Apple just announced their entry level iPad that starts at $329. It is very education focused and brings Apple Pencil support too. But iFixit says they are not that friendly if you try to repair it. The 2018 iPad received a score of 2 out of 10 on the repairability scale which, for the lack of a better word, sucks.
” In the education space, Apple has some stiff competition in the form of low-cost, Google-powered laptops. How does this iPad, er, stack up against a Chromebook from HP or Asus? Given that schoolkids can be a bit rough on their electronics, here’s an iFixit take on it:
iPad’s glued-glass display is more vulnerable to drops. Thankfully, this is the one iPad that retains an air-gapped digitizer panel—not as visually impressive as other recent iPads, but it’s much cheaper to replace cracked glass that isn’t LOCA-b onded to the display panel underneath. Separate accessories like the keyboard and Pencil add to the cost and are easier to lose—but are also easier to replace if damaged. (Note the missing key on our HP’s keyboard.) “
At the end of the day, iFixit gave the $329 iPad a solid 2 out of 10. It scored those points mainly due to having the glass and digitizer separate making it easy to fix. It lost marks due to the omnipresent glue mostly. To read the full review, head on over to iFixit.com