iFixIt Finds 2013 Retina MacBook Pros As Unrepairable You Can Get

By

uSspopZWXGlDF6nx

As is their wont, gadget vivisectors iFixIt have gotten their hands on Apple’s new Retina MacBook Pros in both 13-inch and 15-inch incarnations. As usual, these aren’t the machines you want if repairability is concerned, but there’s additional bad news this time around: the battery in both the 13-inch and 15-inch MacBook Pro has actually shrunk.

In regards to the 15-inch Retina MacBook Pro, iFixIt says that it is “essentially the 2012 unit with a couple of performance upgrades.” Almost everything has been changed to make it less repairable though. For example, the headphone jack can’t be replaced anymore without replacing the entire logic board. “So unless you’re keen on soldering, replacing the headphone jack just became a $1,000 fix.” iFixIt scored the 15-incher at a 1 out of 10 when it came to repairabaility.

The 13-incher got the same score, though. And there’s other bad news. Battery size has shrunk across both models. Apple, it seems, has opted to rely more on Haswell’s efficiency than bigger batteries, meaning that even though the 2013 MacBook Pros could have gotten a significant battery life boost thanks to Haswell, they get the same 8-9 hour battery life instead.

You can find iFixIt’s teardowns here of the 13-inch MacBook Pro and 15-inch MacBook Pro.

Newsletters

Daily round-ups or a weekly refresher, straight from Cult of Mac to your inbox.

  • The Weekender

    The week's best Apple news, reviews and how-tos from Cult of Mac, every Saturday morning. Our readers say: "Thank you guys for always posting cool stuff" -- Vaughn Nevins. "Very informative" -- Kenly Xavier.