(Credit: iFixit)
The iPad 4 was a relatively hefty 1.44 pounds. The Air is an even 1 pound. So, how did Apple do it? A teardown and an analyst help explain.
As iFixit demonstrated in its teardown of the Air on Friday, the device's 33 WHr, two-cell battery is "decidedly less monstrous than the previous iPad's 43 WHr, three-cell behemoth."
The image above shows how the battery dominates the iPad's internal real estate. So cutting back on this one component's size and weight is a big factor in making the Air 28 percent lighter and 20 percent thinner overall.
But Apple took a "holistic approach" to weight loss, said Wayne Lam, an analyst at IHS iSuppli. That means Apple shed the aluminum chassis' bulk too. READ MORE