Blogs

If you are a proud owner of a 4^th generatin iPad, but somehow (not so proudly!) damaged it, you will find yourself in a bit of a fix if, going to Apple for an overpriced repair is not on your list of options. If you are considering hiring a third party repairing service then you should be warned that they might not be able to repair it adequately. This is not because of a lack of skills on the repair service’s part but more to the fact that Apple purposefully designed the iPad 4 (like most of its other devices!) such that it would be difficult to be repaired by any enthusiastic do-it-youselfer or even a third party repair service.

What Makes the iPad 4 Difficult to Repair?

Famous tech gadgets teardown websites such as Tech Insights, Tech Crunch and iFixit have been very vocal about the difficulty to repair an iPad 4 outside of Apple support. But that didn’t stop them or other daring DIYers from carefully dismantling an iPad 4 and reach into its electronic depths to discover its mysteries. Let us take a look at some of their mysterious discoveries:

• First of all, on a scale of 1 to 10 for ease of reparability, these teardown enthusiasts gave the iPad 4, a very low but very deserving, 2.
• Like for most of its products, Apple used their proprietary screws in the iPad 4 as well. Using these proprietary screws decreases the chances of users or third party repair services to tinker with Apple’s babies.
• The lightening connector, in an iPad 4, has its individual ribbon cable, making it much easier to replace in case of damage. Even though, Apple decreased the ribbon size and created some space which was not in the iPad 3, they still used the same large frame to house the new smaller ribbon, wasting all that free space they could have used for something else, like say bigger, better speakers!
• Apple has used so much adhesive in an effort to make it un-tinkerable that it is a walking fire hazard.
• To take out the front panel connector, the LCD will have to be removed. The LCD is fixed in place with a foam tape adhesive which increases the possibility of damage while trying to dismantle it.

In actuality, the thing that makes it so difficult to repair a 4^th generation iPad is the amount of adhesive used, almost on every component. Removing or melting the adhesive with a heating gun can pose a threat of damage to the internal components by prolonged heat exposure.

Apple has the specialized equipment to repair iPad 4’s which is why owners of this device have a difficult choice to make: do you want to spend less and hire a third party service to repair and risk further damage or do you send in the device to Apple and become a couple hundred bucks short for a task a third party repair service might be able to do in half the price?