Base 2019 13-Inch MacBook Pro Teardown Reveals Larger Battery, Soldered-Down SSD, and Updated Keyboard Material

[GuruZac]

Then you aren’t thinking very hard.
It’s simple: the overwhelming majority of customers could not care less about these things. They are more than willing to trade repairability for durability, portability, and simplicity. If those things were in demand from MacBook buyers Apple would offer them. You have every right to think those things are important...for you. But you and people who agree with you, while vocal on forums like this, are a tiny fraction of the overall Mac using public.

It’s reasonable to wish Apples priorities better matched your own.
It’s not reasonable to ignore simple, obvious explanations in favor of sinister and complex ones.

Nothing sinister or complex about greed. It is what it is. And they most certainly did not gain durability by gluing batteries and soldering SSD.

 

[oneMadRssn]

It's not cheaper on the Enterprise scale, especially considering that your in-house worker is on salary, not hourly.

Disagree. Time the worker spends doing something that can be done cheaper elsewhere is time he/she could be doing something else. Replacing keyboards and whatnot is relatively low-still labor that shouldn't be done by enterprise-level IT workers.

 

[Glockworkorange]

Not touching any of these until the scissor-switch keyboard is back. And for God's sake, ditch that pitifully small 128GB ssd, it's not 2011 anymore...

In 2011, they were selling 11 inch Airs with 64 GB SSD's. I know because I had one. Somehow lasted a year.

 

[LordVic]

Agreed. The G3/4/5 powermac towers, powerbooks and macbooks all had great engineering behind their ease of upgradability without compromising the design. It all really started going down hill when they made the first Mac Mini. Smaller and smaller, just like my interest in giving them any more of my money.

Even the Mac Mini though had replacable drive, and memory as recently as 2012 though. it was in 2014 that the mac Mini saw a massive downgrade, and move to a complete soldered solution (although still had storage replacable, they just made it harder)

the 2014 though, finally an amazing upgrade... BUT, soldered storage..

in a chassis that has always had room to support a swappable 2.5" drive. Nevermind plent of room for a NVME.

there was zero technical reason to solder storage in a Mac mini. ZERO. doing so is purely 100% a business motivated move.

 

[olduser007]

Then you aren’t thinking very hard.
It’s simple: the overwhelming majority of customers could not care less about these things. They are more than willing to trade repairability for durability, portability, and simplicity. If those things were in demand from MacBook buyers Apple would offer them. You have every right to think those things are important...for you. But you and people who agree with you, while vocal on forums like this, are a tiny fraction of the overall Mac using public.

It’s reasonable to wish Apples priorities better matched your own.
It’s not reasonable to ignore simple, obvious explanations in favor of sinister and complex ones.

Nonsense. You make claims that are SIMPLY not true.

"Trading repairability for durability and simplicity"?
Clearly you're not an engineer, product designer or whatever otherwise you wouldn't make such a claim.

"The overwhelming majority of customers could not care less"
The fast majority has no clue until products stop working. Than they find out they're basically screwed unless they extreme high repair costs, which btw aren't always necessary as many journalists have shown.

"If those things were in demand from MacBook buyers Apple would offer them."
Apple NEVER gives what users are asking for. Apple thinks they already know what customers want.

You simply ignore the most common things like Apple wanting total control over the product you buy.
All products from Apple have been raised by at least 100% in less than 6 years.
Apple is greedy and it clearly shows in the products they're producing.

My MBP 2011 is still running like a charm. If things break I can replace them. Apple killed it though by not letting me upgrade above High Sierra.

 

[Glockworkorange]

I can only hope for a return to laptops with sockets and screws.
One day...maybe when we have new leadership that truly believes in sustainability and the right to repair.

Oh my, enough already.

Those days are never coming back. Ever. Ever, ever, ever. Those days are Betamax and CD-ROM's.

It's not just the computer industry---it's seemingly most industries. Have you used or do you own a late model car? Closed and sealed products are the price we pay for things like only needing to change or check the oil in a vehicle once per year, which is how my car operates. Sealed tighter than a drum and I have a 5 year warranty on the sucker, so I worry--NEVER.

If you want to tinker, you go with building a PC. I mean, I guess you can come to these forums and bang your wooden spoon on your high chair, but it's not going to do any good.

So continue to squeeze that 2011 machine to your chest and shake your head from side to side like a 4 year old being told he has to put his toys away---the good old days aren't coming back. And you know what? They really weren't all that great, anyway.

 

[lambertjohn]

ah.. crap ! Apple's moved to soldered SSD's, Apple really wants to make use of that 0.5% extra space don't they.

No, they want to make more money off you by forcing you to upgrade your hard drive size at the time of purchase...WITH THEM.

 

[Glockworkorange]

Nonsense. You make claims that are SIMPLY not true.

"Trading repairability for durability and simplicity"?
Clearly you're not an engineer, product designer or whatever otherwise you wouldn't make such a claim.

"The overwhelming majority of customers could not care less"
The fast majority has no clue until products stop working. Than they find out they're basically screwed unless they extreme high repair costs, which btw aren't always necessary as many journalists have shown.

"If those things were in demand from MacBook buyers Apple would offer them."
Apple NEVER gives what users are asking for. Apple thinks they already know what customers want.

You simply ignore the most common things like Apple wanting total control over the product you buy.
All products from Apple have been raised by at least 100% in less than 6 years.
Apple is greedy and it clearly shows in the products they're producing.

My MBP 2011 is still running like a charm. If things break I can replace them. Apple killed it though by not letting me upgrade above High Sierra.

Great. Don't buy a new MacBook. Hold that 2011 until it melts. But please, don't act like the rest of us are crazy for not really giving a *****.

 

[farmboy]

Good luck getting it fixed if anything breaks. Also, good luck replacing the battery (and eventually, ALL batteries need replacing).

Sound authoritative. Why does my PowerBook 145, my Pismo, white Macbook, and 2015 MBP still charge and run on the original batteries?

Unless by "eventually" you mean decades. I don't need any luck with repairs, thanks, none needed so far.

 

[lambertjohn]

The soldered SSD is a step backwards :/

For you maybe, but for Apple it's a step forwards with more money in their pockets from at-purchase upgrades as well as future repair income. Increasing profits is their preferred business model. How does no one see that??

 

[FamVR]

I can swap a dead lenovo keyboard in about 30 minutes and have a user back up and running. I can swap the SSD storage on any of our lenovo's in about 10 minutes if need be.

if a laptop dies and needs to go to warranty, I can yank the drive out, put it into another laptop and the user continues working while we repair the machine without any change to data or workflow.

replacement and fixes can be done at just about any repair centre and take usually 1-2 days tops.


this is regular required work in an enterprise. And we're only talking about a small 200-300 person financial institution.

If I had to tell the CEO that if her laptop had a hardware failure the only solution was to be without her data or computer for 1-2 weeks while we send it in for repair, heads would roll. Especially if those repairs cost more than 1/3rd of the cost of the device in the first place. (we can get replacement keyboards for our lenovo's for about $50)

These new round of Mac laptosp arne't bad laptops. But the way they've been designed is clearly consumer focused first and not enterprise and not intended for long term large scale enterprise use. The lack of any sort of repairability means the turn around time should something go wrong is extended with additional risks of data loss should there be a problem. (replacing the motherboard shouldn't require replacing and losing all data)

Right. Well. Maybe it’s just me, a long time - read 35 years - software developer, but at least here there’s no need to replace a keyboard or SSD, in whatever time, and here nobody is ever going home without access to their data, because we use the cloud, and thus they can use all kind of devices to work with. Wherever they want or need. You just get a loaner to work with. Problem solved, in a matter of minutes.

 

[imola.zhp]

Thanks but no thanks... I was holding out for YEARS for a new MBP due to the keyboard issues. I'm using a 2010 MBP, it still works great but I decided to give up waiting about a year ago and came up with a less traditional idea. I'm in the process of migrating everything over to a 2010 mini I picked up used and will be casting everything to a 2018 11" iPad Pro I picked up used using Luna (picked up used from eBay). I imagine that mini will be upgraded sooner or later but for the minimal computing we do at home, I think this setup will fit our needs. I have an apple BT keyboard and Mouse (used, came with the mini), already using the BT keyboard with the iPad Pro, love it, its not part of the case so when I want to use the iPad on the couch I'm not also carrying a bulky keyboard case. Excited to use the mouse when iPadOS is released. I bought a pencil 2 and its fun to use but I'm not sure it was worth the cost, had to buy the Pencil 2 new as used are not easy to come by. Going to sell the old MBP once I get everything setup. The mini works as a pseudo server for 3 apple TV's for media content, it will work as a server for some content to the iPad and it is running Home Assistant in a virtual machine to handle home automation duties.

Its funny though, using the iPad to screen share OSX from the mini is so intuitive, I have been working on moving things around and have, several times, found myself touching the MBP screen with my finger. Especially when they are setup side by side, it makes me wonder why we never got a touchscreen MBP. I guess that would cannibalize some iPad sales perhaps? Its tragic nonetheless.

 

[tongxinshe]

Please, please, please stop with the 10 hour battery life crap....my 2017 MBP is lucky to get 4-5 hours at most on a full charge. I have never reached anywhere close to 10 hours, so please, stop typing the words, 10 hour battery life on any Mac.

The most obvious trick is to not set your screen brightness to be above 50% during normal usage.

 

[TheDemogordon]

Many people don't just magically become okay with something just because it's been done for a few years. I wasn't ok with it when it first started in 2016, and I'm still not ok with it today. I still use my 2012 macbook pro for this reason and others. sorry man, I smh right back at you.

My issue is with the language used to describe soldering flash storage to the logic board. I also don't like the soldered flash storage, especially with base storage starting at 128 GB. It's just this article has misleading language regarding an already controversial topic.

 

[Cavepainter]

We have a mix of them at work, and I have a little laugh with myself each time they need to do something or connect up to a display. They all carry little bags of dongles which amuses me.....(there's your extra weight )

THIS.

The should require that the computer be weighed WITH the bag of dongles. Let's face it- if you pretty much HAVE to have a bag of extra stuff everywhere you go and you're up a creek if you don't have the extras, you may as well count it towards the weight. You're carrying it all around anyways.

 

[Robnsn2015]

Right. Well. Maybe it’s just me, a long time - read 35 years - software developer, but at least here there’s no need to replace a keyboard or SSD, in whatever time, and here nobody is ever going home without access to their data, because we use the cloud, and thus they can use all kind of devices to work with. Wherever they want or need. You just get a loaner to work with. Problem solved, in a matter of minutes.

Unless you work in an environment where that isn't allowed, such as the DoD, DHS, a US healthcare company with HIPPAA-compliant data to deal with, etc.
[doublepost=1562954423][/doublepost]

Sound authoritative. Why does my PowerBook 145, my Pismo, white Macbook, and 2015 MBP still charge and run on the original batteries?

Unless by "eventually" you mean decades. I don't need any luck with repairs, thanks, none needed so far.

Depends on your battery usage. But yes, batteries do have life spans.
[doublepost=1562954485][/doublepost]

THIS.

The should require that the computer be weighed WITH the bag of dongles. Let's face it- if you pretty much HAVE to have a bag of extra stuff everywhere you go and you're up a creek if you don't have the extras, you may as well count it towards the weight. You're carrying it all around anyways.

Apple could at least have the decency to include a USB-A/USB-C dongle with the computer instead of a $20 option.
[doublepost=1562954581][/doublepost]

Oh my, enough already.

Those days are never coming back. Ever. Ever, ever, ever. Those days are Betamax and CD-ROM's.

It's not just the computer industry---it's seemingly most industries. Have you used or do you own a late model car? Closed and sealed products are the price we pay for things like only needing to change or check the oil in a vehicle once per year, which is how my car operates. Sealed tighter than a drum and I have a 5 year warranty on the sucker, so I worry--NEVER.

If you want to tinker, you go with building a PC. I mean, I guess you can come to these forums and bang your wooden spoon on your high chair, but it's not going to do any good.

So continue to squeeze that 2011 machine to your chest and shake your head from side to side like a 4 year old being told he has to put his toys away---the good old days aren't coming back. And you know what? They really weren't all that great, anyway.

Yeah, people used to say that about the abomination known as the "trash can" Mac Pro. Those days are never coming back... unless customers demand it.

 

[mikethemartian]

The elitists over in Macrumors & other tech sites are hilarious. They never stop to amuse me. Only 1-3% of Mac owners in the mid 2000s ever touched the machines' insides. The data is collected independently with 1000s in sample size & is not from apple. Majority of people want machines to be more integrated, as this allows for machines to be less error prone & more robust.This goes for MacBooks as well. MacBook batteries last 3-4 times longer than 2009, their motherboards have gotten more efficient, and native SSD storage is much faster. I get it some elitist geeks want to touch the insides, and move things around, but that wont happen with Apple. Please make your own laptops or desktops or go to another brand.

Actually many users want to be able to upgrade simple items like the battery, memory and drive WITHOUT taking the whole machine apart.

 

[The_Martini_Cat]

Definitely remember pushing down the non-soldered chips into their sockets on the motherboard, and ... Voila! The computer works again!! Face it guys, a user reconfigurable inside is going to cost more. Why? It would cost Apple more to deal with the multiple interface incompatiblities and user screwups. Yes, Apple does sell a computer with slots, and space inside or 1.5 TB of RAM. It's portable, too (if you buy all four wheels ... wheels are free for any configuration over $100K). It's probably even reasonably priced for what you get. "Affordable" is not the first word that comes to mind, tho.

 

[v0lume4]

I see people defending Apple on soldered hardware etc. While my use case is just one of millions -- and I realize that most people probably don't do this -- user swappable parts are what have allowed me to stretch my mid-2010 Macbook all the way to mid-2019. It STILL is my primary computer. All I've done is change the HDD to an SSD (huge upgrade), I added more RAM, and I changed the battery. There's no way I would have gotten this amount of value had I not been able to upgrade the laptop as I go. macOS updates turned my computer into a snail (thanks, Apple) and I've manged to get by with these upgrades. I'm sorry, but I'd be hard pressed to purchase a laptop that wouldn't let me, at minimum, change out the RAM.

 

[jerryk]

Sounds just like all of the other MBPs. Why is this surprising?

 

[The_Martini_Cat]

Actually many users want to be able to upgrade simple items like the battery, memory and drive WITHOUT taking the whole machine apart.

That sure is true about the RAM upgrade. I struggled for years with too-small RAM on my old MacBook pro. Still using it, tho!

 

[AlexJoda]

Soldered parts do make them more robust. Less moving parts mean less permanent harm from physical damage.

I am not so sure about that...I am still using my ultra robust Unibody 2012 non Retina MBP (Quad Core i7, Nvidia GPU), that last one where you can replace nearly everything (RAM, Disk, Batterie, Fans and more). It is still powerful and in use only because I was able to upgrade to 16GB RAM, 512GB SSD, a new batterie and MacOS Mojave. I much doubt that this 2019 MBP is still usable with the original unchangeable configuration in 7 years....

 

[jerryk]

Definitely remember pushing down the non-soldered chips into their sockets on the motherboard, and ... Voila! The computer works again!! Face it guys, a user reconfigurable inside is going to cost more. Why? It would cost Apple more to deal with the multiple interface incompatiblities and user screwups. Yes, Apple does sell a computer with slots, and space inside or 1.5 TB of RAM. It's portable, too (if you buy all four wheels ... wheels are free for any configuration over $100K). It's probably even reasonably priced for what you get. "Affordable" is not the first word that comes to mind, tho.

Agreed. Chips seated in sockets are a failure point. Plastic sockets and metal chip legs expand at different rates so the chips come loose. There there is the whole issue of the size. Much of the size of a socketed chip is used to connect the pins to the IC.

 

[AlexJoda]

I think you forgot the main issue.

For even the simplest repair, half the laptop needs to be replaced.

The laptop is cost prohibitive to repair after the warranty ends.

Maybe the typical rich customer Apple has in mind did not use this MBA any longer after Apple Care+ ends....

 

[oldmacs]

Agreed. Chips seated in sockets are a failure point. Plastic sockets and metal chip legs expand at different rates so the chips come loose. There there is the whole issue of the size. Much of the size of a socketed chip is used to connect the pins to the IC.

I've honestly never encountered a mac where the SSD connector has failed.. Multiple SSD failures, but not the connector itself.
[doublepost=1562956356][/doublepost]

For you maybe, but for Apple it's a step forwards with more money in their pockets from at-purchase upgrades as well as future repair income. Increasing profits is their preferred business model. How does no one see that??

Given how much Apple already profits I don't care what their preferred business model is. I care about end users, usability and the environment.