Opening up an Apple Pencil may be ugly, but what's inside is pretty cool
Apple Pencil is the companion stylus for the iPad Pro. It's pressure and angle sensitive, and charges in minutes. What it doesn't have is a replaceable battery, or any way to repair damaged components.
iFixit had to slice open Apple Pencil's plastic case to get inside. Once the fillet-job was done, they found the smallest circuit board they had ever seen. It's even folded over on itself to maximize the use of space inside the stylus's tube-shaped body.
The stylus also packs in a movable shaft for sensing pressure changes when you're writing or drawing, sensors for tracking movement on your iPad Pro display, a 12-hour battery, and a removable nib that includes an embedded sensor element, too.
Getting at any of the components—except for the removable nib—means certain destruction for your Apple Pencil. Translation: if your battery dies or something breaks, your Apple Pencil is done.
Despite the lack of repairability, Apple Pencil is still an engineering marvel and among the best iPad styluses The Mac Observer has tried. Apple Pencil costs US$99 and is available in very limited quantities now.