iFixit Cut Open Apple's Polishing Cloth To See Why It Costs $19

Earlier this month, Apple unveiled one of its most unexpected products: a $19 polishing cloth featuring the Apple logo and the right texture for wiping fingerprints off your gadgets. The product is now on backorder with deliveries for new orders pushed to early-mid January. Why is the Apple polishing cloth so expensive? Perhaps iFixit's latest teardown has an answer.READ: Apple reveals its own polishing cloth for $19

The Apple Polishing Cloth is, well, exactly what it sounds like. According to the company, the product is made from a "soft, non-abrasive material" that can be used to clean any display on your Apple devices, including ones featuring nano-texture glass.

Apple has a huge list of compatible devices on the product page for emphasis, including the old iPod Shuffle.

As part of its 2021 MacBook Pro teardown published this week, iFixit gave some attention to the polishing cloth. The team clearly had fun with the mini-teardown, including adding an image of using a $20 billion to wipe an iPhone screen. Amusement aside, the review notes that Apple's polishing cloth feels the same as the inside lining found in the iPad's Smart Cover.

The texture is described as leather-like with a bit of fuzz mixed in; the polishing cloth rounds out its "features" with a beefy thickness and the Apple logo pressed onto the material. The teardown did the only logical thing one can do with a piece of cloth and cut it open, revealing that it is, in fact, two pieces of material glued together. iFixit points out that you could peel the two layers apart and double the number of polishing clothes you get for $19.

Of course, cutting the cloth is a one-way street, as iFixit gives the material a zero out of 10 score on its repairability scale. Once the Apple Polishing Cloth is too grimy to keep using, you'll need to toss it and get a new one.