iFixit has completed an Apple Pencil teardown, removing the outer plastic casing to reveal the pencil's inner metal cylinder. The teardown provides a closer look at several Apple Pencil components, including the antenna, battery, pencil nib, Lightning connector and miniature folded logic board.
Apple Pencil has two emitters in the tip that enable the iPad Pro to determine the pencil nib's angle and orientation relative to the display, and adjust the pen stroke accordingly, explains iFixit. iPad Pro has a digitizer that likely determines the distance from each emitter to the screen.
At the core of the Apple Pencil is a tiny 0.329 Wh lithium-ion rechargeable battery that holds just 5% of the charge of an iPhone 6s battery, next to a small cylindrical black and gold antenna. There is also a small ribbon cable that connects the Apple Pencil's battery with its Lightning connector for charging.
On the other side of the battery is the Apple Pencil's tiny folded logic board that weighs just one gram, yet houses more than five components, including an ST Microelectronics low-power 32-bit ARM-based Cortex-M3 microcontroller and Qualcomm Bluetooth 4.1 chip from Cambridge Silicon Radio.
- Red: ST Microelectronics STML151UCY6 Ultra-low-power 32-bit RISC ARM-based Cortex-M3 MCU - Orange: ST Microelectronics AS5C Y533 (also found in the 2015 Apple TV) - Yellow: L05286 QS4 VG Z SGP 528 - Green: EWX 01129 - Not shown: Cambridge Silicon Radio Qualcomm CSR1012A05 Bluetooth Smart IC
iFixit awarded the Apple Pencil its lowest repairability score of 1 out of 10. While the pen nib and cap can be replaced if worn out or lost, iFixit says you can't get inside the Apple Pencil without destroying the device. It says the 12-hour battery is not replaceable, giving the Apple Pencil a limited lifespan.
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I think iFixit repairability scores have served their time. It's time to stop this. You can't continue to make things smaller, more compact and more advanced, and still lay it out so the average Joe can replace every part with a screwdriver and some elbow grease.
I enjoy the iFixit teardowns for one reason -- I am a techie and love to see the innards of things. The reality is that 99% of all consumers of any technology do not have the skills or time to fix things and will either pay someone else to do so or will simply replace it. I am always amazed by this fact. I love to tinker and will fix anything in my house or even with electronics. But all my friends call a plumber, electrician, or other handyman to get things done. Same here, it is more important to make things work well and last as much as possible, not to make them repairable by a consumer, because they won't. Many on this site are the tinkerers, but please remember that in this case we are the 1%ers not the commoners.
- Red: ST Microelectronics STML151UCY6 Ultra-low-power 32-bit RISC ARM-based Cortex-M3 MCU
