Teardown of Fourth-Generation iPad Reveals LG Display, A6X Chip, Lightning Connector

[buklau]

Originally Posted by LarryC

I realize that this is probably a non-issue, but as inexpensive as RAM is these days, why only 1GB of RAM? I remember when they finally went from 512MB to 1GB in the iPhone, RAM is ridiculously cheap these days and Apple certainly charges enough for their products it seems as though 1GB is not enough.

So, you remember the iPhone 5 launch, lol?

[xxgilxx]

Lighting connector revealed via tear down. No $#1+ captain obvious!!!!

[koban4max]

How many times do we have to see the ipad bleed to death with yellow color on the screen? yellow bleeding? remember? yeah?

The hell, Apple?

[theanimaster]

Originally Posted by LarryC

I realize that this is probably a non-issue, but as inexpensive as RAM is these days, why only 1GB of RAM? I remember when they finally went from 512MB to 1GB in the iPhone, RAM is ridiculously cheap these days and Apple certainly charges enough for their products it seems as though 1GB is not enough.

Because Apple isn't about being the best. It's about selling stuff. They create a demand for things like features etc. -- keeps people excited. Also turns some into rabid, frothing disgruntled users who thought they bought THE latest thing xx months/days ago. Why didn't they add a Retina Display either? Clearly Apple holds back on these things so that they can sell you the next iteration and say how revolutionary it is ... to have everything the prior model should have had.

[token787]

The same battery? Then it may have the same heat issues.

[CoreForce]

Another evidence that Lightning is driven by Marketing, not technical challenges, neither customer demand.
It will soon fall into the same fate of history with AppleTalk, DisplayPort, FireWire, Thunderbolt, ...
Looking into the big history of Apple Peripheral connectors that failed miserable, I would be very conservative about investing in those. Both as a vendor and a user. And that's the fate it has.

[SchneiderMan]

Wow, that is so amazing! *sarcastic*

[NeonGreenHermit]

Originally Posted by CoreForce

Another evidence that Lightning is driven by Marketing, not technical challenges, neither customer demand.
It will soon fall into the same fate of history with AppleTalk, DisplayPort, FireWire, Thunderbolt, ...
Looking into the big history of Apple Peripheral connectors that failed miserable, I would be very conservative about investing in those. Both as a vendor and a user. And that's the fate it has.

How so? You're talking about their Mac peripheral ports, and Macs are still a small portion of the entire PC market (though indeed, growing). On the other hand, nearly every man, woman, child and dog has or will have an iOS device in rhe next few years. Your logic is faulty here.

Also, as seen on the iPhone 5 teardown, the lightning port does indeed miniaturise, so the foundation for future, thinner and more feature-packed devices is being laid in this move.

[thekev]

Originally Posted by dweezle3

So Apple relies only on it's main competitor for it's top quality retina display, yet decides to have a less competitive, not threatening company produce it's lesser displays? Where's the logic in that?

Your claims aren't backed up by actual information. Apple has gone back and forth using one or both of these guys. LG is practically everywhere. You can't avoid them. They've had problems at times, but going back a few years, LG and IPS were often favored over Samsung pushing PVA due to the superior viewing angles obtainable on these LG panel displays at the time (Samsung typically had deeper blacks and better response times). They didn't invent IPS (Hitachi did in the late 90s), but their name appears on the majority of such panel designs. The image persistence issue is something that has come up before with LG and others. It was more common as an aging factor. You wouldn't typically see it within the first year.You just cannot assume this is due to the issue of competition. LG is still a competitor. They're just a very large supplier of such panels. I think Panasonic still makes some for televisions, but I can't think of any other major companies that are still involved with IPS.

[macfacts]

Originally Posted by WestonHarvey1

Samsung's iPad 3 screens were terrible.

LG's retina displays for the macbookpros are terrible, they have IR (image retention, like screen burn in)

https://discussions.apple.com/thread...t=255&tstart=0

[iSayuSay]

Originally Posted by macfacts

LG's retina displays for the macbookpros are terrible, they have IR (image retention, like screen burn in)

https://discussions.apple.com/thread...t=255&tstart=0

Well then all displays used by Apple on its product are terrible at some point

[CoreForce]

Originally Posted by NeonGreenHermit

How so? You're talking about their Mac peripheral ports, and Macs are still a small portion of the entire PC market (though indeed, growing). On the other hand, nearly every man, woman, child and dog has or will have an iOS device in rhe next few years. Your logic is faulty here.

AppleTalk was there in every Mac - and was replaced by USB in the end.
FireWire was there in every Mac - and was replaced by USB in the end.
Lightning is now introduced
Thunderbolt will be there in every Mac - and will be replaced by ... guess what.

My statement is that the peripheral endeavors of Apple always have been not long lasting. There is little indication this will change in the future, based on the introduction of new proprietary connectors and standards.

On the other hand Apple has been quite successful when extending on existing standards, without breaching compatibility. Ethernet, WiFi and GSM card to name just some examples or the new Fusion Drive.

Claiming that everyone would own an iOS device in future is an foolish exaggeration, honestly.

We should learn from the past. Not just blindly hope for the best (which would be faulty, most likely).

[billystlyes]

Originally Posted by Allegrotechie

The quality of the articles here on Macrumors really sucks recently. What the fūck, no **** there's a lighting connector, and there an LG display because both Samsung AND LG make displays, it just a 50 50 chance on who makes yours. Reveals A6X? WOW you don't say! And a lightning connector! Well holy motherfūcking ****! I can't believe this!
Can't believe I spent 25 bucks for a Demi-God account, I thought I was supporting a good website..

News flash, the articles here have kinda always sucked. The real reason to come here is for the community.

Nice upgrades, but this should have been the iPad 3. I feel bad for everyone that bought that model. Apple dumped on us.

[nicholson06]

Good job done. I always like tear downs as they reveal the truths about the gadgets

[Urmom.com]

Omg! A6x chip! Wtf! Omg!

[orestes1984]

Lightning.... planned obsolescence...

[NeonGreenHermit]

Originally Posted by CoreForce

AppleTalk was there in every Mac - and was replaced by USB in the end.
FireWire was there in every Mac - and was replaced by USB in the end.
Lightning is now introduced
Thunderbolt will be there in every Mac - and will be replaced by ... guess what.

My statement is that the peripheral endeavors of Apple always have been not long lasting. There is little indication this will change in the future, based on the introduction of new proprietary connectors and standards.

On the other hand Apple has been quite successful when extending on existing standards, without breaching compatibility. Ethernet, WiFi and GSM card to name just some examples or the new Fusion Drive.

Claiming that everyone would own an iOS device in future is an foolish exaggeration, honestly.

We should learn from the past. Not just blindly hope for the best (which would be faulty, most likely).

I really don't understand why you're having such difficulty understanding basic economics. Are you a vendor? I really hope not for your sake. Look, I'm not disputing what you're saying about Apple's Mac-based proprietary ports. You're likely right.

But.

To apply the same view to iOS devices? Unless you've been living a very sheltered existence, iOS devices present an astronomically larger portion of their markets than Macs do within the PC market. Music players & tablets... these markets have been nailed by Apple, and the iPhone grows every year. This means that the percentage of people using iOS phones, music players and tablets proportionately dwarfs the percentage of people using Macs for their computing uses. If I have to explain this even simpler, this means that more people own, use, and buy iOS devices than Macs. What does this mean? It means that, in comparison, more houses and places of work will have devices with lightning ports over the next few years than in all possibility the entire sum of users of those older ports you've mentioned? Why? Again, because iOS devices are more available than Macs. You'll be hard pressed to find someone who doesn't own, hasn't owned, intend to own an iOS device. The same cannot be said for Macs. Add to the mix that the lightning port ISN'T AN ADDED CONNECTIVITY PORT - it's the SOLE MEANS of charging the device, and I fail to see how you cannot be more wrong in your outlook. Even if everyone who owned an iOS owned a Mac, there'd be no need to also own or use a Thunderbolt cable.

Are you thinking that people will instead not adopt lightning? They will stick to their legacy devices as technology marches on? Or that they will upgrade and fork out for adapters for the next ten years? Of course not. The lightning port isn't some optional extra one can take or leave. Buy an iOS device, you're locked in. How can you even compare something like Thunderbolt to that? Thunderbolt is really only of value to video editors who need high speed connectivity. That's about as far away from the needs of the common iOS user as it gets. On the other hand, lightning is the new standard, working in conjunction with USB.

Sorry, didn't mean to rant. Maybe you're thinking lightning is a lightning to lighting cable, or something? It's to USB, thus poses no problem at all to anyone.

TL/DR:

Apple are replacing one proprietary cable with another. Nothing more.

[roxxette]

Get a grip mate, theres no reason for that.

[iChrist]

Frack that.

LG display is an automatic pass. After seeing the sad state of LG screens firsthand in the rMBP, I'm not buying this second rate crap.

The Samsung screens on the iPad 3 were perfectly color accurate against my calibrated Eizo screens. LG is a warm mess.

.

[Tommyline]

Just wonder how the new chip will affect battery life compared to iPad3?

[Macthemaca]

Originally Posted by theanimaster

Image

Yea hu needs to car about spellig and grtamma anyaways - my massage is allways cleer

[gnasher729]

Originally Posted by ichrisg30

Apple: LG, your phones and tablets look a lot like ours!
LG: No they're not, your phones and tablets look like ours
(Both go to court and sue each other. Apple stops having LG make displays for them)

One problem with this. Which LG phone, in your opinion, does look like some iPhone? Or which LG tablet, in your opinion, does look like the iPad?

[Tom Sawyer]

It is a bit odd that they put 'stereo speakers' on the iPad Mini but not on the 4. I was so looking forward to that expansive soundstage.

[everything-i]

So now the criticism moves from, meh my iPad3 is only 7 month and is obsolite to meh iPad4 is only minor spec bump. No pleasing some people.

----------

Originally Posted by LarryC

I realize that this is probably a non-issue, but as inexpensive as RAM is these days, why only 1GB of RAM? I remember when they finally went from 512MB to 1GB in the iPhone, RAM is ridiculously cheap these days and Apple certainly charges enough for their products it seems as though 1GB is not enough.

So maybe it's because if they put 2Gb in there developers wouldn't be able to rely on it because the previous generation wouldn't be ably to run this software. These things have to increased very gradually or last years model would become obsolete as soon as new models came out. Then there would be loads of complaints about that I suppose.

[bushido]

Originally Posted by iChrist

Frack that.

LG display is an automatic pass. After seeing the sad state of LG screens firsthand in the rMBP, I'm not buying this second rate crap.

The Samsung screens on the iPad 3 were perfectly color accurate against my calibrated Eizo screens. LG is a warm mess.

.

how can i tell if my iPad got an LG or Samsung screen? i mean my screen seems perfect, just curious