MacBook Air Dissection: Big Battery, Small Logicboard
7:54 am, February 1st, 2008, Leander Kahney
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.
Posted by Leander Kahney in Hardware, Hardware Hacks | Comment on this article
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.
OlsonBW, on February 1st, 2008 at 8:40 am
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?
Applfangrl, on February 1st, 2008 at 10:49 am
Anyone one else waxing nostalgic for “Speaker for the Dead” and the other “Ender’s Game” books when seeing that picture?
Just a thought.
Church of Apple, on February 1st, 2008 at 12:27 pm
I guess I am scratching my head wondering what the fuss is. If you don’t want it–don’t buy it.
Jimmi, on February 2nd, 2008 at 8:14 am
Virtually all planes I fly on DO NOT have an adapter. This includes Continental, AA, Jetblue, United, US Airways, etc.
Christian, on February 3rd, 2008 at 5:50 am
@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.
KlausG, on February 3rd, 2008 at 11:18 pm