Apple iPod Nano 7th Generation Teardown Reveals Features And Tech Specs From Toshiba, Texas Instruments

Apple never explicitly said when it'd release its fifth-generation iPod Touch or its seventh-generation iPod Nano, both of which were unveiled alongside the all-new iPhone 5 at its media event in San Francisco last month, but Apple's Eddy Cue promised an October timeframe to begin shipping pre-orders. On Tuesday, Apple surprised everyone when it began filling its retail stores with the new iPods and sending notifications to pre-order customers, telling them their orders had shipped.

After the talented engineers at iFixit successfully tore down the fifth-generation iPod Touch on Oct. 11, the company on Tuesday tried their hand at the all-new seventh-generation iPod Touch, which Apple’s Greg Joswiak called, “the best Nano we’ve ever built.”

iFixit decided to teardown a green version of the iPod Nano, which carries 16GB of storage capacity, a built-in accelerometer and Bluetooth 4.0, and features a 2.5-inch widescreen multi-touch display. Compared to the previous Nano – that little square clip with the tiny viewfinder – the seventh-gen iPod Nano is more than twice as tall but slightly more narrow and thinner than its predecessor, as well as slightly heavier – about one-third of an ounce.

While Apple soldered some of the iPod Nano’s most important components to the logic board, including the battery, volume controls and Lightning connector, this iPod model fared better than the fifth-generation iPod Touch in terms of overall repairability. On a 1 to 10 scale with “10” being “easiest to repair,” the seventh-generation iPod Nano scored a 5 out of 10 since it only required Phillips screws to open the case, but still had many components fused to the logic board and display assembly. Comparatively, the fifth-generation iPod Touch scored a 3 out of 10 rating, while the iPhone 5 had scored a favorable 7 out of 10 repairability rating.

“The LCD and digitizer glass are not fused together, allowing replacement of either component separately,” iFixit noted.

Upon opening up the new iPod Nano, removing the battery and moving the Bluetooth antenna to the side, iFixit was able to see all of the internal components. Here they are, listed below:

• Toshiba THGBX2G7D2JLA01 128 Gb (16 GB) NAND flash
• Texas Instruments 343S0538 touchscreen controller
• Broadcom BCM2078KUBG Bluetooth + FM radio
• NXP Semiconductors 1609A1
• 75203 23017
• 75292 98820
• 339S0193
• Apple 338S1099
• Apple 338S1146

The new iPod Nano features a 240 x 432 resolution screen with a pixel density of 202 pixels per inch, and is the first iPod Nano to reintroduce video playback in two generations of Nano devices. The device also features an FM radio playback with Live Pause, a built-in rechargeable lithium-ion battery that can handle up to 30 hours of music playback and 3.5 hours of video, and 16 GB of storage capacity.

Apple sells the iPod Nano in eight new candy colors, including teal, seafoam green, yellow, pink, violet, silver, black, and that (Product)Red model sold only in Apple Stores, which sees a portion of its cost donated to helping fight AIDs in Africa. All iPod Nanos come with the all-new Apple EarPods without the remote and microphone – although the device does work with the EarPods with those additional features too – and all cost $149.