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iPad mini The space between glass and LCD (iPad Mini)

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Defender2010

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Jun 6, 2010
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Why is there such a big gap between the glass and the LED on the iPad Mini? Similar to the first iPad! The Apple video talks about .2 mm here and .1 there thinner but his seems like an obvious way they could have shaved more mm of it. Why could they not have brought the two closer together? It would reduce reflection, perhaps size. Or to make the battery 2 or 3 mm thicker. Seems kinda odd when they are laminating iMacs and not something as small as the iPad Mini, no?
 
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xraydoc

xraydoc

Contributor
Oct 9, 2005
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Defender2010 said:
Why is there such a big gap between the glass and the LCD on the iPad Mini? Similar to the first iPad! The Apple video talks about .2 mm here and .1 there thinner but his seems like an obvious way they could have shaved more mm of it. Why could they not have brought the two closer together? It would reduce reflection, perhaps size. Or to make the battery 2 or 3 mm thicker. Seems kinda odd when they are laminating iMacs and not something as small as the iPad Mini, no?
Click to expand...

More expensive to do that. Yes, Apple could tolerate a slightly smaller profit margin on the iPad mini, but nonetheless the answer is most likely they chose not to incur the additional expense.
 
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aka777

macrumors 6502a
Mar 13, 2012
858
421
This space is precisely what's causing it to have significantly higher reflections than the competitors.
 
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lianlua

macrumors 6502
Jun 13, 2008
370
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Defender2010 said:
Why could they not have brought the two closer together?
Click to expand...
They will, but the new touchscreen is a complicated and low-yield device, and doing that now would pose a challenge for yields and create additional supply bottlenecks.
Or to make the battery 2 or 3 mm thicker.
Click to expand...
The air gap between the touchscreen and display is ~0.5mm. It's just about as small as it can possibly be.
Seems kinda odd when they are laminating iMacs and not something as small as the iPad Mini, no?
Click to expand...
Totally different beasts.
 
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Defender2010

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Jun 6, 2010
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lianlua said:
They will, but the new touchscreen is a complicated and low-yield device, and doing that now would pose a challenge for yields and create additional supply bottlenecks.

The air gap between the touchscreen and display is ~0.5mm. It's just about as small as it can possibly be.

Totally different beasts.
Click to expand...

If they can laminate a 3.5 or 4 inch screen and a 21 or 27 inch screen why not a 7.9 inch?
Also. Where did you get this .5mm figure from? I'd like to read the article. Thanks
 
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lianlua

macrumors 6502
Jun 13, 2008
370
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Defender2010 said:
If they can laminate a 3.5 or 4 inch screen and a 21 or 27 inch screen why not a 7.9 inch?
Click to expand...
It's got nothing to do with the size of the screen, really (other than cost considerations). The iMac has no touchscreen and the iPhone has in-cell touch. The iPad mini uses a new GF2 touch sensor that Apple is first to bring to market. It is laminated to the cover glass (as seen in the iSuppli teardown video), but that cover assembly is not currently fused to the LCD itself because that would constrain LCD supply twofold as well as reduce already low yields, causing supply chain issues and refurbishing headaches later on.
Also. Where did you get this .5mm figure from? I'd like to read the article. Thanks
Click to expand...
Oops. I was rushed. I meant to say ~0.25mm, not 0.5mm.

Here's a diagram showing a comparison of the mini with the full-size iPad. The "lower OCA" is where the air gap is located (OCA stands for 'optically clear adhesive' if you're wondering), and it's probably a little bit bigger than diagrammed there.
 
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HarryWarden

macrumors 6502a
Oct 27, 2012
608
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Considering Amazon boasts about there being no gap between the glass and sensor (laminated on) Apple really should have done something similar. No doubt they will in future generations of the device.
 
D

Defender2010

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Jun 6, 2010
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lianlua said:
It's got nothing to do with the size of the screen, really (other than cost considerations). The iMac has no touchscreen and the iPhone has in-cell touch. The iPad mini uses a new GF2 touch sensor that Apple is first to bring to market. It is laminated to the cover glass (as seen in the iSuppli teardown video), but that cover assembly is not currently fused to the LCD itself because that would constrain LCD supply twofold as well as reduce already low yields, causing supply chain issues and refurbishing headaches later on.

Oops. I was rushed. I meant to say ~0.25mm, not 0.5mm.

Here's a diagram showing a comparison of the mini with the full-size iPad. The "lower OCA" is where the air gap is located (OCA stands for 'optically clear adhesive' if you're wondering), and it's probably a little bit bigger than diagrammed there.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the informative link! :)
 
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