The iPad Air went into broader circulation this week when Staples began selling it at retail stores. Weighing a mere pound, the Air (price tag: $499) comes with the catchphrase “the power of lightness.” To make room for the new, Staples is clearing its shelves of all iPads but the new Air and the mini retina model.
With the wider dissemination of these ultra-light devices comes a greater need for iPad repair services. And consumers, be warned: this is not the kind of repair work you want to be doing yourself. As tech specialists have already pointed out, the iPad air is highly complex to repair. Over at iFixit, some techies disassembled the new device to test the ease of putting it back together. It turned out to be a borderline Humpty Dumpty situation, with the fixers toiling away at miniscule parts and claiming that the product's complex adhesives made it “the most difficult battery removal procedure we've seen in an iPad.” In terms of ease of repair, iFixit ended up rating it two out of 10.
The new iPad may look sleek on the surface, but beneath that is a complex maze of parts and adhesives that you'd be well advised to get the folks over at iResQ to deal with.