iFixit Posts Teardowns of Three New Apple Accessories

Apple finally refreshed their line of wireless accessories this past week, introducing the new Magic Mouse 2, Magic Trackpad 2, and Magic Keyboard. All three products boast some serious improvements over their predecessors, namely the addition of rechargeable lithium-ion batteries replacing standard AA batteries. Popular gadget repair site iFixit, which got into a bit of trouble with Apple early this month for their teardown of the yet-unreleased Apple TV, has recently posted detailed teardowns of each gadget to see exactly how the upgraded accessories tick.

iFixit began by tearing down the Magic Mouse 2. After prying the mouse apart, which was held together by some serious adhesive, iFixit revealed the capacitive array, which allows the user to perform functions by using gestures on the top of the mouse. The switch that makes the mouse click was located, and then the battery, which also is held down by “a mess of glue”.

iFixit notes that the battery, which has the Lightning connector soldered to it, actually holds 9% more power than the battery found in the iPhone 6s – an impressive amount of juice that should amount to quite a bit of use before needing charging. While the mouse itself is impressive, iFixit gives it a meager 2 out of 10 on their “Repairability Score”, due to the difficulty encountered when taking the mouse apart, replacing components, and putting it back together.

Moving on from the Magic Mouse 2, the iFixit team turned their sights to the new Magic Keyboard. After prying open the low-profile keyboard (which is also held together by quite a bit of adhesive), the team revealed the logic board and the battery, which they deemed “somewhat replaceable”. The teardown shows a good look at the logic board, the Lightning port, and Apple’s new “scissor” mechanism underneath the keys. Due to the difficulty of the teardown again, the keyboard’s Repairability Score was a 3 this time.

Finally, the iFixit team took apart the brand new Magic Trackpad 2, which, in our opinion, is the most impressive upgrade in the group of new accessories. After prying apart all the adhesive, what the team calls a “terrifying, sticky mess”, the battery, which is just a tad bit smaller than the iPhone 6s battery, is revealed.

The teardown gives a good look at the Lightning port and the logic board, as well at the Taptic engine, which is very similar to the ones found in the Retina MacBook and MacBook Pro. The teardown also gives a good look at how the Force Touch technology works in the Trackpad, using a series of spring tabs, strain gauges, and a Broadcom “Touch Controller”. The Trackpad also got a weak Repairability Score with a 3, but “repairability” is hardly why people buy the sleek Apple accessories.

Although the teardowns in this case aren’t particularly useful for the casual user, they do provide an interesting look at the internals and how the accessories actually work. iFixit routinely posts teardowns of new Apple merchandise, including the still-unreleased fourth-generation Apple TV. For those interested in the guts of their Apple machinery, the website is certainly worth a browse.

The new Magic Mouse 2, Magic Keyboard, and Magic Trackpad 2 are available now.