The gang at iFixit has torn down the seventh generation iPod nano and examined its innards. You can find the teardown at http://macte.ch/Kc2Wh .
“With a plastic opening tool in hand, we probed the depths of the Nano’s compact design. Good news: the Nano’s case can be opened with a standard Phillips #00 screwdriver and a little prying from a plastic opening tool,” says Miroslav Djuric
chief information architect, iFixit. “Unfortunately, the Nano’s battery, Lightning connector, button cable, and headphone jack are all soldered to the logic board. To top that off, the battery is also adhered to the back of the assembly, which will make the battery difficult to replace when it fails (as batteries inevitably do). With a repairability score of 5 out of 10, the iPod Nano outperformed its Touch brethren’s dismal 3-point ranking.
Here are some highlights from the iFixit teardown:
° The iPod nano came in at 1.48 x 1.68 x 0.35 inches, and weighed 0.74 ounces. The new 7th gen model is just over twice as tall as the 6th gen Nano, while also a little thinner and more narrow at 3.01 x 1.56 x 0.21 inches. At 1.1 ounces, the newest Nano only gained an extra third of an ounce.
° The battery is soldered directly to the logic board and adhered to the back of the display. Replacing it will be a doozy.
° There’s an adorable plastic pull tab underneath the battery. It’s likely there for battery removal, but we aren’t sure it’s up to the task. It seems the adhesive holding down the battery is much too strong for the feeble pull tab to break through.
° Forgoing the tab in favor of some spudgering, we’re able to pry the 3.7 V, 0.8 Wh, 220 mAh battery off the back of the display assembly. 0.8 Wh is more than twice that of the iPod Nano 6th Generation’s 0.39 Wh rating.
° The LCD and digitizer glass are not fused together, allowing replacement of either component separately.
° As in the iPod Touch 5th Generation, many of the important components — including the battery, Lightning connector, and volume controls — are soldered to the logic board. So if you bend your Lighting connector or break your volume control, you’re stuck with replacing the whole suite of components.
° Pulling out the logic board really feels like pulling out the entire iPod—the battery, button cable, Lightning connector, and headphone jack all come with it.
° Our usual rundown of the ICs on the logic board was hindered by the fact that many are anonymous, Apple-branded units.