iFixit Shares Full 16-Inch MacBook Pro Teardown

[PickUrPoison]

Why do you keep bringing in the issue of stolen iPhones. I travel to many developing countries where theft would be likely and my iPhone has never been an issue. I do not believe the battery is locked by iCloud but rather a reset code needs to be applied within iOS. I believe this is less to do with theft rather than Apple being transparent and honest about replacement part pricing as without these lame tactics of providing a code within iOS people will just get a battery at a fraction of the cost. People have successfully replaced an iPhone battery without problems in the past with the unnecessary iOS code.

The battery isn’t locked by iCloud. But a stolen iPhone that’s iCloud locked is typically parted out. If those parts aren’t as easily sold, there’s less motivation for them to be stolen.

It’s good that you’ve never personally had your iPhone stolen, but iPhones are frequently stolen nonetheless.

 

[CHA05 R31GN5]

Well, yeah. SLC is EXPENSIVE still. I mentioned QLC because the other posters were bickering over it. I knew it was used in a lot read systems such as for serving static data that's rarely changed.
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I'm only speculating that other models with higher capacities based upon my knowledge of TLC used up to the 2TB capacities in '16-19. However, Apple has used different SSD soldered chips since they were introduced a few years back. Some had Samsung, Toshiba, and maybe even Micron.

BTW. Both sides of the logic board could be laid out to contain storage chips and they're filled based upon manufacturer/capacity. Could be Samsung for the 8TB since they have NVMe drives for data storage servers laid out in 512GB chips for TLC. Maybe even NGD.

 

[ellsworth]

I like how iFixit positioned the fans and keyboard to look like a pissed off angry emoji. Well played iFixit.

 

[code-m]

I never said you shouldn’t be able to buy an authorized part, that’s a different question. But I don’t think a shop should have the right to put a $2 battery in my phone and charge me $40 for an OEM battery instead of the $25 they charge for a third party. As a consumer, I appreciate that information.

I have been to repair shops that will show you the part they are placing and will conduct the repair in front of you while you wait. I cannot speak for other people and places.
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The battery isn’t locked by iCloud. But a stolen iPhone that’s iCloud locked is typically parted out. If those parts aren’t as easily sold, there’s less motivation for them to be stolen.

It’s good that you’ve never personally had your iPhone stolen, but iPhones are frequently stolen nonetheless.

What if a user has locked themselves out from iCloud the phone can be reset by connecting it to iTunes or whatever measure is available presently. If the iPhone is stolen it is called report the IMEI as such and the serial number to your carrier and Apple. No need to consider everyone a thief. Apple mishandles they intent remember the battery degradation issue without transparency. Yep only class actions seem to get the message across.

 

[0x0x0x0]

The biggest TLC flash package is 1TB not 512GB. The Samsung 970 EVO 2TB used only two 1TB flash packages to achieve 2TB on a single sided m.2 PCIe SSD. The density afforded by 512Gbit flash allows Samsung to fit 1024GB (1TB) of storage on a single sixteen die flash package. With 1TB of V-NAND on a single flash package, a single-sided 2TB M.2 SSD with a conventional two-package flash array is possible. The 970 EVO uses 64-layer 3-bit V-NAND. EDIT: According to Samsung's documentation, it says the 970 EVO uses 3-bit MLC V-NAND. (https://www.samsung.com/semiconduct...msung_NVMe_SSD_970_EVO_Data_Sheet_Rev.1.0.pdf)

Read more: https://www.tweaktown.com/reviews/8651/samsung-970-evo-2tb-2-nvme-pcie-ssd-review/index.html

They moved to a 92-layer 3-bit V-NAND on the 970 EVO Plus.

That's good. Samsung say 3bit MLC to detract from the "TLC" label, they're the same; but the good news is that it seems that the endurance increase with higher desity is still linear. Maybe it is TLC afterall, why can't Apple give the proper spec for once? (<- rhetorical question)

 

[CHA05 R31GN5]

There was a lot of speculation about that in '16-'19 but I've not seen a single end-user product with those chips, SKHynix is only promising to make 1TB TLC chips available in 2020. Have you seen the 2TB chips out of labs?

Dude, you're kind of going off on a tangent about the chip layout and maximum capacity of these. It's possible to have 8TB in TLC which is more likely than QLC. I've only seen QLC in handful of products and they're not desired for anything that's going to have the read/write cycles that many products would require. However, it's all irrelevant to the fact the chips are soldered to the logic board which is a given with many other manufacturers Ultrabooks. Which is what I put MB in the category of and why I don't haze Apple for this. My '17 MBP has Samsung TLC in 256GB chips.

 

[ChrisA]

I wouldn’t care if it was 2 mm thicker and 200 grams heavier. iPhone 11 Pro is thicker and heavier than X/XS and I have no problem with it.

You or I would not care about 2mm but the materials used cost money and if Apple can shave 2mm of the size they save money.

After making a million machines. Apple saves TWO KILOMETERS on materials. Apple know that no one will notice those 2mm but Apple notices on their balance sheet.

An Apple engineer who can find a way to save a few grams of material has earned his pay for the next 5 years.

Then they replace a screw with a rivet and save another $50K and the savings add up over the entire product line.

 

[GoodWheaties]

Except that the only way to get *that speed* from that kind of silicon is to use them as RAID...

It’s not RAID. It’s simply NAND chips directly on the motherboard rather than a separate PCB. Speed has everything to do with the controller and how many NAND chips are there. It IS similar to RAID in that having more chips is faster due to parallelism. Which is why Apple usually tries to have similar amounts of chips on the board to keep speed similar between capacities.

 

[0x0x0x0]

Dude, you're kind of going off on a tangent about the chip layout and maximum capacity of these. It's possible to have 8TB in TLC which is more likely than QLC. I've only seen QLC in handful of products and they're not desired for anything that's going to have the read/write cycles that many products would require. However, it's all irrelevant to the fact the chips are soldered to the logic board which is a given with many other manufacturers Ultrabooks. Which is what I put MB in the category of and why I don't haze Apple for this. My '17 MBP has Samsung TLC in 256GB chips.

Dude, I have plenty of QLCs for things that are write-once-read-many, and I have ESXi running on SLC, the point is, each type of chip for its own task.

It's entirely probable that it is TLC that Apple put in there, but why on Earth they can't say what they put in the spec is beyond me. However, knowing the corporate greed and knowing that from their perspective it needs to last at most a year (and you'll never do enough drive writes in a laptop to wear it out, 8TB QLC would be about 1600TBW, spread it even over AppleCare years is 533TB per year ), and after that it's not Apple's problem, I wouldn't put it past them. 😜 I just did a quick check and in my laptop that has a "mixed" use of SSD, over the last two years I've written less than 65 TB.

 

[CHA05 R31GN5]

You or I would not care about 2mm but the materials used cost money and if Apple can shave 2mm of the size they save money.

After making a million machines. Apple saves TWO KILOMETERS on materials. Apple know that no one will notice those 2mm but Apple notices on their balance sheet.

An Apple engineer who can find a way to save a few grams of material has earned his pay for the next 5 years.

Then they replace a screw with a rivet and save another $50K and the savings add up over the entire product line.

In manufacturing and engineering, rivets are great for weight reduction and structural integrity. Which is why they are used in aircraft, performance vehicles, etc. But, this is a notebook which doesn't see that much in weight reduction and shearing forces that the rivet can withstand aren't necessary. The damn logic board and other components would be destroyed before the rivet serves its purpose. In maintenance, we call rivets the **** you screw.

 

[0x0x0x0]

It’s not RAID. It’s simply NAND chips directly on the motherboard rather than a separate PCB. Speed has everything to do with the controller and how many NAND chips are there. It IS similar to RAID in that having more chips is faster due to parallelism. Which is why Apple usually tries to have similar amounts of chips on the board to keep speed similar between capacities.

Congrats, you've just described RAID!

 

[CHA05 R31GN5]

Dude, I have plenty of QLCs for things that are write-once-read-many, and I have ESXi running on SLC, the point is, each type of chip for its own task.

It's entirely probable that it is TLC that Apple put in there, but why on Earth they can't say what they put in the spec is beyond me. However, knowing the corporate greed and knowing that from their perspective it needs to last at most a year (and you'll never do enough drive writes in a laptop to wear it out, 8TB QLC would be about 1600TBW, spread it even over AppleCare years is 533TB per year ), and after that it's not Apple's problem, I wouldn't put it past them. 😜 I just did a quick check and in my laptop that has a "mixed" use of SSD, over the last two years I've written less than 65 TB.

I agree with Apple's lack of transparency about many of their products.

 

[PickUrPoison]

You're hillarious, look up what juxtaposed means, saying "Two things don’t have to be juxtaposed to be put into contrast" is a contradiction; and given your level of argument, I can't be bothered to argue (or even deal) with someone whose opening line "You’re perfectly entitled to voice your (wrong) opinion".

1) Your not understanding that two things can be contrasted without being juxtaposed is your problem to sort out, not mine.

2) Newsflash: all opinions aren’t right. You don’t get a participation trophy. If you tell me the earth is flat, you’re wrong, but similar to your contention that name calling is productive, there’s no point in arguing with you—talk about unproductive lol. But you’re still wrong

3) Cant we even agree that some customers don’t have any issue whatsoever with the non-upgradability of this new MacBook Pro 16”, whereas for you it’s a dealbreaker? Or is that a bridge too far...

 

[0x0x0x0]

3) Cant we even agree that some customers don’t have any issue whatsoever with the non-upgradability of this new MacBook Pro 16”, whereas for you it’s a dealbreaker? Or is that a bridge too far...

There's no point discussion points 1 and 2, and as for 3, sure, but that's not what you said that prompted my initial response.

 

[mikethemartian]

It is not whining when repairability is label at 1 and the lack of innovation continues...
New features:
Revert to an old keyboard mechanism,
Introducing the Physical escape key!
A disposable appliance
better speakers (wow...!)

It’s the Magic Escape Key

 

[The Clark]

I did (ThinkPad), and I have to say I am glad.

1. Best laptop keyboard in the industry
2. Trackpoint
3. USB-A and USB-C ports so no dongles
4. Thunderbolt 3
5. 500 nit display (same as Apple).
6. Surprisingly solid Windows 10, with Linux as another great option.

I mean this sincerely, good for you. You found something that you're happy with and works for you. That's all that matters.
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1) You can choose to think name calling is productive, but I disagree. A simple difference of opinion ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

2) I never said you shouldn’t voice your opinion. I said Apple didn’t make what you want so you bought something else. Good for you!

3) Contrasting the fools who buy whatever Apple “craps out” with your apparently wise choice of a P73 is what I refer to when I said you’re trying “to build yourself up by tearing others down”. Feel free to disagree but that’s my take.

Just give up, some people cannot be reasoned with.

 

[Aston441]

Considering the weight of this thing, it would've made no difference if Apple made the parts removable with good old screws.

And in return you'd get a highly repairable laptop that you could potentially keep forever.

except evil apple ditches support for all their devices eventually now

unlike previously evil microsoft

 

[PickUrPoison]

There's no point discussion points 1 and 2, and as for 3, sure, but that's not what you said that prompted my initial response.

It’s not all that far off lol. Some want/need Macs, other’s don’t. You misreading and/or misconstruing my statement: “If you don’t need/want MacOS, you can get a PC for cheaper. It’s been that way for decades.”

and somehow morphing that into thinking I said:

“people for decades were getting macs because of MacOS”

is what prompted your initial response as far as I can tell. But there’s no point in going there, as we will have come full circle, and with little to no progress I’m afraid.

I await your response so that you may have the last word.

 

[mikethemartian]

A DIY battery replacement is $80-$100 from iFixit and $200 from Apple that includes a complete top case replacement and limited warranty. Guess which one I am going to pick

Do you get a brand new top case or a refurbished one?

 

[PickUrPoison]

Just give up, some people cannot be reasoned with.

I’m done lol. Wish I had a time machine. Maybe a mod will have mercy and just delete the whole lot of it

 

[cmaier]

Congrats, you've just described RAID!

Not exactly

 

[GtrDude]

If it's good to have a separate esc key then how is it not good to have separate volume and brightness keys?

I use the volume keys literally all the time because of what I use these laptops for, post production.

Apple is once again forcing us to buy their technology which of course they have spend a LOT of money on during the inventing process.

We of course will pay for it, like it or not.

 

[mikethemartian]

Some people live an entitled lifestyle, I like learning and doing things with my mind and hands, if some people are not comfortable that is fine but these same people believe that everyone is like or should be like them.

These same people would rather call AAA then change a flat tyre because they don’t want to get their hands dirty or simply say I can afford it and don’t care to do it myself. In this regards they choose to not change their tyre but they still can. Apple provides no choice in this regard and these people‘s response is well it is not for you due to XYZ lame reason.

They seem to think a person is eccentric if they want to be able to easily change a battery.

 

[iLLUMI]

That last photo, left hand side ... are iFixit telling us something there in how they've laid out the components? LOL
Two angry, slanted eyes & eyebrows and a bunch of angry teeth.
With a repairability score of 1 I guess I would be angry too.

 

[mikethemartian]

If it's good to have a separate esc key then how is it not good to have separate volume and brightness keys?

I use the volume keys literally all the time because of what I use these laptops for, post production.

Apple is once again forcing us to buy their technology which of course they have spend a LOT of money on during the inventing process.

We of course will pay for it, like it or not.

The Magic Volume Keys will be a new innovative feature on the 2022 MBP.