There are 21 magnets inside Smart Cover for iPad 2, teardown reveals

Electronics experts over at iFixIt tore apart Apple’s Smart Cover “case” for iPad 2 and found out there’s much more to it than meets the eye. We’ve known that Smart Cover owes its magic to the use of magnets. What we haven’t been aware of is that each Smart Cover utilizes a whooping 21 magnets hidden inside its fabric that serve multiple purposes. The magical snapping and auto-aligning of the cover? That’s courtesy of 21 magnets inside the cover that interact with ten more magnets contained in the tablet itself. But how does the cover turn the iPad 2 on and off?

That’s easy, the iPad 2 has a sleep sensor which interacts with a round magnet in the cover to immediately wake the device from sleep when you flip it open and vice versa. The sensor is placed near the right bezel, alongside four long magnets attracted to the magnets in the cover to keep it closed. A similar set of magnets on the left side of the tablet ensure the cover aligns perfectly and is tightly closed.

Rightmost side of the cover hides a whopping 15 magnets to stabilize the stand when you prop up your iPad 2. Wonder how the stand attaches firmly to the surface?

It’s because the leftmost vertical segment of the cover (there are four segments in total) is strengthened with a steel plate that helps stabilize the device. See, with Apple even the simplest, mundane thing such as a tablet cover can be high-tech.