iFixit tears down the fourth-generation Retina iPad, finds LG display

Lines are a little bit shorter than most expect from an Apple product launch, but today Apple’s new iPad lineup, the mini and fourth-generation with Retina, officially go on sale. While the new fourth-generation Retina iPad is not a whole lot different from the iPad 3 it replaced, iFixit has took apart the new iPad to find out the exact changes made on the inside.

A few things of note: iFixit found the LCD is manufactured by LG, as opposed to the likely Samsung-manufactured display found on the iPad mini. We also get a peek at the new A6X and the new Lightning connector. Unfortunately, Apple doesn’t appear to have taken advantage of the potential to save space with the new connector:

Apple didn’t save any space by switching to the smaller Lightning connector (lower); rather they let the Lightning cable sit in a frame the same size as the 30-pin dock connector (upper)… We were hoping that space savings would yield bigger, better speakers. Very disappointing, indeed.

Apart from the slightly upgraded front-facing camera, most other components, such as RAM and the battery, appear to be the same as iPad 3:

• -Hynix H2JTDG8UD2MBR 16 GB NAND Flash
• -Apple 338S1116 Cirrus Logic Audio Codec
• -343S0622-A1 Dialog Semi PMIC
• -Apple 338S1077 Cirrus Logic Class D Amplifier
• -QVP TI 261 A9P2
• -Broadcom BCM5974 Touch Screen Controller

• -Broadcom BCM5973A1 Touch Screen Controller
• -Texas Instruments CD3240B0 Touch Screen Line Driver
• -2 x 4Gb Elpida LP DDR2 = 1 GB DRAM in separate packages in a 64-bit configuration
• -2 x Fairchild BCHAH/FDMC Voltage Regulator / Reference
• -Murata 339S0171 Broadcom BCM4334 WiFi Module

The iPad 4 received a not-so-great repairability score of 2 out of 10. You can check out the full tear down here.