AppleInsider Staff
Apple's refresh of the 16-gigabyte iPod touch this week brings the newly price $199 media player in line with its larger-capacity brethren, including the same internal design and an identical rear facing iSight camera, a teardown of the device has revealed.
After getting its hands on the new 16-gigabyte iPod touch, iFixit proceeded to dismantle it, revealing any secrets it may have inside. It turns out, however, that there weren't any surprises, as the new model appears identical to the 32- and 64-gigabyte versions, aside from sporting half the available flash memory.
Apple's surprise update on Thursday brought the 16-gigabyte media player in line with the larger models, namely giving it a 5-megapixel rear camera, and also making it available in a total of six colors. The new $199 iPod touch, coming in $30 less than its rear-camera-less predecessor, also offers a button for the iPod touch loop, but the strap is sold separately for $9.
The new iPod touch has the model number "A1421" on the back, which is the same as the higher-capacity versions. All three fifth-generation iPod touch models now come in black, space grey, pink, yellow, blue, and (Product)RED.
All three models also include the A5 processor with 512 megabytes of integrated RAM. The internal radios are capable of 802.11n Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 4.0, while the 5-megapixel camera captures 1080p video. A forward-facing FaceTime camera also captures 720p video.
The unit's logic board, FaceTime camera, battery, Lightning connector, headphone jack, speaker and home button are all found on a single cable within the compact device.
The full list of integrated chips found on the logic board are:
- Apple A5 dual-core processor, with 4 Gb (512 MB) of Elpida Mobile DDR2 RAM, denoted by the B4064B3PM silkscreen label
- Toshiba THGBX3G7D2KLA0C 128 Gb (16 GB) NAND flash
- Apple 338S1064-B1 dialog power management IC (similar to the Apple 338S1131)
- Murata 339S0171 Wi-Fi module
- Broadcom BCM5976 touchscreen controller
- 338S1146 Apple/Cirrus Logic audio codec
- STMicroelectronics AGD4 2336 L84DC low-power, three-axis gyroscope
Sponsored Content
Wesley Hilliard
Andrew Orr
Amber Neely
William Gallagher
39 Comments
It's good that Apple lowered the prices for additional RAM, but isn't an A5 a little bit old today?
I mean, soon there will be an A8 chip coming out in a few months.
[quote name="Apple ][" url="/t/180970/teardown-of-new-199-16gb-ipod-touch-finds-same-design-parts-as-32gb-64gb-models#post_2556541"]It's good that Apple lowered the prices for additional RAM, but isn't an A5 a little bit old today? I mean, soon there will be an A8 chip coming out in a few months. [/quote] I still think we may see a new touch this fall. If not then I have to believe Apple is slowly trying to kill off the iPod line and push people to the cheapest iPhone and wearables (to replace the nano and shuffle).
It's good that Apple lowered the prices for additional RAM, but isn't an A5 a little bit old today?
I mean, soon there will be an A8 chip coming out in a few months.
I think with iWatch coming, the iPod will go away. Its revenues are pretty much the lowest in Apple's stable every quarter and with people buying iPhones, iPads, and iWatches (assuming it will support some type of music) there really won't be a need for it since iPod is in all of those devices already.
Not sure Im digging the 16gb model not enough space nowadays...
Constantly struggling to delete and reinstall 1gb games for my sons iPad.
32 gb should be the starting point in my opinion.
Plus why keep the A5 around…something is brewing at Cupertino.
agreed, however this may be the '16gb' model for the next 15+ months. the 32, 64 (and 128;-) will likely be an A7/M7 or higher chip and I'm guessing TouchID.
TouchID, Mx, and the ability to interact with wearables (I can see a new shuffle design that has a skin contact, and/or a nano with a contact enabled case with limited [HR] monitoring) will be the key across the board capabilities of all low end iPods).