MacBook Air Dissection: Big Battery, Small Logicboard

Leander Kahney ()

24-2.jpg

The tinkerers at iFixit have taken apart the MacBook Air to discover:

  • The battery isn’t hard to remove, but it isn’t something you’d do mid-flight when the battery dies.
  • Most of the internal volume is taken up by the battery.
  • The logicboard is surprisingly small: it looks like something out of an alarm clock, not a reasonably-powered laptop.
  • The touchpad uses the same hardware as the iPhone and iPod Touch, which may allow Apple to add new multi-touch gestures via software.
  • The hard drive is the slim 80-Gbyte model, not the chubby 160-Gbyte drive found in the iPod Classic. Unfortunately, 80-Gbyte is the maximum capacity of drives this size (5mm deep).
  • It’s held together by 88 tiny screws.

DON'T MISS
MacBook Air Is .76" to .16″ Thin, Three Pounds, Totally Non-Upgradeable

6 comments »

About the author

Leander Kahney

is the editor and publisher of Cult of Mac, and author of three books about technology culture: Inside Steve’s Brain, the New York Times bestseller about Steve Jobs; Cult of Mac; and Cult of iPod. Leander has written for Wired, MacWeek, Scientific American, and The Guardian in London. Follow Leander on Twitter @lkahney and Facebook.

(sorry, you need Javascript to see this e-mail address)| Read more posts by .

Posted in Hardware, Hardware Hacks |

  • OlsonBW

    Most planes have a plug for you to plug in your laptop while you are flying. Just get an adapter and keep it plugged in and … you don’t need a second battery while on a flight. It works for me.

  • Applfangrl

    88? O.O

    I did notice during the keynote the battery was the biggest thing, but it also kind of looked like there was a little empty space. No chance of squeezing in a little more RAM or storage?

  • Church of Apple

    Anyone one else waxing nostalgic for “Speaker for the Dead” and the other “Ender’s Game” books when seeing that picture?
    Just a thought.

  • http://pinkybear.blogspot.com Jimmi

    I guess I am scratching my head wondering what the fuss is. If you don’t want it–don’t buy it.

  • Christian

    Virtually all planes I fly on DO NOT have an adapter. This includes Continental, AA, Jetblue, United, US Airways, etc.

  • KlausG

    @Jimmi: Steve Jobs is just doing his job really well.

    “If Steve made the Macbook Air and I neither want it nor need it… does that mean I am becoming a luddite?”

    The ensuing discussion about the MBA can thus be seen as people’s attempt to justify their lacking need for the product. Steve Jobs can develop a niche product and actually have people get frustrated because they don’t belong to that niche. Who else can do that? Great to watch. Not to be taken seriously.