Image: iFixit on YouTube
While the recently launched 12.9″ iPad Pro comes with Apple’s M1 chip that puts it on par with the 2020 MacBook Pro, 2020 MacBook Air, and 2021 iMac (at least in terms of raw computing power), that is just the tip of the iceberg.
The 2021 iPad Pro also boasts a fancy camera system, 5G connectivity, and a brand new XDR display based on Mini LED technology. Starting their teardown of the new iPad Pro, the iFixit team took a closer look at that last specification: the new display.
In patented Apple fashion, getting inside the new iPad Pro is as nuanced as ever — a few minutes on a heating pad, a heavy-duty suction cup, and a slew of opening picks are needed to open up the chassis before you can disconnect the display from the iPad itself.
Stripping away the new XDR display from the backlight, iFixit came face to face with the new Mini LED display tech.
The backlight on non-XDR iPads features one strip of large LEDs situated against one side of the frame. On the new iPad Pro, the backlight consists of 2,596 individually controlled dimming zones, each of which is an array of 4 tiny LEDs.
According to Apple, the backlight for the iPad Pro’s XDR display is made up of over 10,000 tiny LEDs, and the math checks out. Backlight included, the new XDR display is around 0.5mm thicker than the old Liquid Retina display, and a bit heavier at 285g.
This is just the beginning of iFixit‘s teardown of the 2021 iPad Pro, so the verdict is still out on a ‘Repairability Score’. The teardown specialists did, however, assign the new XDR display a “coolness factor” of 10/10.
