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.
12 responses to “MacBook Air Dissection: Big Battery, Small Logicboard”
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.
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?
Anyone one else waxing nostalgic for “Speaker for the Dead” and the other “Ender’s Game” books when seeing that picture?
Just a thought.
I guess I am scratching my head wondering what the fuss is. If you don’t want it–don’t buy it.
Virtually all planes I fly on DO NOT have an adapter. This includes Continental, AA, Jetblue, United, US Airways, etc.
@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.