Sifting through their teardown, there are some things we love and some thing that we really didn’t expect. Here’s a list of the notable specs:

• 2 large batteries inside to give it the advertised 10 hour battery life. 5 times the charge capacity of the iPhone 3GS
• Shares the same lift-out display style as the iPod touch.
• You’re gonna need a Torx set that goes to T4 if you want to open this one up. Normally, Apple stops at T6.
• The display cable mirrors that of a laptop unlike the iPhone and iPod touch.
• Cortex A8 series processor within Apple’s custom A4 SoC. The RAM is part of the SoC.
• Only 256MB of RAM… really? (We’re having an SNL moment here.)
• 3G Version will have GPS. This is new to us, we were hearing cell tower triangulation before.
• An impressive speaker assembly under the hood… similar appearance to the unibody MacBook speakers.
• The rumored camera hole looks nothing like it did in the “early prototype” photos and houses the Ambient Light Sensor.
• Don’t expect a super-cheap glass replacement on this; it will be much easier to just replace the glass and midplane assembly at the same time. What does that mean? You wouldn’t need to replace the LCD unless you broke that too, but the glass won’t be as easy as the current iPhone.
• There’s no real note on LCD manufacturer. The eIPS LCD may have been a bunch of hooey.

So, huge battery, smaller Torx screws, laptop display cable, GPS (3G only), cool speakers, no camera… but what about the SoC? Well, honestly, we’re really disappointed. Obviously, Apple wanted to go cheaper to make it more affordable for the masses, but this device is seriously lacking the “wow” factor when it comes to processing power. We can tell that the iPad is faster than the iPhone just by using it, but the difference is a lot smaller than we expected. It’s using the same generation Cortex processor as the iPhone 3GS but clocked to 1GHz instead of 600MHz: a nice speed increase. It’s also using the same graphics processor, the PowerVR SGX 535. The RAM is a very disappointing 256MB but appears to be a step up from the iPhone RAM. According to AppleInsider, the speed improvements are related to the faster processor and a theory that the RAM is reading and writing data in “64-bit chunks.” We’re also wondering about Apple’s decision to stop at 64GB… we think that 128GB was completely obtainable, but the current pricing structure would have put that near $1000 — a little steep for an iPod touch on mushrooms.

Introducing the iPad with these technical specifications could limit its potential in the near future. It currently gives developers a platform to showcase more graphically demanding applications, but new iPad apps will need to run on the first generation even if hardware advancements take place in the next generation.

If you look at the iPhone, many apps obviously run better on the 3GS than they do on the first generation, but they’re still the same applications. At this point, all apps are compatible with every iPhone (minus GPS requirements) and there hasn’t been any indication of first generation iPhone incompatibility. No offense to the 1st gen owners out there, but we hope this doesn’t continue much longer. Applications should advance right along with the hardware. We fully expect to see speed bumps in the rumored “iPhone HD” but, under the current SDK restrictions, developers will still need to write their apps with the 1st generation in mind. The current processing power of the iPad will limit developers when they look at the next generation. It would have been nice to see the iPad appear with a little more oomph (more RAM at the minimum) so apps aren’t restricted to the power of the first generation.

The iPad makes everything look great from a performance standpoint, but the real truth is this: Google’s Nexus One has more oomph under the hood than the iPad… the same goes for other smartphones out there. We were hoping for 1GB of RAM in the iPad and 512MB of RAM in the next iPhone. Even if that amount of RAM isn’t necessary in a mobile product, Apple has decided it’s unnecessary for the next year at minimum.

Check out iFixit’s new beta program they’re launching when you visit the site; it looks awesome. We’ve already signed up as Rocky Mountain Mac Repair… if you’re a techie, you should too.

Ars explains in the article something that we’ve been saying since our initial analysis of the iPad: it’s not the hardware that will make it popular, it’s the software. We obviously agree: the software expandability of the App Store on a device as large as the iPad will make it tremendously popular. We still wish that Apple would loosen up their approval process a bit, but there’s a lot of great software in the App Store nonetheless.

So what’s not awesome about the SoC? Well, it may not be the chip we thought it was. Ars says it’s definitely not cutting-edge: far from it, actually. The only impressive feature is the lack of features this chip has built-in. If Ars’ sources are correct, it actually runs on the ARM Cortex A8 instead of the A9 as originally assumed. The author also claims it to be single core — no extra oomph for the iPad. It’s also running the PowerVR SGX GPU instead of the newer Mali GPU some analysts predicted. While that’s still a pretty decent SoC, it’s nothing amazing… and that’s probably why Apple’s been fairly secretive with the specifications.

The iPad is limited in hardware: that actually helps the SoC perform better and consume less energy. At this point, there’s no camera that we know of (that could still change between now and the launch). The multitouch display uses one Input/Output channel, the device connects to your computer and charges via one I/O channel, and the video out is sent along an analog channel. That’s not much for I/O and requires very little from the SoC itself. Modern SoC’s ship with many more capabilities than the iPad needs at this point… that could be the driving reason for Apple to develop custom silicon. They wanted to offer us the best battery life possible by building a chip that had just enough hardware to make the device run. That’s a pretty good strategy, but we’re not sure it’s worth the billion dollar price tag that some analysts claim.

Limiting hardware limits future potential. We think the handicapped A4 is possible but we don’t think it’s in Apple’s best interest. If they really did strip out everything non-essential to the functionality of the device, we’re looking at another re-design if they decide to add more features in the future. Again, that’s a huge issue if a SoC really costs a billion bucks to produce. Everyone wants a camera in the iPad… everyone. Why would Apple invest so much money into a first generation device and do it again for the next model. Take a look at the iPod and the iPhone: each gained considerable amounts of traction and features with time. Actually, the more we think about it, the more intelligence Ars’ theory loses over time.

It’s great to have sources that want to share this kind of information with you, but we need to seriously re-examine how we share that information as truth, rumor or possibility. Not once did Ars mention the reliability of their sources. Not once did they mention the fact that they’re still guessing because no one will truly know until we can take it apart. In fact, they really started two more rumors: it’s running an ARM Cortex A8 and a PowerVR SGX GPU. We already knew the potential makeup of the iPad SoC, we won’t know what it really is until we see it, so why not add more speculation to the news-hungry internet? Why not?

The ultimate truth: yes, it’s possible that Ars’ sources and speculation is correct, but don’t hold it as fact just yet. Until the iPad comes out, we can only hope for the great hardware we initially thought was in the device. Once we have ours torn apart, we’ll let you know what we find. Until then, drink a beer, relax… and maybe stop turning nothing into nothing that makes money.

Source

Dimensions

The device itself is only 0.5 inches thick in the center and tapers off to the edges just like every other Apple mobile device currently on the market. It’s 9.56 inches tall and 7.47 inches wide… it weighs 1.5 pounds without the 3G assembly and 1.6 pounds with it (roughly five times the weight of an iPhone).

These dimensions are the root cause of all of our complaints with the hardware in this device. If Apple made it just a little bit thicker, they could have actually included useful connectors like a couple USB ports, a Mini DisplayPort or even a MagSafe connector for easier charging. We honestly love the fact that this device is so small, but we wouldn’t typically give up the expandability of a product in order to achieve something so thin.

Display

This is actually one of the least investigated portions of the iPad itself. Believe it or not, the LCD is cutting edge technology directly from LG Electronics called Enhanced IPS. In-Plane Switching is a Liquid Crystal Display technology that aligns the cells horizontally giving a wider, cleaner range of vision for the user. In order to do this, each pixel must have two transistors on either side of the cell unlike the single transistor model of the typical TFT (Thin-Film Transistor) display. Before the Enhanced IPS display from LG, two transistors actually reduced the amount of visible light that traveled through the cells. This resulted in a need for more expensive and more powerful BLUs (Backlighting Units). The more powerful the backlight, the more battery drain. That was a huge concern to mobile companies because their devices that need all of the extra juice they can get. LG took IPS technology and “enhanced” the cell structure to allow more light through each cell and regain the use of standard BLUs. This means that we can all benefit from IPS technology in our mobile devices without any decrease in battery life. Thank you, LG.

The glass for the device is covered in an oleophobic coating that actually repels the oils from you skin… it’s still possible to get our greasy blogger fingerprints all over the glass, but it helps. The device has the expected Multi-Touch technology as well. This works by overlaying a “digitizer” on the back of the glass just above the LCD itself. The digitizer on the iPad has over 1,000 resistors built in to help recognize even the slightest movement of your finger on the 9.7 inch display. We’re stoked about this. Given the right software, graphic designers could potentially be able to pair the device with their computer and use it as a Wacom Tablet-like device to draw and do other design work. Does that software exist? No. But it’s possible, and we’re sure that a developer out there would enjoy it as much as we want it.

Processor… well, it’s a system-on-a-chip (SOC)

Apple had been touting this as “custom-built silicon.” While that’s technically what it is, recent reports have actually found that it’s using two different ARM components within the chip itself… which means Apple — and presumably their purchase of PA Semi — just decided how to put those components together for the SOC. As an admitted Apple Fanboy, that was a little disappointing… the one thing that seriously thrilled me about the iPad was a half-truth. Digging in a little deeper, the chip uses a Cortex-A9 MPCore CPU that is very similar (if not identical) to the CPU found in NVIDIA’s Tegra 2 SOC. This CPU actually has a maximum speed of 1.3GHz, but it’s obvious that Apple down-clocked the processor in order to keep heat and power consumption to minimum levels. One step deeper: the graphics are powered by the Mali GPU, also built by ARM… we don’t have any specifics on the GPU besides the type and manufacturer. This doesn’t mean that the SOC isn’t amazing. From the demos and the information we’ve found, it’s the best out there right now… but it’s not exactly revolutionary.

Capacity

The availability of options here is what we find the most disappointing. The device comes in 16GB, 32GB, or 64GB options. We realize that Apple is trying to make these devices inexpensively to give us the best prices possible… but here’s the trade off: much less space. Toshiba announced back in December that they were able to successfully create 64GB NAND flash chips (the same size as those found in the iPhone and iPod touch). If you think about it, the iPod touch is able to reach its current 64GB maximum by pairing two 32GB chips together. The iPhone 3GS only has room for one chip, thus its max of 32GB. Speculation in December led us to believe that we’d see 128GB iPod touches and 64GB iPhones in the near future as well as higher capacities on the then-rumored iPad. Our Cocoa Touch Apps technician (Josh) is impatiently waiting to take this device apart so we can answer the many questions that developed in our investigation of the hardware. We can only assume that Apple used single NAND flash chips in the iPad or else we could have seen capacities go up as far as 256GB (512GB in an unrealistic scenario). Of course, you’d have a hard time filling that with iPhone software… but maybe videos? Probably not.

Wireless

We don’t have a whole lot to say about this one… it’s pretty much exactly as we predicted: Wireless 802.11n, Bluetooth 2.1 +EDR and 3G from AT&T. Since there’s nothing revolutionary, let’s just explain what all of that is.

802.11n is just a newer version of the same old wireless network technology that we’ve been using for years. It improves on that technology quite a bit by utilizing MIMO. Multiple-input and multiple-output technology allows more information to pass through a network and better reception at longer distances by sending and receiving that information through multiple antennas. This technology’s current maximum is a 600Mbps transfer rate (raw data rate) from one device to another over the network. The iPhone and the iPod touch currently only have 802.11g, which supplies a 54Mbps transfer rate. It’s obvious that Apple is thinking about the future with the iPad and the addition of 802.11n. We’re hoping to see wireless syncing between our computers and Apple mobile devices sometime this year… this is a great step towards that.

What is Bluetooth 2.1 +EDR? We’re glad you asked. Bluetooth itself is a wireless protocol that allows data transfer over short distances. It’s most commonly used in computer peripherals and cellphones but can be found in many other tech markets. The 2.1 in that name is just the revision of the wireless technology. 802.11 wireless changed from ‘a’ to ‘b’ to ‘g’ to ‘n’… Bluetooth changed from ’1.0′ to ’1.1′ to ’1.2′ to ’2.0′ to ’2.1′. The +EDR is really just a bump in data transfer speed (Enhanced Data Rate). The current maximum transfer rate for Bluetooth 2.1 +EDR is 3Mbps and is really only good for low bandwidth transfers like mouse or keyboard signals or the semi-crummy audio you get from a Bluetooth headset. The Bluetooth Special Interest Group actually approved the 3.0 specification in April 2009, and a low-energy version 4.0 is in development. So, why didn’t Apple incorporate 3.0 into the iPad? It’s not ready yet. At the time of 3.0′s spec release last April, companies were expected to start releasing 3.0 devices within 9 to 12 months. Maybe we’ll see 3.0 in the next iPad revision or even in the iPhone or iPod touch before that.

We’re sure you all want to know what kind of 3G the iPad is running, right? Well it’s the same as the iPhone… basically only works on AT&T in the US. I’ve heard many people ask why that is… “they’re all 3G right?” Yes, but 3G comes in many different standards: GSM/EDGE, UMTS, CDMA, DECT and WiMAX. AT&T uses GSM/EDGE on the 1900MHz and 850MHz bands but will be migrating all of their 3G service to the 850MHz band by the end of 2010. This will greatly improve reception for people in larger cities where there could be interference on the 1900MHz band. Just like the iPhone, the iPad supports UMTS/HSDPA (850, 1900, 2100 MHz) and GSM/EDGE (850, 900, 1800, 1900 MHz). Unfortunately for T-Mobile users in the US, the 3G network is on the 1700 MHz band… this means you’ll never have 3G access on your iPhone or iPad. End of story You will be limited to the T-Mobile EDGE network for the foreseeable future. We’re pretty sure you’d have a hard time finding a better data deal on T-Mobile anyways.

Connections

The iPad only has two places you can shove stuff: the dock connector and the headphone jack. Two. Places. We feel as though this is the biggest missed opportunity for the device. A 30-pin connector can only go so far in the world of digital domination. They’ve been using that same connector (with several revisions) since 2003. At least we still have a headphone jack so we can use a Square credit card reader for our business-related purposes. Apple is notorious for removing features in order to expand on the un-expandable later. The MacBook Air is a good example; Apple removed the Optical Drive and added Remote Disc. At this point, we’re expecting a tremendous amount from Cocoa Touch OS 4.0 in order to satisfy everything we’re missing right now. Hidden in the “Design” sub-page of the iPad information, you find that Apple will be allowing us to connect Wireless Bluetooth keyboards to the device… at least we don’t have to put it into the odd “keyboard dock” every time we need to be productive.

Battery

Apple’s new iPad includes a built-in 25 Whr rechargeable lithium-polymer battery that can achieve 10 hours of use in normal activities like video playback or book reading. Steve Jobs said in a post-keynote interview that it could actually achieve 140 hours of music playback under the right settings. That’s a lot of music.

Sync

The fact that we even have to sync this device tells us there are limitations that we were hoping didn’t exist. The first of those being the fact that it only runs the iPhone OS. We were honestly hoping for some type of hybrid that would allow true innovation. Instead, we’re limited to the applications that Apple will allow into the App Store. There already has been innovation there, but everyone wonders what could happen if the boundaries were a little wider. A very noticeable piece of information: to sync the iPad you will be required to use Mac OS Leopard 10.5.8 or later. Goodbye, Tiger users. Up until now, Apple has supported device sync with 10.4.11 but it appears to have disappeared with the release of the iPad. This could also mean that iTunes 9.0.2 (the current version) will be the last update Tiger will see for iTunes.

Extras

When the iPad comes out in March, it will have all of the typical extras: accelerometer, ambient light sensor, digital compass, built-in speaker and microphone. We have confirmed through our developer channels that the iPad has the same ability to make 3G data VoIP phone calls just like the iPhone. You could, theoretically use the iPad as your phone with an application that allows Voice over Internet Protocol calling like Fring. Not too shabby for $30.

That’s all the hardware information we have for now. As soon as we get to take one of these apart, we’ll have more information for you… and hopefully some answers about the design choices that Apple made with the iPad. Stayed tuned for our next post: “iPad Analysis Part Three: The Conclusion.”