Malfunctions 

IFixit disassembled the sixth generation iPod touch

Just came out a couple of days ago iPod touch 6G, and specialists from iFixit have already managed to disassemble it down to the screw. And if Apple calls the new product the best of its players, then in terms of maintainability there are some complaints about the device.

Considering that the line of players has not been updated since 2012, the characteristics of the iPod touch 6G compared to the fifth generation are impressive. Let's go through them again:

  • The Apple M8 processor and the M8 microcontroller, which acts as a co-processor, are the same as in the iPhone 6
  • Communication modules: 802.11a/b/g/n/ac Wi‑Fi + Bluetooth 4.1
  • 4-inch Retina display with 1136 x 640 pixel resolution
  • 6-axis gyroscope and accelerometer
  • 8-megapixel main camera with ƒ/2.4 aperture
  • 1.2 megapixel front with ƒ/2.2 aperture
  • New body colors: poisonous pink, bright blue, gold, red and space gray. The last two colors were previously available for shuffle and nano, but touch had no luck - until now

And now this machine is in the hands of ruthless techies, whose goal is not to admire the latest Apple creation, but to disassemble it into as many parts as possible. First, the device was put through an X-ray to find out what was to be worked with.

The lower part was not surprising at all: the already familiar connector for the Lightning cable, a 3.5 mm mini Jack for headphones and a speaker grille. Since there is no Touch ID sensor in the new iPod, repairing the Home button will be easier than on the same iPhone 6 - where the Touch ID sensor is connected to the processor.

First, they removed the display: as the experts themselves say, they may have lost the habit of using the iPod, but the glue seemed stronger than that of the fifth generation. Next we removed the EMI gasket. So far, everything looks damn similar to the insides of the iPod touch 5.

And here is the first difference - the tabs, by pulling which you can pull out the battery. This already happened in the iPhone 5c, but not in the iPod. This is a small plus in the direction of maintainability. We took out the battery itself - it capacity 1043 mAh. What innovation after 1033 mAh in the last generation! However, Apple promises that this will last for 40 hours of music listening or 8 hours of video viewing.

Go ahead. It turned out that Apple connected the Home button to the microphone, volume keys and flash of the main camera with a rubber band. This is an obvious disadvantage: if you need to fix one thing, it will be more expensive and difficult to do.

Here the specialists got to the motherboard. Here's what they were able to identify:

  • Apple A8 processor APL1011
  • 1GB LPDDR3 RAM module manufactured by SK Hynix
  • Microcontroller ARM Cortex-M3 (aka M8 co-processor)
  • Flash drive Toshiba THGBX3G7D2KLA0C 16 GB
  • InvenSense MP67B 6-axis gyroscope and accelerometer
  • Bluetooth/Wi-Fi module Universal Scientific Industrial 339S0231 (most likely based on Broadcom BCM4354)
  • Broadcom BCM5976 and Texas Instruments 343S0645 touchscreen controllers
  • Texas Instruments 6573 Digital to Analog Converter
  • Apple power controller 338S00040-AZ

As a conclusion, iFixit gave a new iPod 4 out of 10 possible points on a maintainability scale (the higher the value, the easier it is to repair). In other words, the new product, like the absolute number of Apple equipment, expensive and difficult to repair.


In addition to the above problems that experts encountered when opening the device, they complain that the player has too few screws and too much glue - the possibility of breaking something increases significantly.