).
 
M

Mic'sBook

macrumors regular
Feb 20, 2010
130
180
Hong Kong
TheIguana said:
It's just a solid state accelerometer... all iOS devices have one, but its used to determine position in space not protect the devices components in the case of a fall (there is nothing it could do - barring the iPad having micro-thrusters...).
Click to expand...

Thanks for your correction. Yes, the sudden motion sensor is basically an accelerometer to sense whether the device is in falling state or not. If it senses the device is falling, it tells the hard disk to park the magnetic head in an effort not to cause a 'head crash'. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Head_crash)

----------

By the way, there's an Apple patent concerning drop protection mechanism:

http://www.patentlyapple.com/patent...protective-mechanisms-for-future-devices.html

Maybe in the future our Apple devices would land like cats if we dropped them. :p
 
R

raccoonboy

macrumors 6502a
Oct 22, 2012
918
5
i suggest you get a better case for your Ipad.

Smart cover and plastic back will protect nothing.
 
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