iFixit Tears Down M2 MacBook Air, Finds Accelerometer and Adhesive Pull Tabs for Battery

[MacRumors]

With the M2 MacBook Air now available for purchase, repair site iFixit picked one up and decided to do one of its traditional teardowns on the machine to give us a look inside.

A prior teardown already revealed the biggest potential issue with the base model 256GB M2 MacBook Air - a single storage chip, which is confirmed in iFixit's teardown. Rather than using two 128GB NAND storage chips like the prior-generation 256GB M1 MacBook Air, the new machine has a single 256GB NAND flash chip.

The 256GB NAND flash chip in the M2 MacBook Air demonstrates 30 to 50 percent slower SSD speeds in benchmark testing than the prior-generation MacBook Air with two 128GB NAND chips, but Apple has claimed that despite the benchmark results, overall real-world performance is "even faster."

Along with the 256GB NAND storage chip, iFixit's teardown revealed other logic board components that include the 64-bit 8-core M2 chip, an Apple-designed Thunderbolt 3 driver, a USI Bluetooth and WiFi chip, and curiously, an accelerometer. There's no word yet on what the accelerometer might be for.

iFixit did not find a heat spreader, and the site is unclear on the passive cooling mechanism that Apple might be using for the M2 MacBook Air.

How does this thing cool down? Sure it has a lot of thermal paste and graphite tape, and yeah the M2 is efficient, but this shield is super thin, so it's not helping much, and the case is lighter than last year. Maybe the M2 Air is secretly an iPad, or maybe Apple is just letting it run hot.

Like the 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro models, the M2 MacBook Air features easy access adhesive pull tabs to secure the battery, making it simpler and quicker to remove. The M2 MacBook Air includes a 52.6-watt‑hour battery, up from the 49.9-watt-hour battery offered in the M1 version of the MacBook Air.

All of the ports in the MacBook Air are modular and not glued down, but the SSD and the M2 chip are soldered, as expected, and cannot be easily upgraded or replaced. iFixit's full teardown can be watched on YouTube, and includes additional details on the battery and the build of the MacBook Air.

Article Link: iFixit Tears Down M2 MacBook Air, Finds Accelerometer and Adhesive Pull Tabs for Battery

 

[MTD's Mac]

Accelerometer?

To log drops for denying warranty service? Or what?

 

[sajlonix]

accelerometer is for proper measurement of SSD speed, as Apple would say..

 

[JPack]

Apple uses graphite tape with Gore thermal insulation (the thick black adhesive) to prevent the bottom chassis from getting too hot. I think we can see why the throttling is up to around -25% performance.

GORE® Thermal Insulation for Mobile Devices

Meet growing thermal management challenges in mobile electronic devices using GORE® thermal insulation. Learn more about Gore thermal solutions.

www.gore.com

 

[Naraxus]

Smh. Apple as consumer/RtR hostile as they've always been. This is ****ing asinine. There is zero reason Apple can give to justify this ******** design decision

 

[JPack]

Accelerometer?

To log drops for denying warranty service? Or what?

Maybe to count the steps when the computer is in a bag? My guess is fitness related.

 

[compwiz1202]

Accelerometer?

To log drops for denying warranty service? Or what?

Yea, nothing to lock now that it's SSD now is there? I know some HDD laptops used to lock the drive if the accelerometer detected a drop

 

[thadoggfather]

The spirit of Steve Jobs haunts anyone who dares open up the machine to pare back the magic behind the curtain


That is expressly forbidden by Tim and the powerful community of apple executives. Do better.

 

[gpat]

I can just see the next year model being upgraded with the most magic and revolutionary heatsink ever

 

[JPack]

Yea, nothing to lock now that it's SSD now is there? I know some HDD laptops used to lock the drive if the accelerometer detected a drop

The solder pads on the iPhone's stacked logic board can get torn with hard drops. It's pretty common to see this on iPhone, but such a drop would cause much more damage to the MacBook chassis.

 

[nvmls]

Another generation and another cash grab. Well done Timmey! consumers are buying it proudly.

 

[Danfango]

I love how hostile all the comments are on Macrumors. It's starting to sound like Slashdot circa 1998 when the blue iMac came out.

 

[seek3r]

I wonder if the accelerometer is to pair with the light sensors to handle light angle to adjust truetone maybe? (I legit can't think of any major uses of an accelerometer in a macbook air). Other thought is that the same chipset is going to be used on a future iPad and they just included it and disabled it because a single production line is cheaper and easier to manage.

EDIT: someone suggested spatial audio just below, that also makes sense, more so than my suggestions given the screen can move without your head moving on a mobile device.

 

[nvmls]

I love how hostile all the comments are on Macrumors. It's starting to sound like Slashdot circa 1998 when the blue iMac came out.

Coffee or soda? Enjoy.

 

[seek3r]

I love how hostile all the comments are on Macrumors. It's starting to sound like Slashdot circa 1998 when the blue iMac came out.

or iPod "No wireless. Less space than a nomad. Lame."

 

[a.phoenicis]

Might the accelerometer be related to spatial audio or other similar features? It would make sense for such a “mobile” laptop to borrow tech from the other mobile device range.

 

[EastHillWill]

I love how hostile all the comments are on Macrumors. It's starting to sound like Slashdot circa 1998 when the blue iMac came out.

I understand the 'constructive criticism' comments, and even the occasional venting--that's just part of being passionate about something. But yes, the straight up 'Apple sucks, I hate their products!' comments are bizarre. Why are those people even here? (I mean, I know why--they're trolling, and it's sad.)

 

[orbital~debris]

iFixit picked one up and decided to do one of its traditional teardowns

Like there was any reality where they didn’t 🤣

 

[JPack]

Might the accelerometer be related to spatial audio or other similar features? It would make sense for such a “mobile” laptop to borrow tech from the other mobile device range.

It wouldn't help to track the computer. You need to know where the user's head is at. AirPods would already have an accelerometer.

 

[seek3r]

It wouldn't help to track the computer. You need to know where the user's head is at. AirPods would already have an accelerometer.

It can help if you move the machine but not your head. It's actually an occasional annoyance I've run into using my ipad and spatial audio when I've moved the ipad and it hasnt adjusted - which means it thinks the sound source is in a different location than what I'm watching - without stopping and starting whatever I'm watching so I can see this helping

 

[dennis264]

Wait, haven't Macs had accelerometers in them since the first MacBooks? I remember a Stevenote with Steve swinging some sort of 'Book around.

MacSaber (Mac)

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And there is a pre-existing api:

Getting raw accelerometer events | Apple Developer Documentation

Retrieve data from the onboard accelerometers.

developer.apple.com

How is this different?

 

[JPack]

it might if you move the machine but not your head. It's actually an occasional annoyance I've run into using my ipad and spatial audio when I've moved the ipad and it hasnt adjusted without stopping and starting whatever I'm watching so I can see this helping

The computer doesn't know where you're sitting in relation to the computer. No Face ID, remember?

 

[seek3r]

The computer doesn't know where you're sitting in relation to the computer. No Face ID, remember?

Have you used spatial audio head tracked? It uses the assumption that you're facing the device when you start something and uses head tracking to keep that the directional source of the sound. Tracking movement of your head is used relative to the assumption, tracking the machine can work the same way, it would adjust based on the movement of the machine relative to its starting location

 

[StellarVixen]

Apple Genius: “so, did you drop it?”
Customer: “no, of course not, where did you get that idea”
Genius: *checks accelerometer data*

I guess getting away with lying is not an option anymore…

 

[EastHillWill]

Re the accelerometer, one of the the Framework laptops had one, despite also having an SSD. Here's the explanation one their employees gave:

We have it off by default, but we left it in there in case folks want to run ChromeOS or Android in the future which have more use for it. We were also considering it to enable a “lap detect” feature at some point. If none of these end up being useful, we’ll probably remove it from future mainboards for cost savings.

My (wishful) guess is that it was included because Apple foresees the possibility of having some kind of touch-interface in the redesigned MBA form factor in the future. We shall see!