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

[MVallee]

It's sad that Mac's are becoming harder to upgrade. Not being able to upgrade them means they will become obsolete faster and end up in the landfill. My family still has some Mac's that are almost 10 years old, running smoothly thanks to hard drive and RAM upgrades.

 

[WarcraftWidow]

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 can still buy the machines at retail like anyone else. That's what they do with iPhones, for example. They got in trouble with the new Apple TV because those were only being given to select developers pre-release.

 

[DanielSw]

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

It's not an abomination, and I'm so glad you don't work for Apple.

It's been so long since I've had to read or write a CD/DVD, but that's why I have the external Superdrive. It makes a lot of sense to make it a user-connectable option for those who need one instead of a standard part of a Mac.

It's sad that Mac's are becoming harder to upgrade. Not being able to upgrade them means they will become obsolete faster and end up in the landfill. My family still has some Mac's that are almost 10 years old, running smoothly thanks to hard drive and RAM upgrades.

It's not sad at all. Soldered components make them more reliable, reducing the need for maintenance. They're also much more recyclable these days. Buy the RAM you want up front. There are plenty of companies who buy used Macs, the money for which can go towards a new one. This penchant for upgradeability is so '80s/'90s. Come on up to this century.

 

[pat500000]

iFixit promotes environmental responsibility by calling out companies that make unrepairable products. I had the battery replaced in my retina MacBook Pro and it required replacing the entire top case of the computer. It's strange to see all these pedants on MacRumors when Apple was founded by people who flouted convention and law (anybody remember Woz's blue box, or Steve Jobs backdating stock options?). iFixIt broke a contract between two companies--it wasn't found guilty of committing financial fraud like Apple was by the SEC. Does no one remember Steve Jobs flying a pirate's flag over the Mac building? He was a conniving, thieving person and proud of it. My grandparents lived where he started out. He would borrow money from people to work on projects at Apple who never saw a penny back. iFixIt is innocuous compared to all the compromises in ethics a company as large as Apple has to make just to exist as it does with its ridiculous profit margins. Tim Cook oversaw all product manufacturing leaving the US to a country with horrendous human rights violations, and Apple spends millions each year buying Congressmen to further their interests, including trade deals and pushes to nearly eliminate capital gains tax on profits made abroad. Rooting for Apple against the big guys in 1997 was one thing, but it's a bit sick now.

So...what's your point?

 

[trifid]

Then, there is no point in getting iMac....might as well get mac pro.

The ultimate upsale eh? Lol.

 

[Denmac1]

Coming up next for the Appliance line.....iToaster.....

 

[trifid]

Coming up next for the Appliance line.....iToaster.....

iCar. Now featuring soldered wheels for firmer performance™

 

[Phoenixx]

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.

Well, maybe for an internal SSD upgrade. But, the external path is as simple as ever: get a compatible external SSD drive (or combination of enclosure and drive), plug it in, install OS X. That's about as easy as it comes. It's what I did on my iMac. It's not quite as fast as Apple's option, but it's close, and an easy and considerably less expensive way to go.

 

[antisocialzone]

Great.. what's next Apple? Are you gonna solder iPod/iPhone earphones directly and permanently to the device so we have no other choice in earphones? A choice of beats or white apple earphones soldered to the device at time of purchase? What the hell is going on with this damn company? Eventually your days of playing around with people come to end. All patience runs out after some time.
Because of this, I am soldering my money to my wallet and skipping iMac purchasing.

 

[pat500000]

The ultimate upsale eh? Lol.

LOL....i guess so.. At least you can upgrade something.....something i said...LOL.

iCar. Now featuring soldered wheels for firmer performance™

HAHAH i had a feeling someone was gonna say that. Well...if you wanna jailbreak it...might as well smash the windows.

 

[anthorumor]

Well, maybe for an internal SSD upgrade. But, the external path is as simple as ever: get a compatible external SSD drive (or combination of enclosure and drive), plug it in, install OS X. That's about as easy as it comes. It's what I did on my iMac. It's not quite as fast as Apple's option, but it's close, and an easy and considerably less expensive way to go.

This is true, and with Thunderbolt 2 (why not TB3, Apple?), you're no longer limited by speed.
However, what's with the lack of external drives sporting TB2? Even Apple should be making these to warrant demand.

 

[Phoenixx]

It's sad that Mac's are becoming harder to upgrade. Not being able to upgrade them means they will become obsolete faster and end up in the landfill. My family still has some Mac's that are almost 10 years old, running smoothly thanks to hard drive and RAM upgrades.

When I got my latest machine (about 6 months ago) I was surprised to find that the value of recent model second had Macs has already decreased substantially, while the value of older models has increased (Some of the older models were selling at higher prices than the latest ones!). When I made my purchase there were a lot of second hand latest model Mac Minis and iMacs at half the current retail price (This suited me fine as I was a buyer in this instance, and was able to get a very good deal on a 2013 iMac, which at that time was still the latest model.) It seems the public are already making what they think of the recent Mac range abundantly clear.

 

[AlexH]

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.

We're now talking about tech specs, there's very little room for opinion.

 

[doelcm82]

Yea but at this rate of 'innovation' I predict soldered ram on 27" imac next year

Glad I'm buying this year then. If I can keep Apple from sneaking in in the wee hours of the morning and soldering my ram while I slumber, I should be okay.

Or can they solder my ram with a firmware update? Cuz that would really suck.

Coming up next for the Appliance line.....iToaster.....

Only if they can get Kiki Stockhammer and Ken Nordine to be their spokespeople.

 

[pat500000]

When I got my latest machine (about 6 months ago) I was surprised to find that the value of recent model second had Macs has already decreased substantially, while the value of older models has increased (Some of the older models were selling at higher prices than the latest ones!). When I made my purchase there were a lot of second hand latest model Mac Minis and iMacs at half the current retail price (This suited me fine as I was a buyer in this instance, and was able to get a very good deal on a 2013 iMac, which at that time was still the latest model.) It seems the public are already making what they think of the recent Mac range abundantly clear.

Value (if you're planning to in the future) of selling the latest mac drops quicker than the older models. You make a good point. Upgrading is what people want....just like classic mac pros...it's worth more than current,however, these latest features are useless with older models.

Glad I'm buying this year then. If I can keep Apple from sneaking in in the wee hours of the morning and soldering my ram while I slumber, I should be okay.

Or can they solder my ram with a firmware update? Cuz that would really suck.

Planning to iMac if they solder everything starting from this year? If the customization of iMac or whatever mac, if they start charging 1000 more...would you get it?

 

[oldmacs]

It's not sad at all. Soldered components make them more reliable, reducing the need for maintenance. They're also much more recyclable these days. Buy the RAM you want up front. There are plenty of companies who buy used Macs, the money for which can go towards a new one. This penchant for upgradeability is so '80s/'90s. Come on up to this century.

Except for when things fail (e.g. SSDs fail) you've now got to replace the whole logic board. When anything fails you've pretty much got to replace the whole thing. Thats not better for the environment. Soldered joints can fail and connectors are fairly reliable anyway. Soldering Ram and storage reduces the useful life of a machine unless its maxed out at purchase. Who would buy a 4 year old Macbook given specs in 2010/2011 were 2 GB of ram, a slow harddrive etc? The reason they're somewhat worth something is that they can be upgraded with an SSD and 8GB of ram.

It is very sad especially when we're talking desktop machines that have the space for things to be upgradable. Not only that but it made it cost effective to buy with lower specifications and upgrade. Thats what I did with my Mid 2012 Macbook. Cost me nearly $1000 less than a retina macbook with the specs I have now.

The penchant for disposable computing should be in the past. We're entering a world where we should be extending the useful life of hardware, making it last longer and making it easier to replace individual components when they fail.

Its not about anything other than making more money for Apple. Now anyone who wants to upgrade, you've got to pay Apple over the top prices to begin with. Then if an individual component fails (e.g. the soldered SSD) you've got to replace the entire logic board meaning using energy to both create a new one and energy to recycle the old one, instead of just replacing the SSD, which uses a lot less energy to create and recycle the old one. Then as theres no ability to upgrade the machine as time goes on, if you realise that the machine you bought doesn't have enough ram or HDD 3/4 years down the track, instead just upgrading, you've got to pay Apple for a whole new machine. Then because the machine has outdated specs and no upgrade path, its worth a lot less on the resale value because the second hand market doesn't want the old machine.

Oh and not to mention that solder joints can also fill.. especially poor quality soldered joints. Look no further than the poor quality iBook G4 solder joints that lead to a huge number of GPU failures.

Yes there is a slight disadvantage in connectors failing, but in all my time of maintaining machines, I've seen failed SSDs, failed HDDs but not the connector (on the logic board) failing. I would agree with soldered components in machines where thinness is the aim of the game (Macbook Retina, Macbook Air) but not in desktop machines.

And yes, I will be flamed for saying this...

 

[Substance90]

Now that's a really cheap move on Apple's part, and I thought it couldn't get any worse than the 5400RPM. I'm really disappointed by the new iMac lineup.

Except for when things fail (e.g. SSDs fail) you've now got to replace the whole logic board. When anything fails you've pretty much got to replace the whole thing. Thats not better for the environment. Soldered joints can fail and connectors are fairly reliable anyway. Soldering Ram and storage reduces the useful life of a machine unless its maxed out at purchase. Who would buy a 4 year old Macbook given specs in 2010/2011 were 2 GB of ram, a slow harddrive etc? The reason they're somewhat worth something is that they can be upgraded with an SSD and 8GB of ram.

It is very sad especially when we're talking desktop machines that have the space for things to be upgradable. Not only that but it made it cost effective to buy with lower specifications and upgrade. Thats what I did with my Mid 2012 Macbook. Cost me nearly $1000 less than a retina macbook with the specs I have now.

The penchant for disposable computing should be in the past. We're entering a world where we should be extending the useful life of hardware, making it last longer and making it easier to replace individual components when they fail.

Its not about anything other than making more money for Apple. Now anyone who wants to upgrade, you've got to pay Apple over the top prices to begin with. Then if an individual component fails (e.g. the soldered SSD) you've got to replace the entire logic board meaning using energy to both create a new one and energy to recycle the old one, instead of just replacing the SSD, which uses a lot less energy to create and recycle the old one. Then as theres no ability to upgrade the machine as time goes on, if you realise that the machine you bought doesn't have enough ram or HDD 3/4 years down the track, instead just upgrading, you've got to pay Apple for a whole new machine. Then because the machine has outdated specs and no upgrade path, its worth a lot less on the resale value because the second hand market doesn't want the old machine.

Oh and not to mention that solder joints can also fill.. especially poor quality soldered joints. Look no further than the poor quality iBook G4 solder joints that lead to a huge number of GPU failures.

Yes there is a slight disadvantage in connectors failing, but in all my time of maintaining machines, I've seen failed SSDs, failed HDDs but not the connector (on the logic board) failing. I would agree with soldered components in machines where thinness is the aim of the game (Macbook Retina, Macbook Air) but not in desktop machines.

And yes, I will be flamed for saying this...

This should be pinned somewhere on this forum for the generations of clueless fanboys to read.

Don't get me wrong - I love Apple, but years I ago I got converted by a different Apple which made a highly repairable iPhone and a fat iMac where I could upgrade quite a few components myself.

 

[trifid]

Except for when things fail (e.g. SSDs fail) you've now got to replace the whole logic board. When anything fails you've pretty much got to replace the whole thing. Thats not better for the environment. Soldered joints can fail and connectors are fairly reliable anyway. Soldering Ram and storage reduces the useful life of a machine unless its maxed out at purchase. Who would buy a 4 year old Macbook given specs in 2010/2011 were 2 GB of ram, a slow harddrive etc? The reason they're somewhat worth something is that they can be upgraded with an SSD and 8GB of ram.

It is very sad especially when we're talking desktop machines that have the space for things to be upgradable. Not only that but it made it cost effective to buy with lower specifications and upgrade. Thats what I did with my Mid 2012 Macbook. Cost me nearly $1000 less than a retina macbook with the specs I have now.

The penchant for disposable computing should be in the past. We're entering a world where we should be extending the useful life of hardware, making it last longer and making it easier to replace individual components when they fail.

Its not about anything other than making more money for Apple. Now anyone who wants to upgrade, you've got to pay Apple over the top prices to begin with. Then if an individual component fails (e.g. the soldered SSD) you've got to replace the entire logic board meaning using energy to both create a new one and energy to recycle the old one, instead of just replacing the SSD, which uses a lot less energy to create and recycle the old one. Then as theres no ability to upgrade the machine as time goes on, if you realise that the machine you bought doesn't have enough ram or HDD 3/4 years down the track, instead just upgrading, you've got to pay Apple for a whole new machine. Then because the machine has outdated specs and no upgrade path, its worth a lot less on the resale value because the second hand market doesn't want the old machine.

Oh and not to mention that solder joints can also fill.. especially poor quality soldered joints. Look no further than the poor quality iBook G4 solder joints that lead to a huge number of GPU failures.

Yes there is a slight disadvantage in connectors failing, but in all my time of maintaining machines, I've seen failed SSDs, failed HDDs but not the connector (on the logic board) failing. I would agree with soldered components in machines where thinness is the aim of the game (Macbook Retina, Macbook Air) but not in desktop machines.

And yes, I will be flamed for saying this...

Very well stated, I don't see how you can get flamed for this. SSDs are not indestructible, in fact they have finite life, and can fail. I can see no other reason for soldering than planned obsolescence. That makes me think, what's Apple waiting for soldering SSDs on macbooks? That should boost profits too...

 

[oldmacs]

Very well stated, I don't see how you can get flamed for this. SSDs are not indestructible, in fact they have finite life, and can fail. I can see no other reason for soldering than planned obsolescence. That makes me think, what's Apple waiting for soldering SSDs on macbooks? That should boost profits too...

By using a proprietary connector they've basically done the same anyway :/ And I always get labelled 'Apple Hater', 'Ignorant last century computer user' 'ancient person' when I bring this up. Or I get told nobody upgrades their computer or 'Apple makes a lot of money so obviously they're right.

I should have added to my argument, that yes very few end users will upgrade their ram, or ask for it. What they do ask me (as a computer support guy), is 3/4 years into computer ownership, Can you make my computer faster? To which I explain to them how I can upgrade their ram and put a faster drive in. I did this a few weeks back for a very basic Mac Mini (2011) user and for a 2009 Macbook Pro user.

 

[CFreymarc]

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.

There are a lot of recent court rulings making the enforcement of NDAs not as strong as it used to be. The current rule of thumb is the more NDAs you have out covering some confidential data, the weaker your position.

Also, if Apple went to court, their entire NDA process could have been scrutinized and ruled invalid. Kicking iFixIt out of their developer community is enough of a spanking without litigation fees.

 

[justinhu8]

This is hilarious watching the faux outrage people are having on behalf of Apple... Get over it! iFixit broke the rules and paid the price.

They do an invaluable job for the Apple community and they do well to inform us of Apple's battle to ensure that computers become throw away items.

Did you forget this was an Apple Circlejerk?

 

[oldmacs]

Don't get me wrong - I love Apple, but years I ago I got converted by a different Apple which made a highly repairable iPhone and a fat iMac where I could upgrade quite a few components myself.

I also love Apple. They still offer me the best Operating System and in general hardware design that I like and nifty things like MagSafe. Most people I know off the internet call me an Apple Fanboi, but I just don't like non repairable/ non upgradable hardware, especially when its not for achieving portability (iOS devices and Macbook Retina/Airs). I don't like it when any other company does it, but especially when Apple odes it as the competition tends to follow.

 

[doelcm82]

Planning to iMac if they solder everything starting from this year? If the customization of iMac or whatever mac, if they start charging 1000 more...would you get it?

My 2015 27" iMac is scheduled to be delivered to my door on Monday, Tuesday, or Wednesday next week. My credit card has already been charged, so I highly doubt they're going to charge me more. I'm getting 16GB RAM, which Apple says will be two 8GB modules (leaving the other two sockets empty). OWC has announced they are selling upgrades to 64GB, so that's an option (though more than I think I really need). I'm also getting the 2TB fusion drive, which should be big enough to hold my working files.

Hypothetically, Apple could be charging a lot more for a lot less computer than they really truly are. Given that hypothetic scenario, I could arguably be less willing to pay their price.

But I don't expect the specs or price of what I ordered to get changed before next week.

 

[Max(IT)]

Once more, people whining and screaming at Apple ....
Every news the same pattern.

These are the iMacs nowadays. Wonderful all-in-one not supposed to be customized or repaired by the final user. You must know that the day you buy it. There are no screws, no lids or whatsoever that could induce customers to think they are user serviceable. And you can ask the Apple salesman if you need confirmation.
Well, it will surprise you but my wife, or my father, or my uncle doesn't service her/his computer by herself/himself. And like them, millions and millions of other users all over the world.
So this could be a factor in a geek forum like this, but just a First World Problem out there.
Other than that, in forums like this, people are more educated than the average, so YOU ACTUALLY KNOW the iMac isn't serviceable. You actually know the standard HDD is just crap and you basically have to add $100 to the price to have a decent Fusion Drive.
My point ? You MacRumors user know what the iMac is. You like it, you configure it in the right way and buy it. You don't like it, you don't buy it.
Without being such a drama queen over the forum....

I'm not going to buy an iMac, but if I do, I'll configure it with a 512 Gb SSD and I would be sure to have a nice enjoyable computer for the next 4-5 years, with an AppleCare for sure. If it will broke, I surely would rely on Apple for servicing it.

 

[oldmacs]

Without being such a drama queen over the forum....

Or perhaps some people don't just like to support everything Apple does, especially when they're decisions motivated on making Apple richer, that negatively impact upon the environment and the longevity of machines. If Apple weren't making decisions like this than there wouldn't be complaining.

I can guarantee that you'd have the opposite arguments, and would still support Appel if this was the other way around and making their computers more upgradable.