6th gen iPod Touch teardown: get to know the ultimate iPod
The iPod Touch is a completely different device than it ever was. Its upgraded internals have been described as being leaps and bounds ahead of its predecessors. Tech site iFixit has recently published a tear down of the new iPod Touch, which hasn’t seen an update since 2012.
What we already know about the new iPod Touch
The specs for the new 4-inch device include a 1136x640 pixels Multi-Touch IPS Retina display, capable of 326 ppi. The updated Wi-Fi receiver supports 802.11a/b/g/n/ac standard, and the former 4.0 Bluetooth receiver has been upgraded to 4.1.
Aside from the standard Six-axis gyroscope and accelerometer, which is almost universal on iOS devices, a big improvement is the upgrade to a 8 Megapixel, 1080p iSight rear-facing camera, and a 720p HD Facetime front-facing camera.
The body of the new iPod Touch comes in gold, silver and space gray, as well as blue, pink and red. Connectivity and charging occurs through a Lightning port, and the device still sports a universal headphone jack.
The teardown
Upon disassembling and lifting the touchscreen off the front of the device, the appearance of the internal seems largely unchanged from the 2012 version, however, when lifting the EMI shield protecting the back of the touchscreen from the internals, a few design choices have been made, to resemble the way the battery is secured to the inside of the unit, which now uses a similar adhesive tab found in the iPhone 5s. According to iFixit, the modification to how the battery fits in the new device makes it easier to replace it.
Apple claims that the iPod Touch now supplies over 40 hours of audio playback, and up to 8 hours of video, and according to iFixit’s findings, this claim sounds accurate, as the new iPod Touch features a 3.83v, 3.99 Wh battery with a 1043 mAh rating, a full notch above the former, 1030 mAh battery found in the 5th generation iPod Touch.
Looking at the logic board, a fair amount of inspiration clearly comes from the iPhone 6, such as the A8 APL1011 SoC processor, the M8 Motion Coprocessor, and the InvenSense MP67B gyroscope and accelerometer.
Broadcom and Texas Instruments were responsible for building the touchscreen controller, and Universal Scientific Industrial was tasked with building the Bluetooth and Wi-Fi module, as iFixit points out, likely based on Broadcom’s design.
More iPhone 6-inspired hardware include the NXP Semiconductors display controller, as well as the power management controller.
Final verdict
The 6th gen iPod Touch is a device that comes with upgraded specs, with the familiar look and feel that consumers expect. While some have argued that the iPhone has largely supplanted the role of the iPod Touch, it’s worth noting that there has been no updated to Apple’s flagship media player for three years, and this new device is expected to fulfill a need of consumers that the iPhone simply cannot, which is the ability to play content, without the constant interruption caused by incoming text messaging and calls, making it the perfect device to have when exercising or doing any activity that requires concentration without distractions.