Tag Archives: ipad air

Introduction

iPad Air 2 LCD removal is relatively easy to perform if you have some repair experience. Replacing requires transferring the home button, which is moderately difficult. The iPad Air 2 was a solid performer in its hey-day and still holds good value.

Proper attention should be given to safely loosening the adhesive strips with heat. Keep an eye out for the flex cable. So let’s get to it! Text directions are located below the video.

Tools Needed:

Metal Spudger [BUY]
Phillips Head Screwdriver #000 [BUY]
Spudger [BUY]
Guitar Pick
Dehydrator, Heat gun, or Heat mat

Recommended: Magnetic mat [BUY], screw capsules [BUY]

General Repair Guidelines:

Always use good lighting – smart device components are small and you’ll need plenty of light to see what you are doing.
Maintain a clean, organized workspace so you don’t lose or confuse any components.
Apply enough heat to loosen adhesive but not enough to damage the device.
At any point during a repair, if the adhesive becomes hard to separate, apply more heat.
After separating adhesive, keep the housing and screen in close proximity until flex cable is disconnected.

iPad Air 2 LCD Removal Steps

Click an image to enlarge

Heat up the device’s interior adhesive strips with a dehydrator, heat gun, or heat mat. Heat guns are the quickest, but use caution as it can be easy to overdo it and damage the device. Use the metal spudger to slowly and carefully separate the screen of the iPad from the body. Start on the bottom edge of the device and proceed slowly.

Continue using the metal spudger or use playing cards or guitar picks to gently separate the adhesive up the sides and top. Don’t push too deeply towards the center of the device.

The screen is connected via flex cable, so do not pull the LCD far from the body. Unscrew the screw connecting the battery to the logic board.

Slide a guitar pick between the connection to ensure no power travels from battery to logic board during repair.

Unscrew the screws holding the shield over the flex cable connections.

Disconnect the two flex cables connecting the LCD panel and the logic board.

Voila! You have removed the LCD assembly of the iPad Air 2. If you have a replacement LCD, just work through the steps in reverse. You will need to switch over the home button for touch ID functionality, which is considerably more challenging.

For Help, Repairs, or Parts

If you need parts or tools for this repair, or if this repair is too much to attempt on your own and you need a repair professional skilled at iPad Air 2 repair, contact iFixYouri at 888-494-4349 or www.ifixyouri.com.

Uncategorized

New iPad Under the Skin: Just an Updated iPad Air?

April 3, 2017 Staff Leave a comment

Last week on the iFixYouri blog, we mentioned the new iPad, now being widely referred to as iPad 5. We wrote that this new 9.7-inch iPad seems to be just a first-gen iPad Air with a few tweaks and less Air-ness (thicker, heavier). It turns out that we weren’t totally wrong. The device-dismantling extraordinaires at iFixit found evidence of this when they performed a teardown of the device.

“So remember how we said this was similar to the first Air? We were serious—take a look inside the Air 1 and iPad 5 respectively. Not much has changed.”

The teardown pros were even able to perfectly attach a iPad Air 1 display to the iPad 5. The main difference, they noted, is that the LCD and glass are unlaminated, hurting picture quality a tiny bit while making repairs a whole lot easier. Apple claimed this screen is “new” and will be better than ever, but iFixit doubts that claim.

“In Apple’s press release announcing the iPad 5, they told us it comes equipped with a “brighter 9.7-inch Retina display.” Our question is: brighter than what? It doesn’t look that different from the Air 1’s display. If they mean brighter than the Air 2, then that may simply be due to reverting to the unfused display design of the Air 1.”

On the outside, it’s obvious Apple manufactured a new casing. There are a few major differences from the Air housing: the lack of a mechanical lock switch, a single row of speaker holes, and microphone holes instead of a larger microphone “vent.” Inside, there’s a Touch ID sensor and the associated hardware necessary for running that. However, this takes the repairability down a few notches.

“Thumbs up for fingerprint reading. Thumbs down for a harder repair, since the sensor is uniquely paired to its logic board at the factory. At least this lovely button is still a button (unlike the solid-state un-button that debuted on 7-series iPhones).”

There you have it. The screen on the iPad 5 will be easier to replace (and that’s the most common repair) but the addition of a Touch ID button will cause the same problems as with those repairs in the iPhone 7 and 2016 MacBook Pro. So go ahead; buy the new iPad 5, safe in the confidence that iFixYouri will be able to repair whatever you do to it. Just bring it to any of our walk-in locations or use our convenient mail-in repair service.

News

Apple’s New, Upgraded iPad Barely New, Barely Upgraded

March 23, 2017 Staff Leave a comment

We got so excited about the new red iPhone 7 this week, we almost forgot about the other product announcements from Apple. In a quiet press release (no “one more thing”!) the tech giant debuted…the iPad. Perhaps intended as a replacement for the iPad Air 2, the (new) iPad is officially the fifth-generation iPad, marking the Air and Pro lines as offshoots from the official main line. If this is the case, it’s odd that the end result is essentially a cross between the Air 2, the original Air, and the 9.7” Pro while not really being any of those.

As part of their announcement, Apple announced that they would not be updating any of the current iPad lines besides the two-year-old Air 2. The 9.7-inch iPad will include an Apple A9 chip, which is an improvement over the A8X in the two-year-old Air 2 but not as powerful as the Pro’s A9X. It’s a little thicker and a little heavier than the Pro and Air 2 (which have the exact same dimensions), being a little more than a millimeter thicker and ever so slightly heavier. The screen takes a major downgrade even from the comparatively ancient iPad Air 2. The LCD which is no longer laminated to the front glass like in the Pro, Air 2, and Mini 4. Our repair technicians are jumping for joy (much easier to repair and replace) but that tiny gap between the LCD and glass will hurt brightness and contrast. There’s also no anti-glare coating.

The cameras are borrowed from the Air 2: you get an 8MP flashless rear shooter and a 1.2 FaceTime camera on the front, whereas the Pro has 15MP and 5MP respectively. We mentioned the processing cheap being a bit of a downgrade from the Pro but you get the same 2GB of RAM; presumably, Apple doesn’t want consumers to miss out on the multitasking features introduced in iOS 9 or suffer any slowdown. Of course, you get TouchID and a headphone jack, but that’s about it. You won’t have a lot of the desirable features of the Pro, such as the gorgeous True Tone display and DCI-P3 color gamut support, or support for productivity accessories like the Apple Pencil or Smart Keyboard. So why would anyone buy such a Frankenstein’s monster of a device, about as confused with its identity as we are with its function? The price. In a surprise move, this 5th-generation iPad will be…a budget iPad.

As per usual, the new iPad will be available in Wi-Fi-only and cellular, and in two different memory sizes. 32GB models cost $329 for Wi-Fi and $459 for cellular, and 128GB models are $429 and $559 respectively. Rose gold is missing from the lineup (boo!) but the usual space grey, silver, and gold colors will be offered. The 9.7” and 12.9” iPad Pros are still being sold for the same prices and capacities as before.

Us here at iFixYouri are a little confused as to what exactly Apple’s plan is here. We get that they want to bring the iPad line back into focus and are seemingly debuting this as their next tablet flagship, but what of the iPad Pro? Was that not the flagship, Tim Cook’s darling? Offering a cheaper gateway into the line is smart but not really part of Apple’s credo. The iFixYouri technicians are happy, though: non-laminated screens means faster (and potentially cheaper!) repairs for our customers.

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