Can I upgrade the internals of my iPad 1?

Question

Can I upgrade the internals of my iPad 1?

I have an iPad 1 and I am very happy with it. I have had it ever since it came out and have taken fantastic care of it. Regardless, it runs slow and it doesn't have a new enough OS to download many apps I need, and even when it has apps available to download, they run slow. I really don't want to upgrade to a newer iPad so I was wondering: Can I get my internals (processor, memory, etc.) replaced with ones from new iPad models so I could run newer Operating Systems and get more apps? I was just wondering if it would work. If it would, I already know where all the components would go and how to fill in the spaces. It was brought to my attention because the 1st gen iPad Air uses iPad Mini internals. Would it work?

iPad, iOS 5.1.1

Posted on Jan 26, 2016 9:35 AM

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Answer 1

Jan 26, 2016 9:39 AM in response to Helpful Horse

iPads are not upgradeable in this way; the components are tightly packed and soldered to the motherboard so even if the later versions' components were compatible (which is highly unlikely) it's pretty well physically impossible to install them.

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Answer 2

MichelPM

Level 10

81,571 points

Jan 26, 2016 1:00 PM in response to Helpful Horse

Apple designs their conputing devces.now to be non-upgradeable, sealed up/glued together computing appliances.

Every iDevice generation has slightly different dimensions and much of the iDevices innards are not transferrable to other iDevices as the logic boards and other conponents are specifcally fitted components.

This makes it impossible for any user modifications.

If you are no longer happy with your original iPad, then it's time to consider a new one.

The original iPad will be six years old by April 2016 and hasn't had any type of updates, at all, since 2012.

Technology marches on and the current iPad models are a lot more powerful now and will have a lot longer useful life than two years.

Good Luck!

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Answer 3

Jan 26, 2016 9:40 AM in response to Helpful Horse

No, none of the hardware of any iPad is upgradeable. You would need to purchase a new device.

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