The team over at iFixit has done its teardown thing again, this time examining Apple’s AirTag trackers. Part one of its two-part review digs into the guts of the little trackers, and for those lamenting the lack of a key ring loop on the AirTag, iFixit (carefully) drilled a hole into one without damaging any of its parts.
After some reconnaissance inside our first AirTag, we grabbed a 1/16” drill bit and carefully punched a hole through the second tracker in our four-pack—after removing the battery, of course. We miraculously managed to avoid all chips, boards, and antennas, only drilling through plastic and glue. The best part? The AirTag survived the operation like a champ and works as if nothing happened.
The team cautioned that you have to remove the battery before drilling, and warned that drilling in the wrong place can cause serious damage. So try this at home only if you have skill with a drill.
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iFixit compared its AirTags to the Tile Mate and the Samsung Galaxy SmartTag. AirTags are the smallest of the bunch, with its 3-volt coin cell removable battery— type CR2032, same as the one SmartTags use—taking up most of the internal space. “All three trackers open up with finger power—no other tools required,” according to iFixit, but they found the AirTag’s was the most difficult to remove.
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An X-ray of the three tags shows Apple made efficient use of its internal space, nothing that “the relative darkness of the AirTag [in the X-ray image] is due to a hefty central speaker magnet and its steel battery cover. iFixit tweeted a 360-video of the X-ray image:
Check out the full iFixit tear down of Apple’s AirTags here. And coming soon, they’ll have detailed board shots and a look at the onboard silicon, presumably in part two.
