Apple’s new MacBook may be one “for the future” but it’s already had a teardown from our friends over at iFixit, filling you in on all the ways the next-gen notebook differs from its predecessor.
That includes Apple’s butterfly mechanism keys, its Force Touch trackpad, form-fitting layered battery, and, of course, the thinnest, most energy-efficient Retina display ever seen on a Mac.
It’s not just ports the new notebook is missing, however. It’s also one of Apple’s least-repairable notebooks to date!
iFixit gives the MacBook a 1 out of 10 repairability score, based on the fact that opening the device is unnecessarily complex; the battery assembly is glued into the lower case; the processor, RAM and flash memory are soldered to the logic board; and the Retina display is a fused unit with no separate, protective glass.
Not all the news is bad, though. The device itself is incredibly elegantly designed, right down to the Force Touch trackpad, which the website describes as a “slimmer, daintier version” of the one found in the also-just-released new 13″ MacBook Pro.
Interestingly, iFixit notes some iPad-like touches, including the fact that the new MacBook hides the battery connector under the logic board. iFixit also highlights a patented Apple method of “using the speaker assemblies to form a compound antenna,” thereby helping maximize power efficiency in the notebook’s smaller form factor.
Check out the review in detail here.
Luke Dormehl is a U.K.-based journalist and author, with a background working in documentary film for Channel 4 and the BBC. He is the author of The Apple Revolution and The Formula: How Algorithms Solve All Our Problems … and Create More, both published by Penguin/Random House. His tech writing has also appeared in Wired, Fast Company, Techmeme and other publications.
9 responses to “The new Retina MacBook could be Apple’s least-repairable notebook yet”
Is there anything in there that’s repairable by a user? There’s doesn’t seem to be much in there that can fail to begin with. It looks like something you’d simply swap for another device. It would appear as though Apple didn’t want anyone mucking about inside their products. I would think that for 95% of computer users this would be the way to go by not having it user repairable.
Well some people will have money to burn to get one, guess this is how apple stays in business
They said the same thing when the iPhone came out. Too expensive! No one will ever buy a $700 phone! A phone that didn’t even have a USB port (gasp!)
Some people like buying name brand stuff, it makes them feel good, dosent change the fact your paying much more for the name with lower specs, like I said, money to burn.
So many times I’ve heard this; Apple is just a stamped logo.. bla bla bla.
You can stay in your world of plastic crap, quirky keyboards and stiff USB-cables. I think life is to short for using crap; like windows and PC’s.
What you seem to miss is that this is probably the most portable machine on the market, it allows you to work an entire day, with a fantastic screen. And NO, it’s not made for geeks who want to edit 10Gig movie projects etc.
Lol whos specs are comparable to numerous other devices at significantly higher prices. This is common in other industries with example of people who only wear a certain brand of clothing and call everything else inferior when its the same thing with a different logo. Some people got money to burn, if buying named brand stuff makes you happy go for it.
You’re an idiot
Such a well thought out response, lol.
Compared to other laptops, its repairability is terrible. Compared to other mobile devices though… say, a tablet… it’s about the same. IMO the design of this device is more related to the iPad than the Mac line. It was never supposed to be very repairable, but I doubt a lot of it is going to break though. It’s pretty pointless having the iFixit guys even look at this one, because anyone who’s interested in that kind of teardown/repairability article is never going to buy this computer, it’s simply not for them/us.