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You know how many times I have upgraded my primary internal hard drive or SSD in the last 20 years? Not once. That is a major pain in the butt even if the drive is removable, swapping the OS and all that. Just order ample storage up front and save yourself a ton of time, and use external drives when you need to. The average person, even Pro user, just doesn't swap out hard drives that often. This doesn't concern me at all.

And if the SSD breaks (rarely happens), a technician will fix or replace it, I don't have that kind of time on my hands to try to do it myself.
You know how many times I have upgraded the drive in my 2011 MBP?

5.
 
You know how many times I have upgraded my primary internal hard drive or SSD in the last 20 years? Not once. That is a major pain in the butt even if the drive is removable, swapping the OS and all that. Just order ample storage up front and save yourself a ton of time, and use external drives when you need to. The average person, even Pro user, just doesn't swap out hard drives that often. This doesn't concern me at all.

And if the SSD breaks (rarely happens), a technician will fix or replace it, I don't have that kind of time on my hands to try to do it myself.
Sorry just because you don't see the need, does not negate its importance. It happens all the time.

Changing out a drive is normally not a big deal for someone who is qualified. Don't get butt hurt, but you obviously are not qualified so the job might seem difficult.
 
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all computers are.. nobody* is using even 10 year old computers.. most people are using computers less than 5-6..
all you people complaining 'planned obsolescence' etc... well, you buy new computers too after relatively short amounts of time.. i don't get it ??

*figuratively speaking

Well speak for yourself.

I use a 17" (sniff) 2008 MBP, which I upgraded over the years as I had the money and components became cheaper.
Put in more memory (unfortunately it only recognizes 6GB). Put in a faster HD, took out the superdrive and put the old HD into that spot.

l will be using it as long as it works, even though I have a 2014 MBP, which is much faster and I just upgraded that with an OWC SSD.

Keeping things out of landfills (Yes, I know you can send it to Apple, but not everybody does) is also a side effect of using older computers and maybe hand them down to beginners.

Still had functioning iMac G3s and G4s which I gave away to people who are very happy with them.
 
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That's a huge slap in the face to anyone that loves hardware. Basically it's a throwaway computer.
The one upgrade I'm looking to make is to a M.2 Samsung 960 EVO once stock is available. It's one of the fastest drives on the market and the price is very competitive. SSD tech is really advancing more so than CPU's.
 
Being soldered in place makes it faster? Hmm, two questions: 1) Where did you find that made up fact? 2) How often were you annoyed at how slow your standard SSD was?

i said "i'm willing to bet" which would imply that i don't actually know, it is just conjecture. but why is it removable on the lower end model?

I'm fine with SSD speeds on my current machine. my point is that we've been through this crap with the RAM already back in 2012.
 
I thought the SSDs in MBPs had been non-removable for a while now. I guess I misunderstood.

They have been removable until now - there haven't been many 3rd party upgrade options (don't think there were any since they switched to PCIe), but at least the potential is still there. There was also the potential to:

(a) if the logic board failed or the whole machine was irreparable, move the SSD to the new logic board/machine with the data intact

(b) if the SSD failed (and SSDs do have a finite lifetime, even if they're not faulty) just replace the SSD. Now, the only "repair" is a new logic board.

These are now machines that you throw away when Applecare ends.

Folks, as someone who has been in the industry for a while (probably longer than most have been alive), let me be clear. DO NOT STORE EVERYTHING ON YOUR LAPTOP.

Wise words of experience.
Other wise words of experience: life doesn't always go to plan and any backup scheme needs to be "belt and braces". This is one less chance to retrieve that vital file that hadn't got backed up yet. If you're really serious about backups, this probably means that you need to take an extra backup to get back the redundancy.

Apart from that, if you have to replace a machine it is sometimes far more convenient to just swap the hard drive over than restore from a backup.

Then there are scenarios where you have confidential data on the machine and need to take the hard drive out for separate disposal (maybe to comply with regulations than to address any actual risk). I can see this getting these macs blocked from some institutions (who have only just got to grips with these scary SSD things). Looks like full-disk encryption is going to be obligatory, which itself (if the encryption scheme is any good) poses a risk of data loss (password recovery schemes are the weakest link in an encryption system).

...and, the big problem, if you do decide that you'd rather sacrifice a bit of portability and good looks for repairability/reliability, Apple have nothing to offer you.
 
I thought they were non replaceable already since years.. don't get the fuzz folks!
My Mac Pro has a non replaceable SSD too, and does it bother me? not a second.
I thought it can be replaced. It was from owc video.
 
Bad move for Apple. I love my 2013 rMBP, and if I ever need more space, I can buy the OWC upgrade kit. So much for OWC now. 30 years was a good run.
 
The new MacBook Pro(s) are throwaway computers.

Is your SSD full and do you want to upgrade? Tough luck: you can't upgrade with a bigger SSD.

Do you want expand the storage with expansion drives? Tough luck because new MacBook Pro doesn't have SD slot either.

Did you have your data on the SSD when the logic board failed? Tough luck because you are not getting that data back.


Clearly you have never heard of BACKUPS or external storage. It is TB3/USB3.1 after all. Get a 1TB model and buy an external backup drive. Yes, it's an expensive Macbook. But Macs have been "throwaways" for years now since they got rid of removable batteries. Hell, you could never upgrade the GPU so it all depends on which internal part you want to whine about. Ironically you CAN upgrade the GPU on these TB3 machines quite easily with an external expansion to gaming level GPUs. The only real obstacles are price and drivers.
 
i said "i'm willing to bet" which would imply that i don't actually know, it is just conjecture. but why is it removable on the lower end model?

I'm fine with SSD speeds on my current machine. my point is that we've been through this crap with the RAM already back in 2012.

Thank you. At least we both agree that it is 'crap'. :)
 
Folks, as someone who has been in the industry for a while (probably longer than most have been alive), let me be clear. DO NOT STORE EVERYTHING ON YOUR LAPTOP. We are in this wonderful world where we can store things on the cloud or offline. I highly recommend that. Of course having things local is helpful for to keep productivity high on the work at hand, but everything else does not have to be so. Buy SSD to meet the needs of your day to day work and a little more. Then develop a strategy to archive older projects/documents. I maintain redundant copies of everything on a backup drive at home and another in the cloud. And I don't keep everything on my laptop/desktop.

Yes. All this bellyaching and the answer to most of the complaints are that you should have a proper backup setup in place. Co-located, in the cloud, multiple copies. If a laptop computer dies, it's your fault if you lose data. Not because a SSD is not removable. SMH...
 
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Sorry just because you don't see the need, does not negate its importance. It happens all the time.

Changing out a drive is normally not a big deal for someone who is qualified. Don't get butt hurt, but you obviously are not qualified so the job might seem difficult.

Soooo agreed. If you can use a screw driver without stabbing yourself, you can put in or take out an SSD or HD or memory chips.

For total klutzes there are umpteen youtube videos showing how to do this.

For all of those who don't have the upfront money for 2TB SSDs Apple's path is just not worth following.
 
Here's the link for the Transintl upgrade on the 2015 mbp (the 2014 and others are avail as well)
http://www.transintl.com/super-blade-flash-storage-ssd/macbook-pro-early-mid-2015.html

And here's the link for the OWC upgrades:
https://eshop.macsales.com/shop/ssd/owc/macbook-pro-retina-display/2013-2014-2015

So let me get this straight. You are going to pay $400-$600 to upgrade, for example, from a 256 GB SDD to a 512 GB SSD, when you could have just gotten a much faster 512 GB SSD from Apple for only $200 more when you bought your computer? Seems like a... not smart move. The smart move would be to just make sure you buy enough storage in the first place when you buy your computer rather than pay twice the price for inferior storage later.
 
I can't believe people are sending me PM's full of expletives and calling me names for pointing out that it's cheaper and easier to let Apple fix a broken ssd.

People are no longer able to accept probable facts.
 
Another reason NOT to buy the Apple MacBook Pro with touch bar

It just keep getting betting....
 
Yes. All this bellyaching and the answer to most of the complaints are that you should have a proper backup setup in place. Co-located, in the cloud, multiple copies. If a laptop computer dies, it's your fault if you lose data. Not because a SSD is not removable. SMH...
Yes you should backup your data... and have three sets on three different media. But that does not excuse Apple from this particular move.
 
What's really sad is they let their bitterness consume their life. Rather than simply purchasing a product from another manufacturer that meets their needs. There's power to be had in staying bitter and unhappy. Unhealthy.
You are forgetting that most people have years of files and thousands of $'s of OXS applications that tie them into Apple eco-system. There is no other manufacturer to sell them a different product that would meet their needs. Moving to another OS is a hassle and a significant cost. This is not bitterness, these are legitimate complaints from consumers that do not have a choice. If you are a monopolist, at least provide people with the absolute best. Apple is no longer doing it.
 
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I can't believe people are sending me PM's full of expletives and calling me names for pointing out that it's cheaper and easier to let Apple fix a broken ssd.

People are no longer able to accept probable facts.

ooooo lets see those screenshots
 
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The $310 flat rate repair is ONLY offered if your computer is in immaculate condition.

Do you have a ding on your computer? Now, you can't get the $310 flat rate repair.
Actually, thats not true. It depends on how you treat the dude/dudette in the store. If you are an arse, you get ****.. If you are polite, its almost certain you get great service. My Mac looked like crap, I got a new lid, new glass and new main board for $310.
 
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This basically means that if you use one of these laptops, you better make sure you have disk encryption on and make good backups.

If your machine dies and they replace it, they won't be able to transfer the SSD to the new machine. And encryption is important because you can't remove the SSD from a dead machine to protect your private data.
 
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