iFixit tears apart the fifth-generation iPod touch from Apple

Oct 11, 2012 15:41 GMT  ·  By

The enthusiastic bunch of tinkerers at iFixit have released their teardown analysis on Apple’s fifth-generation iPod touch, giving it a notably low repairability score, but praising the overall internal design.

As usual, iFixit took out their hair dryer to warm up the glue and dismantle the screen from the chassis.

Again, as usual, the first thing the noticed was the battery, which they describe as a “Plain Jane” cell that provides 3.8 Wh at 3.7 V for a rating of 1030 mAh, which is a minor improvement over the previous model's 930 mAh battery.

Moving deeper inside the device, the rear-facing camera was notably easy to remove from the ribbon cable assembly, iFixit said.

“We've seen this type of design in previous Apple products. The shift to a single ribbon cable is more cost-effective for the manufacturer, but unfortunately it has a negative impact on repairability,” the repair shop noted.

“Replacing one component requires replacing the entire ribbon cable assembly.”

The 5 MP camera uses a five-element lens with a hybrid IR filter and an ƒ/2.4 aperture, the tinkerers added.

Combining a rear-facing microphone, autofocus and an LED flash, “the new iPod Touch provides paparazzi power to the masses,” says iFixit.

Comparing the display assembly of the iPod touch 5G to the one found in the iPhone 5, iFixit said, “it's apparent that this is a much simpler, cheaper design, despite Apple claiming the two have very similar functionality.”

Another drawback noted by the techies was the weak rubber-membrane behind the Home button. The iPhone 5 uses more durable hardware, according to the gadget experts.

The teardown ends with the usual lowdown of the chips found on the logic board (below).

* A5 Processor

* Hynix H9TKNNN4KDBRCR 512 MB RAM

* Toshiba THGBX2G8D4JLA01 32 GB NAND flash

* Apple 3381064 dialog power management IC

* Murata 339S0171 Wi-Fi module

* Broadcom BCM 5976 touchscreen controller

* Apple 33831116

* STMicroelectronics AGD32229ESGEK low-power, three-axis gyroscope

* Texas Instruments 27AZ5R1 touchscreen SoC

* STMicroelectronics 2226 DSH CKBEV

* NXP Semiconductors 1608A1