The iPad 7 is, unsurprisingly, a pain to repair
SOME THINGS NEVER CHANGE, just like the ‘repairability’ of an Apple iPad, with the gadget-prodding folks at iFixit giving the new iPad a measly score of 2 out of 10.
The regular iPad, now in its seventh generation, was never going to be easy to repair. But iFixit did note that if you smash the screen, the lack of lamination and the use of a separate cover glass means replacing the LCD is less fiddly and expensive. And once the digitizer and the cover glass are separated the LCD panel is simple to remove. So that’s something.
However, it’s all downhill from there, with iFixit moaning that, as ever, there’s a solid barrier of very strong adhesive that gets in the way of DIY repairs. That adhesive holds an all manner of things in place, such as the battery and logic board which iFixit described as “particularly obnoxious” to replace; to be honest we’d say being obnoxious is one of Apple’s raison d’etre-s.
The Lightning port, which iFixit said is a common point of failure for iPads, is soldered onto the logic board and is thus a b*****d to remove; we’re paraphrasing a bit there but you get the gist.
In short, if you have bought an iPad 7, then best be careful with it or get Apple Care, as if you bork it then it’s going to cost you a fair bit to repair unless you’re a legend at tech DIY fixes.
Aside from a larger display and an upgraded chip, the iPad 7 isn’t hugely different from its predecessor, though it does now support Apple’s Smart Keyboard.
The fifth-generation iPad mini has a better chip and a laminated display, so is arguably the better buy if you don’t want to fork out much more for an Apple fondle slate and can make do with a smaller screen. The iPad mini 5 isn’t easy to repair either, but that’s par for the course with Apple iThings. µ