The iPad Mini 5 started shipping to customers over the past weekend and we’re expecting the first reviews to pop up any minute now. There should also be the occasional bend test and there’s already a teardown here, courtesy of iFixit. The device is proving very hard to repair, albeit not as hard as the AirPods 2, which have been deemed impossible to fix.
Turns out that the new iPad Mini isn’t exactly hugely different from its predecessor, since it looks pretty much the same. It also feels a bit like a small iPad Air and includes components from previous iPads. It’s been 4 years since the last iPad Mini and we thought a new one wouldn’t happen. The iFixit team has opened the machine to find inside a 19.32 Wh battery, which is the same capacity as the iPad Mini4 battery.
There’s also novelty, like the 7 megapixel F/2.2 camera, borrowed from the 10.5 inch iPad Pro. That’s quite the upgrade from the previous smaller iPad. Then we find the Apple A12 CPU inside, which still keeps the iPhone XS and XS Max on top of the benchmark lists. A new microphone array has been moved near the selfie cam and there are also new ambient light sensors that support the True Tone feature, adjusting the white balance of the screen based on the surrounding light.
The repairability score is 2 out of 10, because there’s a ton of adhesive, particularly for the battery part. Still, the good news is that you only need a single Philips screwdriver to pop up the screws. The battery replacement is very hard, there’s adhesive everywhere and removing the Home button is quite hard, in order to replace the screen. Adhesive also holds cables and parts into place, making things harder.
