Within hours of the Apple iPad's April 3 arrival, RapidRepair CEO
Aaron Vronko and his team were tearing one down to take a closer look at the
lesser-known features that Apple has included behind all that glimmer and
glass.
"There were a few surprises in both the inclusions and exclusions,"
Vronko told eWEEK.
One interesting bit, he said, was a section near the top of the iPad, near the
light sensor. "I'd say that's definitely designed to host a camera,
[likely in a future model] six months or so from now," Vronko said.
A noticeable exclusion, however, was that Apple didn't opt for 512MB of memory
with the iPad, but chose 256MB instead.
"It makes more sense when you consider the single-core CPU that Apple's
made this with," Vronko said. "But I wouldn't hold my breath for a
multitasking version in the near future."
The memory decision, Vronko said, likely wasn't about money, as increasing
the memory would have meant the difference of about a dollar per unit, but
Apple showing some restraint.
Click
here for images of RapidRepair's iPad teardown.
"They just decided they didn't need it. I think that's the overarching
story—none of the hardware in the iPad pushes the leading edge of design, it
just does what it needs to do," Vronko said. "If you look at the
Motorola Droid or Google's Nexus One—which both have 512MB of memory—they're
pushing the edge of what hardware's currently available. They want to make
sure their devices can take on whatever people decide to throw at them, whereas
Apple sits back and says, 'What do we want this device to be able to do?'"
Still, the iPad's 9.7-inch display and lightweight aluminum body pack a serious
wow factor, and Vronko was quick to compliment additional design elements that
most iPad users are unlikely to ever see.
"They've done an absolutely fantastic job—this is the first time where the
build quality is just outstanding," Vronko said. "With the iPhone 3G
S, the Nano, the build quality was good but not outstanding."
What does that mean specifically?
"It's having everything buttoned down," Vronko said, explaining that in
the past, problems have occurred with devices due to bad connectors, which can
sometimes come loose. In the iPad, however, Apple has molded the connectors
into place.
"The antenna … fits perfectly between the batteries, so it's not going to
have the force of the LCD slowly working it out of place," Vronko said.
He was also positive about Apple's decisions regarding the iPad's
battery—"good size, good fit"—which is more likely to offer 11 to 12
hours of life than the advertised 10. As Apple
has shown with its financial statements, it likes to err on the side of
caution and then over-deliver.
"We also found indications that Apple's making engineering efforts to
solve longstanding battery complaints regarding the batteries
overheating," Vronko said, adding that he plans to look at it again more
closely. "There was a little bit of an evolution from the iPhone to the
iPhone 3GS to the iPad. We think it's going to make a big impact."
For
a look at RapidRepair's teardown of the Apple iPhone 3G S, click here.
After getting more familiar with the iPad than most, Vronko was still uncertain
about one thing.
"The question is, Is it worth the money? I think for the starting model
with the $500 price point, you can make a strong argument for it," Vronko
said, noting that several Android-based
tablets will soon be on the market. "When you get up to $829, if I
paid that and a year from now there were more capable [tablets and
applications], I'd be pretty upset."
That said, should Vronko be counted among the early iPad owners?
"I'm going to try to put this one back together tomorrow, and then we'll
see if I have one or not," he said. "I've got about a 75 percent
success rate with putting things back together."
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