iFixit Tearing Down 16-Inch MacBook Pro Live

[TheShadowKnows!]

What is the point.. the repairability score will be less than 2.. As always!

Speak for yourself, dude.

The iFixIt disassembly process allowed me to learn the precise steps to disassemble the heat sink, safely, and apply thermal paste (Arctic Silver 5) to both CPU and dGPU on my MBPr, after thorough cleanup, when the laptop started to trigger kernel panics.

And I am glad I did, as the factory-original thermal paste had dried out and was crumbling.

This MBPr is now working like new, and without iFixIt, there would be no Apple-provided guidance to restore any laptop.

And depending of the so called Geniuses is a total crapshoot (my experience earlier with my keyboard), as they are mostly trained to swap parts, rather than repair.

 

[W.O.P.R.]

If you listen closely, and you know what to look for, you can see how much bias is present in that video.

The video description clearly states that it is their first impressions.

This is like getting mad at a newspaper for an editorial giving an opinion which is by definition what an editorial is. Likewise an impression is by definition an opinion.

So your complaint is that their opinion piece has opinions in it... 🤨

 

[rjohnstone]

I love this because the Magic Keyboard line is absolutely fantastic - by a very wide margin it's become my favorite keyboard to use so I'm happy to see that it will stick around for awhile, even if wrapped in different forms.

Preach it... the Magic keyboards are fantastic.
I use them on all my Macs, even with my 2017 MBP.
Absolutely hate the keyboard on it.

 

[gaximus]

It isn't opinion that it has a very bad track record with longevity. If stuff breaks frequently or as easily as those keyboards do (I witnessed multiple failures on them at the hospital I worked at within a few months) you can easily describe them as terrible, that is not opinion that is just the way it is.

It's your opinion that it is a good device.

You can't say one side of the story is opinion and the other side is fact. I can't say the world is round, and someone disagree, and I say "Thats your opinion" its just your wrong.

Also saying something is terrible is an opinion, as it is a relative term.

 

[revmacian]

You must hate movie reviews.

This is your personal opinion. It is also wrong. It also does not add anything of value to the conversation or to me. Perhaps it would be beneficial to put more thought into future posts?
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The video description clearly states that it is their first impressions.

This is like getting mad at a newspaper for an editorial giving an opinion which is by definition what an editorial is. Likewise an impression is by definition an opinion.

So your complaint is that their opinion piece has opinions in it... 🤨

Had it been labeled "opinion" or "editorial" I would have passed on it altogether. You make a very good point for the use of better labels. Thank you.

 

[Zdigital2015]

I was hoping for a socketed SSD at least. I didn't expect RAM to be upgradable, but allowing for replacement SSDs would mean less need for replacement logicboards when the SSDs (inevitably) die.

Apple hasn’t allowed user replaceable DRAM in 7 years since the 15” Retina 2012 MacBook Pro was released and the replaceable SSDs on the 2012-2015 has a proprietary pin combination which Apple has never released into the wild and most SSDs backward engineered to work do not ever seem to be able to work 100% correctly.

At this point, SO-DIMM slots make much more since Apple uses the T2 chip for their NAND packages and that is not going to change.

 

[subi257]

There are no excuses for soldering ram and ssd.

maybe I should be more clear. There are no good excuses for soldering everything. Reliability is the biggest bs excuse I have ever heard.

Soldering IS the most reliable and space saving. Connectors tarnish over time and cause unreliable connections.

 

[dukebound85]

By other you mean those 7 years ago? Times have changed.

no. Mac mini, iMac, Mac Pro, etc all have more replaceable components today that makes that argument nonlogical

 

[DenisValcke]

The fact that they sold those awful MBPs with those horrible keyboards for three years while ignoring and dismissing user feedback only to make a new model with a "better keyboard" being one of the key selling points, it's just sad. The best thing is that there are actually a lot of people who are buying into this stunt.

I've been a Mac user for almost 15 years and the 2016 MBP and the recent course of Apple towards pro users is making me seriously consider replacing it with a linux laptop next year. There's just so little to loose at this point. Especially with how bad Catalina is, to make matters worse.

All this talk about how amazing this new keyboard is, is laughable, how is this even a new and exiting feature knowing that MBPs used to have amazing keyboards in the past?

 

[Rychiar]

keyboards that function...now magical

 

[Dovydas]

Soldering IS the most reliable and space saving. Connectors tarnish over time and cause unreliable connections.

Yeah and If you solder everything corrosion doesn’t not occur and it’s very easy to repair? lol. I have more than decade old Macs that work just fine like millions of other devices of any type with those connectors.

 

[subi257]

Apple releases yet another throwable device.
As in throw it in your trashcan in a few years.
No chance to upgrade anything or replace the battery once it stops holding a charge unless you're ready to pay close to the price of a new one anyway.
Nice going Apple.

So you're saying that to have Apple replace the battery will cost thousands of dollars? Really? because the purchase price range is like 2-6 thousand.

 

[Jimmy James]

Is there a valid technical reason for Apple to solder on their SSD in their MacBooks?

Answer (1 of 11): Space is an important reason. I also know when the RAM was not soldered on a lot of repairs were due to it coming unseated. These were frequently quick easy repairs, but they were frequently traumatic for customers (“I needed to finish my homework!” “I couldn’t do the report fo...

www.quora.com

Reliability. I improved the longevity of my 11 year old MacBook (still in daily use) by replacing and upgrading hard drives and ram. Surely a soldered machine would not serve my needs as well. Win for sockets.

Cost. Apple’s pricing is still comparatively high as compared to its older machines. Even when taking inflation into account. I’m not buying it. Certainly, I’d pay even a bit more for serviceability.

Improper third party parts. Bunk. May as well say you damaged solder joints by trying to remove them. Use the right parts. At a fraction of the price. Repeatedly, if you want to.

 

[mdriftmeyer]

A live tear down? Sad.

 

[subi257]

The only reason why Apple solders RAM and SSD is the price. 450$ to upgrade from 16 to 32GB for something that costs $55 as a retail price. This is such a damn good business for Apple and the one and only reason - same story for SSDs. Tim wants your money, that’s all.

So, where do you think you will get 32GB of RAM that running at that speed and most likely single module for $55 ? because whatever RAM size would be one module.

 

[mdriftmeyer]

I was hoping for a socketed SSD at least. I didn't expect RAM to be upgradable, but allowing for replacement SSDs would mean less need for replacement logicboards when the SSDs (inevitably) die.

The average life span of an SSD is over 10 years.

 

[Jimmy James]

The average life span of an SSD is over 10 years.

That’s good news.
Bad news: I usually want to increase storage before then.

 

[Marx55]

How are the SSD and RAM inside? Soldered? One or two SSD sticks? Standard connenctor? RAID? A full take apart – disassembly – teardown would be great. Thanks!

 

[G5isAlive]

When I open my mbp I don’t see how it would be thicker with those parts

bs. Just watch Louis Rossman repair a MacBook.

Are you an engineer? You don't need to speculate on if it would or would not be thicker or heavier. The last 15" MacBook Pro that was upgradable was the 2012 MacBookPro9,1. It weighed 5.6 pounds (versus 4 pounds on the current 2019 model) and was 0.95 inch thick versus 0.61 inches. It was also a bit longer and wider. That's just the facts.

 

[Brien]

replaceable / up-gradable Memory and SSD would be fantastic - but not likely

I think these days are gone forever.

 

[citysnaps]

Apple releases yet another throwable device.
As in throw it in your trashcan in a few years.
No chance to upgrade anything or replace the battery once it stops holding a charge unless you're ready to pay close to the price of a new one anyway.
Nice going Apple.

My 1013 MacBook Air is still going strong. Won't be throwing it anywhere for awhile. Ditto my 2017 MBP.

The good news is, there are loads of laptop manufacturers out there. Simply pick one that meets your requirements and find happiness.

 

[Zdigital2015]

Apple releases yet another throwable device.
As in throw it in your trashcan in a few years.
No chance to upgrade anything or replace the battery once it stops holding a charge unless you're ready to pay close to the price of a new one anyway.
Nice going Apple.

$199 - https://support.apple.com/mac/repair/service

But by all means, please continue to talk out of your ass, don’t let me stop you with the facts.

 

[Metrosey]

What is the point.. the repairability score will be less than 2.. As always!

Up from 0.5 then haha

 

[bsolar]

How are the SSD and RAM inside? Soldered? One or two SSD sticks? Standard connenctor? RAID? A full take apart – disassembly – teardown would be great. Thanks!

This was a first look, the full teardown will be Monday.

SSD and RAM are definitely soldered.

 

[Zdigital2015]

I personally think Apple is using a BUNCH of old keyboard parts they had. That’s why they didn’t update the camera.

Because the camera is actually a key on the keyboard and vice versa? That’s a pretty dark conspiracy, if it’s true. Tell us more secrets about the world YOU live in...