iFixit Teardown Takes a Look at New Scissor Keys in 2020 MacBook Air and Finds Easier to Access Trackpad and Battery

[s66]

I would have loved to buy a new 2019 16" MBP. Though like many others, I will NOT buy until they stop soldering RAM and SSD. They need to be upgradable. It is a complete joke that for the price Apple is charging you cannot upgrade it.

If you're going to wait for a Mac where you can change anything about the SSD (soldered or not): forget it. The T2 chip permanently married your motherboard to the SSD even if it were socketed in every new mac.
[Apple can "remarry" them, but nobody else can]
As to CPU and RAM: just buy enough from the getgo, no big deal.

 

[nylonsteel]

"The new MacBook Air is also just a bit heavier at 2.80 pounds instead of 2.75 pounds."
just like me - gaining a bit of weight

 

[jdiamond]

Guys, don't be too quick to blame Jony Ives...

I read one of his bio books, and he described a battle he fought for the first Mac Mini. He had designed it to hold a 3.5" hard drive, which even more so in those days was much higher performance, much better longevity, and far, far cheaper. Then Apple execs tweaked his design such that it was around 0.5mm to thin to admit a 3.5" drive. Ives pushed back, but the execs finally forced him to switch to a 2.5" drive and a lot of empty space, making the design worse in all metrics, yet not even making the mini as thin as it would be had you designed it for a 2.5" drive in the first place.

I don't really know who to blame, but it seems that Apple finally realizes they have no "north star", that is, no one making design decisions that actually is a power user of the products they're designing, so they're finally willing to start asking their customers what they wants. Time to push on upgradability.

 

[ingambe]

Note that you can put 16gb into the MBA, something that was new in the last model. The new keyboard makes it into a good portable/dockable solution ie: bring it between home and work and plug it into a big monitor at both ends.

There is now 0 raison to buy a Mac mini
It’s way smarter to buy this MacBook Air + USB C docking station for around the same prince, but you have a laptop and a desktop + way easier to resell

 

[chucker23n1]

There is now 0 raison to buy a Mac mini
It’s way smarter to buy this MacBook Air + USB C docking station for around the same prince, but you have a laptop and a desktop + way easier to resell

A Mac mini will sustain performance for much longer. There's also no such thing as a six-core Air. Or GigE on the Air. Or 64 GB RAM (or even half that).

So, yeah, there are plenty of reasons to buy a mini over an Air.

 

[vmistery]

I’m less bothered by the non replaceable CPU but I’ve always thought the storage and ram is a low blow. Surely there is a technical method of securing a swap in SSD?

 

[Reason077]

I'm glad Jony Ive is gone. Had he remained at Apple, he would have vetoed the scissor switches since they would mean a slightly thicker (by 0.5mm) keyboard. It's funny that chubby Jony had no problem with his own girth but was allergic to thicker laptops for the rest of us.

We don't know that he wasn't self conscious about his weight. In fact, there might be a psychological connection here.

Was Jony's obsession with making ever thinner Apple devices an expression, and consequence, of his insecurities about his own body's lack of thinness?

 

[PickUrPoison]

I'm glad Jony Ive is gone. Had he remained at Apple, he would have vetoed the scissor switches since they would mean a slightly thicker (by 0.5mm) keyboard. It's funny that chubby Jony had no problem with his own girth but was allergic to thicker laptops for the rest of us.

We don't know that he wasn't self conscious about his weight. In fact, there might be a psychological connection here.

Was Jony's obsession with making ever thinner Apple devices an expression, and consequence, of his insecurities about his own body's lack of thinness?

Apple typically works a couple years ahead. Ive’s designs and approvals will be seen well into 2021, and maybe for many more years if his design studio continues working with Apple.

Apple didn’t make thinner and lighter designs because Ive wanted them. Customers wanted lighter laptops, and for the most part that means thinner.

Also Apple devices didn’t get “ever thinner”, and Ive hardly had the thinness fetish he is sometimes accused of. For instance, he was fine with iPhones getting thicker for five straight years since 2014’s iPhone 6, because it enabled Apple to build better devices. Good design works within the engineering requirements, there are always tradeoffs.

 

[Peperino]

If you're going to wait for a Mac where you can change anything about the SSD (soldered or not): forget it. The T2 chip permanently married your motherboard to the SSD even if it were socketed in every new mac.
[Apple can "remarry" them, but nobody else can]
As to CPU and RAM: just buy enough from the getgo, no big deal.

That is not the point. THe point is if RAM or SSD fails you need to trash the computer thanks to the useless T2.