iFixit Teardown of New 21.5-Inch 4K iMac Reveals DCI-P3 Display, Empty Solder Pads

[MacRumors]

Earlier today, iFixit conducted a teardown the new Magic Keyboard, Magic Trackpad 2 and Magic Mouse 2. They've now followed that up with a teardown of the brand new 21.5-inch 4K iMac, and while the majority of the insides are the same as last year's model, there are some notable differences.

First, the teardown found that the new iMac's 4K display is manufactured by LG. The new display is DCI-P3, which features a wider color gamut than the more standard sRGB. The new iMac is one of the few devices that allows consumers to experience the new display technology.

Apple has also removed the empty PCIe SSD slot that was featured in the late 2013 iMac, which means that do-it-yourself upgraders won't be able to upgrade their machine easily. In 2012, Apple featured empty solder pads where the SSD slot would go, but in 2013 added an empty SSD slot. iFixit notes that users who want to add a Fusion Drive will either have to configure it at purchase or solder it on themselves.

Overall, iFixit gave the new 21.5-inch iMac a repairability score of 1 out of 10, which means that the new desktop computer is extremely difficult to repair. Like other iMacs, the soldered-on CPU, logic board and fused-together glass and Retina Display contribute to how difficult the new desktop is to repair.

Article Link: iFixit Teardown of New 21.5-Inch 4K iMac Reveals DCI-P3 Display, Empty Solder Pads

 

[Kaibelf]

Isn't this the same iFixit that lied and broke their NDA in order to get advertising clicks, and then tried to blame their lazily-ignored and non-updated app on Apple's software and accused iOS of having bugs which broke it? Sorry, but I am forced to give them a respectability score of 1 out of 10, which means whatever trust I had in their opinion is extremely difficult to repair.

 

[newdeal]

the iMac has been an abomination ever since they dropped the superdrive and made it appear to be thinner without really being thinner.

No idea why they make the cpu faster year after year when for most people putting in an SSD and using a crap cpu would be a better experience

 

[trifid]

"Apple has also removed the empty PCIe SSD slot that was featured in the late 2013 iMac, which means that do-it-yourself upgraders won't be able to upgrade their machine easily." "...iFixit notes that users who want to add a Fusion Drive will either have to configure it at purchase or solder it on themselves."

Solder a hard drive? Are you fricking kidding me? Just when we thought the 5400rpm fiasco couldn't get any worse, wow just wow.

 

[the8thark]

ifixit have to fork out the $$ for their deconstruction machines as they are not getting any more (I think) thanks to their breaking of an Apple NDA a few weeks ago. Serves them right. Apple should come down on NDA breakers and make them wish they were never born. I would have taken ifixit to court if I was Apple. ifixit got off lightly with only their dev account banned.

 

[John.B]

I see you got the link to the right iMac this time.

 

[SchneiderMan]

Isn't this the same iFixit that lied and broke their NDA in order to get advertising clicks, and then tried to blame their lazily-ignored and non-updated app on Apple's software and accused iOS of having bugs which broke it? Sorry, but I am forced to give them a respectability score of 1 out of 10, which means whatever trust I had in their opinion is extremely difficult to repair.

Not if you buy their tool kit.

 

[trifid]

ifixit have to fork out the $$ for their deconstruction machines as they are not getting any more (I think) thanks to their breaking of an Apple NDA a few weeks ago. Serves them right. Apple should come down on NDA breakers and make them wish they were never born. I would have taken ifixit to court if I was Apple. ifixit got off lightly with only their dev account banned.

What ifixit did was stupid and I was surprised to see them being so unprofessional and irresponsible. However, I wouldn't want to wish them bad, nor to have a multi-billion company like Apple squash them out of the earth. I've been enjoying iFixit's work for many years, it's invaluable for anyone trying to upgrade/fix their own stuff, and I don't think there are many other great sites.

 

[John.B]

"Apple has also removed the empty PCIe SSD slot that was featured in the late 2013 iMac, which means that do-it-yourself upgraders won't be able to upgrade their machine easily." "...iFixit notes that users who want to add a Fusion Drive will either have to configure it at purchase or solder it on themselves."

Solder a hard drive? Are you fricking kidding me? Just when we thought the 5400rpm fiasco couldn't get any worse, wow just wow.

Uh, no. You'd buy the iMac with a platter (spinning) hard drive and theoretically solder in the PCIe flash drive. If you were so inclined. The reality is that almost nobody is ever going to do that. Like the soldered memory, this just makes people buy the faster storage at the time they buy the iMac.

Philosophically, no different that the 16GB iPhones and iPads.

 

[Joe Rossignol]

I see you got the link to the right iMac this time.

Just when we thought nobody noticed... woops!

 

[Junipr]

..while the majority of the insides are the same as last year's model, there are some notable differences.

There are also 5400 notable rpm similarities to the 1999 model

 

[NY Guitarist]

Love the iMac, hate that Apple is continuing down the road of making their products un-upgradable.

Apple products are essentially just disposable now.

 

[the8thark]

Isn't this the same iFixit that lied and broke their NDA in order to get advertising clicks, and then tried to blame their lazily-ignored and non-updated app on Apple's software and accused iOS of having bugs which broke it? Sorry, but I am forced to give them a respectability score of 1 out of 10, which means whatever trust I had in their opinion is extremely difficult to repair.

That is a good point. How can we trust their repairability scores anymore after that NDA breaking stunt and after blaming iOS9 for ifixit's lazinesses to keep their apps updated.

 

[John.B]

ifixit have to fork out the $$ for their deconstruction machines as they are not getting any more (I think) thanks to their breaking of an Apple NDA a few weeks ago. Serves them right. Apple should come down on NDA breakers and make them wish they were never born. I would have taken ifixit to court if I was Apple. ifixit got off lightly with only their dev account banned.

iFixit always spends their own money for the teardown machines. It's no big deal when you consider they're also practiced at putting them back together. That ATV incident was a one-off, where they "bought" (at a steep developer discount) a unit instead of waiting for the retail version, to get the jump on their competition. And, yes, that was arsehattery on the part of the iFixit team and an overreaction on Apple's part.

 

[NY Guitarist]

And, yes, that was arsehattery on the part of the iFixit team and an overreaction on Apple's part.

Apple HAS to enforce agreements otherwise it will set precedent. iFixit essentially forced Apple to take action.

 

[the8thark]

yes, that was arsehattery on the part of the iFixit team and an overreaction on Apple's part.

Breaking NDA's is something Apple takes very seriously as they should. NDA's exist for a reason. If you break them, by a little or by a lot, it's still a breach and should be dealt with. It's a good precident for others. Don't even think about trying to bend the rules, you will be caught and you will be appropriately delt with.

 

[snebes]

I'm more interested in seeing the 27.5" naked. They already broken down the 21.5" model twice. Was there really that much different between the retina and non-retina iMacs?

I'm curious if the 1TB FusionDrive on that model is also 24GB SSD + 1TB HDD. Haven't seen confirmation of that yet. Ugh. OWC reported it was 24GB. Sad

 

[Luis Mazza]

Love the iMac, hate that Apple is continuing down the road of making their products un-upgradable.

Apple products are essentially just disposable now.

Apple is preparing the roots for a full-blown wave of hate coming the next years, when overpriced and ordinary computers and phones become the norm.

 

[pezkiln]

Isn't this the same iFixit that lied and broke their NDA in order to get advertising clicks, and then tried to blame their lazily-ignored and non-updated app on Apple's software and accused iOS of having bugs which broke it? Sorry, but I am forced to give them a respectability score of 1 out of 10, which means whatever trust I had in their opinion is extremely difficult to repair.

Yeah, I doubt anyone cares whether you trust them or not.

 

[snebes]

ifixit have to fork out the $$ for their deconstruction machines as they are not getting any more (I think) thanks to their breaking of an Apple NDA a few weeks ago. Serves them right. Apple should come down on NDA breakers and make them wish they were never born. I would have taken ifixit to court if I was Apple. ifixit got off lightly with only their dev account banned.

iFixit does buy most the Apple hardware they break down. If you think that $99/year developer account got them free products, you'd be damn sure everyone on this forum would be signed up as one. That pre-release AppleTV, however, was their own undoing.

 

[John.B]

Apple HAS to enforce agreements otherwise it will set precedent. iFixit essentially forced Apple to take action.

Yeah, Apple needed to take action, I just think they overreacted. (And, yes, iFixit is clearly at fault here.) Hopefully cooler heads will prevail.

Love the iMac, hate that Apple is continuing down the road of making their products un-upgradable.

Apple products are essentially just disposable now.

I can't wait to see the Surface Book teardown. Just sayin'.

 

[trifid]

Uh, no. You'd buy the iMac with a platter (spinning) hard drive and theoretically solder in the PCIe flash drive. If you were so inclined. The reality is that almost nobody is ever going to do that. Like the soldered memory, this just makes people buy the faster storage at the time they buy the iMac.

Philosophically, no different that the 16GB iPhones and iPads.

Isn't that wonderful? Locking down a desktop computer and making it like an iphone so that Apple can profit more BTW, I hope Apple solders ram on all 2016 iMacs too, since adding ram currently is so difficult!!! I wanna pay $500 for the ram upgrade next year

 

[John.B]

Breaking NDA's is something Apple takes very seriously as they should. NDA's exist for a reason. If you break them, by a little or by a lot, it's still a breach and should be dealt with. It's a good precident for others. Don't even think about trying to bend the rules, you will be caught and you will be appropriately delt with.

Yeah, yeah, I get it.

What I won't get is an TV app from iFixit with the teardown/repair videos to my TV, because Apple nuked their developer account.

So everybody loses.

 

[Kaibelf]

And, yes, that was arsehattery on the part of the iFixit team and an overreaction on Apple's part.

I guess contracts and business agreements don't mean much to you?

 

[chabig]

Solder a hard drive? Are you fricking kidding me? Just when we thought the 5400rpm fiasco couldn't get any worse, wow just wow.

No. The hard drive is not soldered. The SSD is.