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iFixit Tears Down iPad Air 2, Confirms Smaller Battery, A8X Chip, and 2GB RAM

avanpelt said:
Interesting that it has the same NFC chip that's included in the 6/6+. Is that just because the "Secure Element" is built into the NFC chip?
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I guess this is the case. Otherwise it would be absurd to have the chip but not the antenna.
 
Rogifan said:
How is that possible considering the Air is thinner than previous iPads? The meme here is thinner = worse battery life.
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And don't forget, this massive, tragic loss of battery life is a sign that Apple is doomed. If the battery life was better, it would be the lack of an even higher resolution screen. If it weren't the screen, it would be the huge top and bottom bezels. If it weren't the bezels... well, it's always something.
 
RestUnknown said:
I don't have an iPad and I don't need one. This is just another example of the inevitable downfall of Apple.

Apple has always stood for innovation and being better then the rest, this lately has not been true at all. Johnny Ive is not a great designer, and the rest of the highest Apple staff are simply not what you should expect from Apple.

There are always fan boys and people who are against it. But let me be clear, like I said I have a Macbook Pro and will probably buy another one if this one breaks. I'm not a fan boy, I just buy what is best for me at a given time => iPhone is not that, iPad is not that, Watch will not be that, iMac is not that, Macbook will perhaps be that. Graphs around the world show the ever more declining. And listen I don't want this to happen, I love my Macbook and want to buy another one if it's the best at that time, but Apple is too hyped and the bubble will pop.
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What declining are you speaking of, best iPhone sales ever with 6 & 6+ and Mac sales are strong? Apple's cash Pyle seems to keep getting bigger!;)

So what's declining?

Their products are still getting better every year, bummer if it's not enough for your expectations! Steve Jobs unfortunately gone (RIP) and Apple will never be the same, but will continue to be better then the rest!:apple::cool:
 
RestUnknown said:
And this is why Apple is going down, a smaller battery would have never happened under Steve Jobs.

And yes this is another "would not have happened under Steve Jobs" but it's true. This is a set back, not progress. Battery life is ever more important today then it ever was and yet they go back, ridiculous. People do not need smaller form factors, they need battery.

I love my Macbook Pro, but the last few years nothing good has come from Apple (apart from Yosemite, I do like that).
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How exactly is Apple "going down"?




I think they should make it 5mm thick. 10 hours is more than enough.
 
dc89 said:
Apple's obsession with thinness has just got silly.
Protruding cameras in one product and a decrease in battery life in another.
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i want a thin phone and a best-in-class camera. i that mines a minuscule cam extension that doesn't even make it rock (unless you hit top-left corner, which i don't) when i use it flat on the table, which i never do, so be it. further, i have a case on it, so its moot yet again.

the iPad Air 1 is rated at 10 hours. the iPad Air 2 is rated at 10 hours. thus, no decrease in rated battery life.

that some websites got extra on the 1 is just icing on the cake for them. the rated battery life is unchanged.
 
So Apple throws in a non-functioning NFC chip that, in the words of another poster, costs perhaps 50c (wild guess I suspect), but they couldn't put an extra gig of RAM in an iPhone or iPad until now (costing a few dollars at most)?
Madness.
I hope there is an NFC antenna built in there somewhere...
 
dc89 said:
Apple's obsession with thinness has just got silly.
Protruding cameras in one product and a decrease in battery life in another.
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I disagree. iPod touch is thin and awesome with protruding camera and small battery. I love everything about its 88 grams.
 
0xyMoron said:
Apple should reconsider their thinner product obsession.. If customers were asked to set their priorities they'd ask for longer battery life than thinner iDevice.
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Not me. I have been happy with battery life in all my devices lately, but many are still fat and heavy. Thin and light is the Star Trek future.
 
The battery life is still good, but it's disappointing to see Apple increase the battery life in the iPhones and decrease the life in the iPad. It doesn't make sense why they wouldn't increase both, especially with all of their negative battery press recently.
 
Kariya said:
All for thinness that matters little. Bet many would've gladly take the previous gen's depth + the bigger battery.
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I also bet many will appreciate the thinner and lighter weight. Really, we could all go back and forth on this subject all day, but you can most certainly count me as one of those folks as I've already traded in my last gen Air for the Air 2. For me: thinner and lighter > increased battery life any day.
 
MrGuder said:
The battery on the iPad Air 2 is a fail in my opinion, how about making it thinner and also 1 hour more battery. To say it's thinner and also retains the same battery is not spectacular. If they made it thinner and also increased battery by 1 hr now that would be "wow"

With every new iPad, they should be bragging that it last's longer than the previous iPad not that it stays the same. It's so odd that they keep making the battery smaller, the device thinner and battery still sucks. I don't get it.

I'm waiting for the time when the keynote says: "The #1 item our customer's are asking for is longer battery"
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Thinner and same battery is awesome, #1 thing I want is thinner and lighter. iPod touch is my favorite Apple device. Bigger battery and fatter and heavier is only wanted by a vocal online minority.
 
spectrumfox said:
Not when my iPad 2 can last easily for a week of constant use, if not more, on one charge. One full day isn't good enough. It's a step backwards, not forwards.
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Do you live near a black hole?

RestUnknown said:
And this is why Apple is going down, a smaller battery would have never happened under Steve Jobs.
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I suggest you compare the battery capacity of every laptop Apple released while Jobs was alive.
 
Markiie said:
My problem with that is exactly that.....SAME battery life as in 2010.

why aren't we at 12 or 14 hours by now?
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Because it's almost impossible to Guarantee it. - what you doing for that 10 hours... streaming a video over a poor wifi connection. Surfing the web?

But in General All iPads have massively exceeded that limit Apple have set.

People got 16 hours of mixed use of the air 1...
 
It amazes me how so many people on this forum who appear to own no apple products and constantly talk about it's "downfall".



Google must be paying it's shills extra in anticipation of the release of it's soon to be flop tablet Nexus 69
 
atlatnesiti said:
Like many other Australians I am using one since yesterday and I can confirm that my iPad Air 2 has 2GB of Ram.
There, I've fixed it fo you....
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I think at this point everyone knows how much RAM it has.

Wasn't "confirmed by iFixit" which is what the thread title says.
 
ipadlvr said:
Multiple sources may say that it is 2GB

My point is saying this "teardown reveals 2GB of RAM" IS NOT ACCURATE.

This teardown gives you an unsearchable part number and the fact that there are 2.

iFixit themselves didn't even say (it appears to be 2 1GB modules) or anything of the sort, which they usually do. Since the part can't be searched they said nothing about capacity.

So this teardown reveals nothing about the actual amount of RAM.
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iFixit's teardown confirms the existence of both the more powerful A8X processor and 2GB of Elpida F8164A3MD RAM, with two separate 1GB RAM chips located on either side of the A8X processor. Based on Elpida's RAM numbering scheme, the "8" located in the second character slot indicates that each chip is 1GB. 2GB on a single chip would be denoted with an "A".

What are you disputing of iFixits; "confirms" statement above?

iFixits; "2GB of Elpida F8164A3MD RAM, with two separate 1GB RAM chips located on either side of the A8X processor".:confused
 
RickInHouston said:
Yeah because I run into people every day complaining the thing is way too heavy and cumbersome.
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Well, I use one every day, and I know I for one am generally compelled to rest it on something when using it, be it my other hand, my belly, whatever, just as I do a book, but not a magazine. I still have to with the Air 2, but less. To me that means there's still benefit to making it even lighter (although fineness may be enough now).
 
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rsocal said:
iFixit's teardown confirms the existence of both the more powerful A8X processor and 2GB of Elpida F8164A3MD RAM, with two separate 1GB RAM chips located on either side of the A8X processor. Based on Elpida's RAM numbering scheme, the "8" located in the second character slot indicates that each chip is 1GB. 2GB on a single chip would be denoted with an "A".

What are you disputing of iFixits; "confirms" statement above?

iFixits; "2GB of Elpida F8164A3MD RAM, with two separate 1GB RAM chips located on either side of the A8X processor".:confused
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IFixit didn't write anything about RAM capacity in their teardown, it was later edited by someone (you know that I can go in there and edit that if I want), so now it says

Elpida/Micron Technology F8164A3MD 8 Gb (1 GB) RAM (1 GB x 2 = 2 GB total)

When Macrumors posted this and they were doing the teardown they wrote

Elpida/Micron Technology F8164A3MD

And that's it.

Now it says:

Elpida/Micron Technology F8164A3MD

Because I went in there and changed it. Check and you can see.

Anyone can change that.
 
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