Apple sure does know how to pack in a lot of gear into a seemingly simple LCD monitor. How do we know? iFixit's latest teardown, of course!
iFixit took apart Apple's 27-inch Thunderbolt Display for our viewing pleasure, revealing an iMac-like glass panel that can be removed with heavy-duty suction cups and a host of parts not normally found in an LCD monitor.
In fact, the display itself shares an uncanny resemblance to an iMac display because it's actually the same model: an LG LM270WQ1, which was used in the iMac Intel 27" from October 2009. This is also the same display that's in Dell's competing 27" monitor, albeit with LED backlighting instead of CCFL. The display is 2560 x 1440 pixels and supports 16.7 million colors. Interestingly, that's 1.07 billion fewer colors than on Dell's display.
But anyways, the Thunderbolt Display houses a large brushless fan for noiseless cooling. And housed on either side edge of the display in "massive enclosures" are 49-Watt speakers, complete with a miniature subwoofer.
Rather than being soldered directly to the board, the Thunderbolt cable that routes to the display plugs into a standard Thunderbolt socket situated on the logic board. And both sides of the logic board are "packed with enough chips that it's hard to believe there's no computer inside this display," according to iFixit.
The whole shebang can be taken apart using non-proprietary parts like suction cups, screwdrivers and a spudger. Repairability rating? iFixit gave it an 8 out of 10.
via [iFixit]
