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Base 2019 13-Inch MacBook Pro Teardown Reveals Larger Battery, Soldered-Down SSD, and Updated Keyboard Material
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If your IT department contains people who's job it is to repair computers then it is cost-effective, especially at the enterprise scale.
I got the same-year 2012 retina MBP and it's still in use w/ no configuration change. The 2019 MBP is nearly twice as fast .. I would be interested in what you think is going to improve as much in the next 7 years that would make it obsolete (the introduction of A-Series chips to the Mac aside) -- as opposed to wonderful new features like some kind of low-power bright screen that makes you want to upgrade, as opposed to needing to.
My 2018 MBP had a motherboard failure after less then a year. First i had to get an appointment at a Genius Bar the next day (not the same day because apparently too busy) and then they told me it takes them 1 week to fix. I snapped and told them they either have a quality problem (too many devices to fix) or a resource problem (too little workforce, too slow) or both. Lesson for me. With this fully integrated soldered stuff everything takes at least a week.
My 2012 MBP had originally 4GB RAM and a super slow 2.5" hard drive. Maybe you had a better config from the start. In 2012 I thought this was the best and fastest notebook that last nearly forever (it did, but not in this config)....
You kind of hurt the credibility of any of your other arguments with a claim like that. So the $1099 price of a 2019 MacBook Air must've been only $550 back in 2013? Discounting the fact that the current model is much faster in every respect, now has Retina display, TouchID, T2, and 8GB RAM instead of 4GB, price in 2013 was... $1099. (Which would be >$1200 adjusted for inflation.)
I also work in a highly regulated industry with regards to document control. Cloud doesn't always mean AWS, Azure, or Google. For example, we run our own inhouse datacenter with a document management system from a vendor that complies with our regs. I would consider this "cloud" as to the user it is.
The issues you raise with regards to data plans and employees traveling or being offsite, all those issues apply equally to a laptop with removable storage. As I said, those are data policy logistics, not computer hardware related. They'd be just as screwed if they had a Lenovo that died while traveling away from WiFi unless they happen to be traveling with their IT guy who has a suitcase full of spare parts.
I'm not sure what you mean by "we cannot afford to lose the data drives when / if we have to ship the device to repair." You literally cannot afford to buy extras to have available? Or you can't afford the time it takes to restore a new computer from backup? I understand the data policy when shipping drives/computers to a vendor for repair, but this is a manageable logistics/ops problem that tons of companies deal with just fine - and again have not much to do with Apple.
Bottom line is this: Having soldered storage is a pain, but it's a logistics problem for IT departments and it's workable. In other words, it's not a gating issue.
Depends on how it's structured. I work at a company with over 1,000 employees who are issued computers. We've decided it's more efficient to lease everything with service contracts. This way our IT focuses on software issues, higher-level hardware issues, and the data servers.
A crappy keyboard mechanism covered with more silicone called high end. Wow! we've come a long way!
True Apple innovation at its best...
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There is no trade off when Apple is forcing you to pay ridicoulsy obscene prices for both storage and RAM that are 2x the market value.
Well, if you're losing data when the laptop dies, I'd question your basic data handling and backup practices?
What I *believe Apple wants you to do in the situation you describe above:
1: Have a handful of identically configured devices that can be imaged to be a perfect clone of the dead device from redundant backups, while said dead device is sent for repairs.
or 2: All important user data is stored in a network user folder on the server at the office in the first place, so the user only has to log-in from above identically configured device to access their data.
Cost effective? For Apple, sure! They get you to buy extra devices to have on hand just in case of a hardware failure requiring the device to be sent away for repairs in order to reduce downtime/productivity loss. For small businesses? (1-100?) Of course not.
* I'm not sure if Apple currently offers institutional Authorized Service, but another option could be to have at least one Apple Certified Technician employed on site and fulfill any other current requirements to be allowed to repair devices on site with Apple parts. Again, depending on how requirements have changed in recent years this may or may not be an option available to smaller businesses, and may or may not be cost effective for small businesses.
The fetishization of thin over any other feature including basic comfort when using the primary input device on a "Pro" laptop.... sigh. Having used other people's butterfly MBPs from time to time, I'd rather pay Apple $4000 for a laptop that was identical in thickness to my 2012 non-retina, that was actually comfortable to use for more that tweets and facebook posts... Hard to believe that there isn't a big enough market out there of Pro users who actually have to use the keyboard for more than social media posts to justify the expense of offering just one damn model that didn't suck to type on..
Oh well.
apple.com/feedback
Yeah imagine people questioning how these machines are built.
I mean a laptop with an aberration of a keyboard which can require the keyboard, battery, top case and thunderbolt ports replacing because one key has failed seems fine doesn't it.
Its fine that Apple was quoting people $5 - 700 in out of warranty repair costs for three years before they plead mea culpa on the keyboard. Anybody who thinks otherwise is elitist.
Like most other modern MacBooks, this model earned a low repairability score from iFixit due to the usual concerns, such as Apple's use of proprietary pentalobe screws, a glued-in battery, and soldered-down storage and RAM. One positive is that the trackpad can be replaced without touching the battery.
Here we go with the proprietary, "We're not going to allow you to repair or upgrade your computer any longer," crap... just the kind of actions that almost put them out of business in the 90's.
"Modern MacBook?" Are you kidding? This is getting to be something along the lines of cheap HP notebooks years ago.
Apple... go right ahead and isolate yourself right out of the pro market... and out of the market for anyone with a clue who does not live in "Apple Worship" land, allowing Apple to sell them anything they unleash on them. The way Apple seems to be going they may be able to use the old "1984" commercial to describe themselves, in short order.
Now they're soldering down even the SSD's in these expensive pieces of upgrade-worthless crap?
This is Apple slowly drifting back into 1990's "Bonehead Land", for those who weren't around to watch them nearly self-destruct then.
What an embarrassing shame.
We were not talking about SSD connectors. The issue was socketed chips. If you never had to rock an IC package to get it to reseat I would be very surprised. This was sort of Option 1 in Troubleshooting
Lol! Drank any Apple Kool-aid, lately? Maybe Apple can hire folks such as yourself as propagandists for their cheaply built/proprietary product ads!
Not really cost effective. Better to give the user a spare and get them back to work, and send the defective system to the suppliers repair depot. It makes no sense to employ and train higher paid technicians, have specialized repair tools, and diagnostic software licenses for troubleshooting and repair devices that runs under $2,000 new.
A screwed in SSD or battery is not a moving part
Back in the day, mid 2000s or earlier, more often than anyone wanted. Surface mount technology and soldering components made things smaller, cooler, and more reliable. The downside is the Field Repairable Unit (FRU) became larger and more expensive. Upside is it is easier to swap a board that troubleshoot it, and lower skilled techs can do the swap.