Apple Pencil Teardown Reveals Antenna, Battery and Tiny Folded Logic Board

[trifid]

But they do sell them, and there are links throughout the article to buy them. You seem to be ignoring certain facts here. They also sell parts, which after a while I imagine will show up on their site for sale (look at the Fiarphone 1, they sell basically every part of the phone). How about this:

How about if MacRumors was paid by Apple to post a positive review of the iPad Pro? That's not going to make MacRumors rich either, but would that be acceptable?

iFixit didn't receive money for the teardown they received money for co-authoring the repair manual and they give full disclosure. Maybe in an ideal world they shouldn't receive money to co-author a repair manual, but if you have any idea what iFixit stands for, they push for repairable/standardized products not just for commercial reasons but for the reasons we all value, less disposable products, less earth waste, more life, more value. You have to remember these are the same guys that criticized Apple vehemently for coming up with a Pentalobe screw (the ones used in iPhones) and yet were among the first to sell Pentalobe screwdrivers.

Do you prefer to distrust iFixit and defend Apple? Go ahead. But please don't act like we should all circle jerk and ridicule iFixit when we have Apple soldering SSD and RAM on 2015 iMacs for planned obsolescence and profit greed.

 

[Mikey44]

But they do sell them, and there are links throughout the article to buy them. You seem to be ignoring certain facts here. They also sell parts, which after a while I imagine will show up on their site for sale (look at the Fiarphone 1, they sell basically every part of the phone). How about this:

How about if MacRumors was paid by Apple to post a positive review of the iPad Pro? That's not going to make MacRumors rich either, but would that be acceptable?

I'm looking on iFixit's site for any Fairphone parts, and they don't sell any parts for either the Fairphone 1 or 2. So I'm not sure where all the money that they are rolling in is coming from. Selling the Philips driver they are linking to one time on the page (that I can find), that comes in 3 different price points: $0.95, $5.95, and $8.95.

 

[Brian Y]

iFixit didn't receive money for the teardown they received money for co-authoring the repair manual and they give full disclosure. Maybe in an ideal world they shouldn't receive money to co-author a repair manual, but if you have any idea what iFixit stands for, they push for repairable/standardized products not just for commercial reasons but for the reasons we all value, less disposable products, less earth waste, more life, more value. You have to remember these are the same guys that criticized vehemently Apple for coming up with a Pentalobe screw (the ones used in iPhones) and yet were among the first to sell Pentalobe screwdrivers.

Do you prefer to distrust iFixit and defend Apple? Go ahead. But please don't act like we should all circle jerk and ridicule iFixit when we have Apple soldering SSD and RAM on 2015 iMacs for planned obsolescence and profit greed.

Ridiculing iFixit has nothing to do with Apple soldering ram and SSD on a particular machine (Why are you so hung up on that?).

It's the iFixit has always said they're on the customers side. They say they're here to help. But if you look at the repair scores, they're based more on what parts they can sell you. Their 2015 iMac (that you love so much), for example, gets a 1/10 repairability score, with a negative point that Apple didn't include a port for the SSD on a machine that wasn't configured with an SSD (the one iFixit has is a HDD only one). They don't mention that the speakers, WiFi/BT port, Hard drive, power supply, heatsink, fans are all replaceable (the bits that go on these machines most often are the Wifi card and the PSU by far). They also ignore things like microphones, which are replaceable.

 

[MH01]

I open up my Apple products all the time. The hard part in the old days was getting the right tool, like a foot long T8. Now you can just order the tools online.

The new ones see glued together. They are not made to be opened by users. When apple service them, they replace the adhesive.

Can I ask which current products you open up?

 

[trifid]

For anyone else

Ridiculing iFixit has nothing to do with Apple soldering ram and SSD on a particular machine (Why are you so hung up on that?).

It's the iFixit has always said they're on the customers side. They say they're here to help. But if you look at the repair scores, they're based more on what parts they can sell you. Their 2015 iMac (that you love so much), for example, gets a 1/10 repairability score, with a negative point that Apple didn't include a port for the SSD on a machine that wasn't configured with an SSD (the one iFixit has is a HDD only one). They don't mention that the speakers, WiFi/BT port, Hard drive, power supply, heatsink, fans are all replaceable (the bits that go on these machines most often are the Wifi card and the PSU by far). They also ignore things like microphones, which are replaceable.

The amount of iFixit ridiculing in this thread is mind boggling, that's why I'm wondering where people are coming from with that, whereas we have Apple who keeps soldering stuff to new ridicule levels (SSD soldering on iMac is the best example hence my mentioning).

You say hard drive is replaceable in iMac, not exactly true, you can replace the hard drive but you'd be voiding warranty and to get to the hard drive you need to remove the logic board and you wouldn't be able to upgrade to SSD module since the cable is soldered. Yes you can replace speakers, but how often do speakers need replacement? The key things that need replacement, ie RAM, SSD, CPU are all soldered, hence the 1/10 is appropriate.

 

[trifid]

Going back to Apple pencil, I agree the battery should be modular, not soldered to board, because that makes your $100 device automatically obsolete in a few years.

Think about it, you can use a Macbook with degraded battery plugged and that'd be fine. What will happen when your pen holds only half the charge it originally did, lets say 50-70% capacity, you'd be writting/taking notes and battery would die constantly. And you can't replace battery, will need to buy new one.

I think the criticism is warranted and going forward I hope they do something similar to the pen in Surface 4:

 

[MH01]

I'd actually be shocked if they kept Pencil exclusive to iPad pro. It would open up iPad Air and iPad mini to a lot of new markets. My guess is that Pencil will be supported by those iPads when the tech inside iPad Pro matures and becomes cheaper to implement.

Geez if they did that, surely that is going backwards in relation to apples vision of the iPad.

This will possibly lead to the iPhone 7 or 8 plus supporting the pencil also. Apples version of the note 6/7

 

[Digital Skunk]

...I wonder if they will allow the iPad and iPad mini to use the Pencil. That takes away a BIG selling point of the Pro and would greatly hurt sales of the device.

I could see Apple keeping the Pencil exclusive to the Pro.

I could too but I hope they see that they could sell so many more Pencils. The iPad Pro does have other advantages. So far everyone says it's much faster than the Retina Macbook and you can run two iPad sized apps side by side.

 

[Karma*Police]

Geez if they did that, surely that is going backwards in relation to apples vision of the iPad.

This will possibly lead to the iPhone 7 or 8 plus supporting the pencil also. Apples version of the note 6/7

I don't see it as going backwards... I think Apple's vision of iPad was never that rigid, and I have a hard time believing that Steve Jobs never saw the value of a stylus... Especially considering that the only college course he took was calligraphy which made a big impact on him. He just didn't think it should be the main input device, and there's nothing to indicate that that will change. And in classic Apple fashion, they waited until all the pieces were in place before releasing a stylus that felt very natural.

I don't know if iPhones will ever support Apple Pencil, but I'd definitely be surprised if future iPad Airs and minis didn't support it.

 

[MH01]

I don't see it as going backwards... I think Apple's vision of iPad was never that rigid, and I have a hard time believing that Steve Jobs never saw the value of a stylus... Especially considering that the only college course he took was calligraphy which made a big impact on him. He just didn't think it should be the main input device, and there's nothing to indicate that that will change. And in classic Apple fashion, they waited until all the pieces were in place before releasing a stylus that felt very natural.

I don't know if iPhones will ever support Apple Pencil, but I'd definitely be surprised if future iPad Airs and minis didn't support it.

Hopefully it will be limited to the iPad pro. Though I can undertake people wanting to on other devices . Guess we will see.

 

[Phil Holland]

Anyone know what their repairability score of an actual pencil is?

 

[bsolar]

I don't see it as going backwards... I think Apple's vision of iPad was never that rigid.

Not sure. I think at the beginning the original vision was a content consumption device: then it shifted more and more towards content creation (iWork etc.) and with the iPad Pro now they are trying to focus even harder on this.

 

[Brian Y]

You say hard drive is replaceable in iMac, not exactly true, you can replace the hard drive but you'd be voiding warranty and to get to the hard drive you need to remove the logic board and you wouldn't be able to upgrade to SSD module since the cable is soldered. Yes you can replace speakers, but how often do speakers need replacement? The key things that need replacement, ie RAM, SSD, CPU are all soldered, hence the 1/10 is appropriate.

Since when have you ever been able to replace a hard drive in an iMac without voiding the warranty? G5 onwards its required substantial work and other than on Mac Pro, MacBooks (up to Early 2008), the Early 2008 (15") and Late 2008 (17") MacBook Pros, hard drives haven't been a user replaceable part.

And the SSD and CPU aren't things that often need to be replaced (Toshiba SSDs excepted). The most common iMac failures are by far Airport card, hard drive (not SSD), PSU and the display.

 

[Brian Y]

Going back to Apple pencil, I agree the battery should be modular, not soldered to board, because that makes your $100 device automatically obsolete in a few years.

Think about it, you can use a Macbook with degraded battery plugged and that'd be fine. What will happen when your pen holds only half the charge it originally did, lets say 50-70% capacity, you'd be writting/taking notes and battery would die constantly. And you can't replace battery, will need to buy new one.

I think the criticism is warranted and going forward I hope they do something similar to the pen in Surface 4:

It would be nice for a user replaceable battery (or at least an Apple-replacable one). I imagine that in a years time there will be an "Apple Battery Replacement Service" similar to current iPads/iPhones.

 

[Crzyrio]

Going back to Apple pencil, I agree the battery should be modular, not soldered to board, because that makes your $100 device automatically obsolete in a few years.

Think about it, you can use a Macbook with degraded battery plugged and that'd be fine. What will happen when your pen holds only half the charge it originally did, lets say 50-70% capacity, you'd be writting/taking notes and battery would die constantly. And you can't replace battery, will need to buy new one.

I think the criticism is warranted and going forward I hope they do something similar to the pen in Surface 4:

While I agree a replaceable battery would be nice, these pencil batteries will last much longer than your laptop or iphone batter.

The current draw is almost always constant and there is not much temperature variance.

 

[trifid]

Since when have you ever been able to replace a hard drive in an iMac without voiding the warranty? G5 onwards its required substantial work and other than on Mac Pro, MacBooks (up to Early 2008), the Early 2008 (15") and Late 2008 (17") MacBook Pros, hard drives haven't been a user replaceable part.

And the SSD and CPU aren't things that often need to be replaced (Toshiba SSDs excepted). The most common iMac failures are by far Airport card, hard drive (not SSD), PSU and the display.

You are probably right about the warranty, but I think the most egregious aspect about what Apple is doing this year is the soldering of the SSD cable which means for most users buying a default 5400 rpm iMacs they won't be able to add a SSD later on. This is inexcusable for a desktop product. I understand Apple's intention is that you never open the device (isn't that all manufacturer's intention anyway?), but going out of their way to further seal it even for 3rd party shops and users wanting to do the upgrade themselves is despicable.

Replacing a 'default' hard drive/SSD as well as RAM is by far the most common upgrade generally on all product lines, I think it's ironic that replacing a SSD PCIe on a macbook today is not only possible but reasonably easy and highly desirable/beneficial, whereas on 2015 iMac it's impossible.

This is planned obsolesce and I'm glad the few sites that have a chance to expose this can do it. We should all support iFixit.

 

[trifid]

While I agree a replaceable battery would be nice, these pencil batteries will last much longer than your laptop or iphone batter.

The current draw is almost always constant and there is not much temperature variance.

Aren't these lithium? The capacity degrades in a couple of years right? Which means it'll go down to 50-70% in a few years, unlike macbooks which you can use while plugged in, you can't use the pencil plugged in, which means it'll get annoying as you find yourself having to recharge more often.

 

[2128506]

Let's do some math, shall we?

Apple says it's 12 hours of battery life on full charge (I assume spent drawing when the pencil not in sleep mode or something like that). Basically, two days of work, if you spend 6 hours a day drawing exclusively. For lots of users it will be three or four days or even a week.

So heavy Pencil user will charge it three times a week, give or take.

Let's assume Apple used crappy cell (and I really doubt this is the case) and it will significantly lose capacity after 500 cycles (in reality it can be double that number easily).

That means that heavy pencil user can use it for 166 weeks (let's round down to 150), or just little less than 3 years until he has to replace it due to battery failing. (At which time plastic shell will be worn out, scratched and will probably lose colour too. Or electronics will fail. Or you will lose it. Or you dog will chew it. Or Apple will release V2 which you will rush to the store to buy, will you? )

So why's there all the whining and bitching?

P.S. Also, if you need it (and iPad Pro obviously) that means that you're making money with it. And you can write it off taxes or something like that anyway.

 

[Brian Y]

Aren't these lithium? The capacity degrades in a couple of years right? Which means it'll go down to 50-70% in a few years, unlike macbooks which you can use while plugged in, you can't use the pencil plugged in, which means it'll get annoying as you find yourself having to recharge more often.

You'll probably find they're the same battery tech Apple use in everything else - so 80% after 1000 cycles.

If it holds 12 hours now, if you're using if 9-5 mon-fri (which is probably the heaviest use it'll get), that's 40 hours a week, so 3 1/3 charges. We'll round that up to 4 charges a week, just to compensate for additional usage, and battery degradation (at 80% capacity it would be 4 1/6 charges/week). That would give around 250 weeks' usage, or around 5 years.

If it's 80% over 300 cycles (old battery tech), then it'll be 75 weeks before it hit 80% (this isn't dead, this is 80% capacity). That said, MacBook batteries do tend to drop off quite rapidly after that cut off, and as always with batteries, YMMV.

Has anyone actually tested whether the pencil can be used while plugged in (via cable obviously)?

 

[Soccertess]

iFixit didn't receive money for the teardown they received money for co-authoring the repair manual and they give full disclosure. Maybe in an ideal world they shouldn't receive money to co-author a repair manual, but if you have any idea what iFixit stands for, they push for repairable/standardized products not just for commercial reasons but for the reasons we all value, less disposable products, less earth waste, more life, more value. You have to remember these are the same guys that criticized Apple vehemently for coming up with a Pentalobe screw (the ones used in iPhones) and yet were among the first to sell Pentalobe screwdrivers.

Do you prefer to distrust iFixit and defend Apple? Go ahead. But please don't act like we should all circle jerk and ridicule iFixit when we have Apple soldering SSD and RAM on 2015 iMacs for planned obsolescence and profit greed.

There is no super like button so I bow down to you.

 

[fyun89]

I don't know... I don't think that much cramming was necessary. I'm wondering if this is also another type of marketing.. Apple is well aware of iFixit's existence and they know iFixit will crack open the Apple Pencil.

A lot of styluses (stylussi?) have not much in them. Please correct me if I'm wrong, but Apple seem to made it unnecessarily advanced and put much more price tag on it..

 

[for this]

In a way it's nice you guys try so hard to think of scenarios to defend Apple.

But some short questions: IF Apple listen and stop practicing planned obsolescence.

Who gain the advantage?
All users.

And if Apple don't listen?
Fan boys loss nothing.

 

[kalsta]

I think iFixit repairability scores have served their time. It's time to stop this. You can't continue to make things smaller, more compact and more advanced, and still lay it out so the average Joe can replace every part with a screwdriver and some elbow grease.

For something like the Apple Pencil, yes, it would be unreasonable to expect it to be user-serviceable. When it comes to Macs though, I lament Apple's priorities and the way everything is getting glued in these days. I'll be hanging on to my 2011 MacBook Pro (which I only just upgraded with a larger SSD) for as long as I can.

I say keep the score.

I know people who like to repair their devices themselves so its useful knowing how repairable something is.

I agree, it's useful information—even if it's only to tell you NOT to try this at home.

 

[anthorumor]

Pretty remarkable engineering here. The pencil is thinner than Wacom pens.
However, kudus to MS's Surface Pen, where you only need to replace the battery once a year on average (just stock up on AAAA batteries!)

 

[AleXXXa]

Wow! The battery is not replaceable? That's just great. So in 2 or 3 years the $99 stylus will be useless.