iFixit has posted a teardown of the new Apple Pencil.
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When Apple launched their new iPad Pro they also launched a few accessories for the new tablet, this included a new keyboard and of course the Apple Pencil.
Another standout technological complexity is the actual tip of the Apple Pencil, which comes equipped with three minute sensor ticks, which iFixit presumed helped with measuring movement and detecting levels of pressure; the chip embedded in the nib reads “8529043 343S0008-A1”. Even with the removal of the Lightning Connector, no obvious points of entry were found on the Pencil, requiring iFixit to cut through the outer plastic casing of the Pencil and then cut and pry at the inner metal cylinder to get at the device’s innards.
For starters, there’s the fact that the Apple Pencil contains a 3.82 V, 0.329 Wh lithium-ion battery, which holds just 5 percent charge of an iPhone 6s battery.
The heart of the Apple Pencil is a tiny circuit board weighing in at only 1 gram. But built onto this board are several components, including an ST Microelectronics STML151UCY6 Ultra-low-power 32-bit RISC ARM-based Cortex-M3 microcontroller unit. Apple’s stylus packs the smallest logic board they’ve seen, and they found this isn’t a device you’ll fix if something goes wrong.
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The Apple Pencil only managed to score 1 out of 10 on the iFixit fix index, 1 means that the device is very hard to fix, ehere is what they had to say about it. Notably, the battery is also impossible to replace, which means Apple Pencil will have a limited lifespan once its battery wears down.
