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

[kingtj1971]

You are taking it as a given that there is some kind of thermal design problem in the Air? It seems to handle most normal tasks just fine while staying cool and when you through a massive render process at it, it protects itself and slow down a little to keep cool and then keeps doing the work. That seems exactly what you would want in a small, light, consumer laptop.

When the processor is throttling as much as 25% of its regular operating speed due to overheating, there is clearly a thermal design problem present!

The argument that it "stays cool and works just fine when not really under a load" isn't really an excuse, because that means people should save their money and buy an older, previous generation CPU and laptop instead. (I think that's what many are already concluding in this situation. The cheaper Macbook M1 makes more sense for the "not doing anything requiring heavy CPU" crowd.)

 

[Doomtomb]

So far the best lead on the accelerometer is for Applecare accidental damage claims.
Up to 2 times per 12 month period.

AppleCare

Enjoy easy 24/7 support, fast repairs for accidental damage, and peace of mind with theft and loss coverage — for one or all your products.

www.apple.com

 

[alee]

When the processor is throttling as much as 25% of its regular operating speed due to overheating, there is clearly a thermal design problem present!

This is a conscious design decision. A true design issue is if the laptop crashes due to heat. It does not "overheat". It continues to run.

For a 20 min 4K video being rendered, that's only penalizing you by a few minutes of render time. That's pretty spectacular for a fanless laptop.

 

[gund1234]

Has Al Gore finally done something useful in his life besides “inventing the Internet??” 🤣🤣

Al Gore was VP when US had the best economic growth and balanced budget (Working with House), Budget was not balanced by any other party (House) or president since then, so they did good job.

 

[gund1234]

In my experience, during Apple's latter Intel days, they seemed to struggle compared to PC manufacturers with the category they created: lightweight, powerful machines, both in that they ran hotter than PC equivalents and were oftentimes heavier. There were PC equivalents that weighed less, throttled less, and even had discrete GPUs.

Now Apple has this huge leg-up with better chips, but it seems like their design team still struggles to make the best of what they have. It's not as if the Air is that light compared to what PC manufacturers are shipping with 12th generation Intel chips. Imagine Apple designing around those.

They obviously excel in some areas that they don't in others. I can't imagine they don't know how to do better thermal design. Maybe their designs have to do with what is easiest and most predictable in final assembly which they have far less control over? No idea, just a guess.

It's not as if the Air is that light compared to what PC manufacturers are shipping with 12th generation Intel chips.
Battery life of PC is not even close to MBA.
This design was intentional, i am sure they know it.
If they have good thermals then people will run MBA for longer on sustained load.
this will decrease batter life, that means Apple will have to increase battery capacity, so basically they would end up designing another MBP.
MBA was designed to be light weight, longer battery life, customers should be able to do most of they daily tasks.

 

[gund1234]

We are not "hostile". Just pointing out the obvious fact that these new machines are $200 more and yet corners were cut in the base model SSD. Still no upgradable RAM and SSD. This means no buy for me.

can you even notice the difference in performance of the SSD speed ? i saw a review where they said random read/write speeds are better than previous model.
with Apple processors there wont be upgradable RAM/SSD, to increase performance.
if you need that then may be you should buy Windows/linux laptops.

 

[theotherphil]

If you're wearing AirPods with an accelerometer, there's no point in having another one in the MacBook.

If all you’re assuming the accelerometer is for is spatial audio. As has been said, you can get very accurate location data from an accelerometer for findmy.

eg. You put your laptop down and turn it off. It logs its current location via GPS (because it can talk to your iPhone) and it also knows what wifi access point it’s connected to and those that are around it (this data is publicly available in databases).

Apple can track the location of your device even when “turned off” because it enters a low power state and doesn’t really turn off. What’s the easiest way to log that it has moved? That’s right, accelerometer data changes and forces laptop to update it’s location by various methods, including vector calculations made earlier.

That’s exactly the same way your iPhone can continue to track you through tunnels with Apple Maps when you lose GPS data.

 

[ProfessionalFan]

I will always love teardowns, something soothing about them!

I feel the opposite way about them. I get anxious seeing an expensive item put into tiny little pieces.

 

[theotherphil]

When the processor is throttling as much as 25% of its regular operating speed due to overheating, there is clearly a thermal design problem present!

The argument that it "stays cool and works just fine when not really under a load" isn't really an excuse, because that means people should save their money and buy an older, previous generation CPU and laptop instead. (I think that's what many are already concluding in this situation. The cheaper Macbook M1 makes more sense for the "not doing anything requiring heavy CPU" crowd.)

You’re completely missing the point…you get 25% more performance than baseline in bursts. Literally what every other manufacturer does.

The M2 gives not only a higher baseline over the M1 Air, but also higher burst/ peak performance too.

 

[CarlJ]

It literally one of the weirdest social behaviors. Look, being critical of Apple and discussing how to be even better is always welcome, healthy discourse. But it’s the seemingly increasing number of odd balls that actually go to a forum of a company, CEO, ecosystem (whatever) they clearly do not like and let’s us all know they don’t. What’s the objective? The point?

Even if I was incredibly bored, disfunctionally bitter and in dire need of a hug, I’d never go to androidrumors.com to vomit in their forums. Again, one of the weirdest.

I'm beginning to think it's just the outrage crowd. Can't feel completely whole without something to be angry about. Or, I don't know, yelling helps keep the voices at bay.

 

[kingtj1971]

You’re completely missing the point…you get 25% more performance than baseline in bursts. Literally what every other manufacturer does.

The M2 gives not only a higher baseline over the M1 Air, but also higher burst/ peak performance too.

As a previous owner of a custom configured (and over $3400 ... oof!) 2019 Macbook Pro 16" model with Core i9 CPU? I find this practice totally unacceptable. CPUs throttle speed when they get too hot because doing anything else would destroy them in a matter of minutes or even seconds. It was supposed to be a protection mechanism. AMD had a history of not doing that, many years ago, when Intel did. It was supposedly a cost savings thing on their part and helped allowed them to sell their early Athlon CPUs as cheap as they did. But people would have a cooling fan fail and the CPU cooked itself.

That Macbook Pro 16" machine was always underperforming what people like me paid the big bucks for, going with Intel's top tier CPU, because Apple crippled it with their poor thermal management.

The M1 series was amazing, largely because it used so much less power, it didn't NEED a whole lot of cooling. Seemed right up Apple's alley, with their long history of giving cooling a back seat to making their computers as quiet as possible. (Maybe that "wind tunnel" G4 tower Apple made back in the day left them scarred about loud fans?)

But to me, immediately moving to this M2 and not doing more to provide cooling for it is just lazy engineering at best.

 

[alee]

But to me, immediately moving to this M2 and not doing more to provide cooling for it is just lazy engineering at best.

Those of us that actually work on semiconductor design would disagree with you.

You are stuck on the fact that it gets hot. You use words "crippled" and you insist that there is some sort of active "NEED" for cooling. Whether it actually needs that level of cooling is not a flippant decision made while waiting for a latte.

You want this to be the laptop for you because you have some sort of high performance need. Just buy the MBP14 and move on. The Air is just not the right fit for you, but others will get great enjoyment out of it and probably never hit a throttle point.

 

[Odessa]

really like the modular usb c ports and the pull tabs for the battery, It's a small step in the right direction for a more repairable and sustainable machine while still no compromise on size or performance.
Wonder if this machine would still be prone to flexgate however??

 

[Tagbert]

really like the modular usb c ports and the pull tabs for the battery, It's a small step in the right direction for a more repairable and sustainable machine while still no compromise on size or performance.
Wonder if this machine would still be prone to flexgate however??

Some people have complained about the large bezel at the bottom of the screen. Apple clearly kept that to give them room for the display connections, so they seem to have addressed that issue.

 

[subjonas]

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.)

I sometimes wonder what MR (and the world) would be like without trolls, blind cynics, and the entitled.

 

[gund1234]

The MacBook Air exists to be a lightweight computer which makes no fan noise. Performance shouldn't be prioritised at all and certainly not sustained performance.

Heat sinks adds weight and the MacBook Air is already too heavy.

People don't understand why MBA exists, they want same performance of MBP, they want this to be quite, and lighter than MBP.

 

[gund1234]

When the processor is throttling as much as 25% of its regular operating speed due to overheating, there is clearly a thermal design problem present!

The argument that it "stays cool and works just fine when not really under a load" isn't really an excuse, because that means people should save their money and buy an older, previous generation CPU and laptop instead. (I think that's what many are already concluding in this situation. The cheaper Macbook M1 makes more sense for the "not doing anything requiring heavy CPU" crowd.)

25% of regular performance is intentional, they basically used MBP chip in MBA.
Air is designed to be light weight, quiet.
if they add fan, heat sink then processor will run for longer under load then battery life will be affected so Apple has to increase battery size, if Apple does all this then you end up with another MBP, you wont have MBA at that point.
People need to understand that MBA was intentionally designed like this to make it light, quit.

 

[gund1234]

Those of us that actually work on semiconductor design would disagree with you.

You are stuck on the fact that it gets hot. You use words "crippled" and you insist that there is some sort of active "NEED" for cooling. Whether it actually needs that level of cooling is not a flippant decision made while waiting for a latte.

You want this to be the laptop for you because you have some sort of high performance need. Just buy the MBP14 and move on. The Air is just not the right fit for you, but others will get great enjoyment out of it and probably never hit a throttle point.

Well said sir, most of the people commenting here never worked in manufacturing or product design.
they are basically saying they want more powerful MBA, Apple designed MBP for those people.

 

[gund1234]

When the processor is throttling as much as 25% of its regular operating speed due to overheating, there is clearly a thermal design problem present!

The argument that it "stays cool and works just fine when not really under a load" isn't really an excuse, because that means people should save their money and buy an older, previous generation CPU and laptop instead. (I think that's what many are already concluding in this situation. The cheaper Macbook M1 makes more sense for the "not doing anything requiring heavy CPU" crowd.)

Or buy MBP, Apple designed MBP for people like you who want more power.
this is for people who don't think they want to run sustained loads for longer.

 

[gund1234]

All these slower things should be fixed by Apple in the next M3 MacBook.
So Apple should say “ look dudes we make a better MacBook ever ...”

there is MBP for that, can't expect same performance from MBA.

 

[gund1234]

Considering components, benchmarks and pricing, I'm struggling to be impressed by any of these M2 Macs at all.

By comparison, the "old" M1 Air and 13" Pro are just so much higher value per $.

This heightened value/$ becomes even more true as M1 Air and 13" are seeing very deep discounts almost two years after launch. Plus the 8/256GB M1 entry-level configurations are a perfectly fine option while equivalent M2 configs are not.

I can't help but think that Apple was too concerned with high profit margins and could have easily made something much lighter/thinner, or same size as what we got but faster, if they were just willing to lower profit margins a bit.

A missed opportunity in most areas. Way too close to M1 to warrant new products and new chip names.

Older models are always cheaper, just like iPhone.
And Apple has always said they don't expect people using MBA M1 to upgrade to M2.
So they are not designing product such that people who own M1 will upgrade to M2.

 

[kingtj1971]

Those of us that actually work on semiconductor design would disagree with you.

You are stuck on the fact that it gets hot. You use words "crippled" and you insist that there is some sort of active "NEED" for cooling. Whether it actually needs that level of cooling is not a flippant decision made while waiting for a latte.

You want this to be the laptop for you because you have some sort of high performance need. Just buy the MBP14 and move on. The Air is just not the right fit for you, but others will get great enjoyment out of it and probably never hit a throttle point.

I already DID buy the Macbook Pro 16" M1X and I (unfortunately) got ripped off by Apple buying the 2019 model that came before it.

A Macbook Air has never been the computer for me.... I *do* expect to be able to do tasks like transcoding video quickly, and I don't want to carry around an underpowered machine that can't handle a demanding task if one should come along. (Most of us can probably say we usually just surf the web or check email or edit documents... But to me, it's about owning a machine that's not limited to only being suitable for those tasks.)

And yes, when a processor chip of any kind gets hot, the design goal should be to try to cool it back down as much as possible! I'm "stuck on that" because it's common sense. If you care about longevity of electronic components, that's always a good goal. If you'd like a computer that actually computes at its full capabilities, that's pretty much a necessary goal.

Probably just in the interest of cost-cutting and in selling more product, we've seen this trend in recent years about letting things run insanely hot, just because "the specs say the chip won't self-destruct at this temperature". This is exactly why you had so many people getting black screens of death on their 2 or 3 year old, $450+ 3D graphics card on a Windows PC. And it likely helps explain at least some of the problems with rupturing/ballooning battery packs in laptops too.

Apple designed the M2 Macbook Air around the idea that "it won't destroy it prematurely to just let it slow down every time it gets too hot to process at its full capacity, so we'll go with that". It's a design choice that I'll never like enough to pay top dollar for, with a new purchase of one.

 

[Moyapilot]

Which is the best solution. Having the potential for fan noise and getting a hot exterior is so much worse. Reducing performance is a fantastic way to reduce heat and I wish all laptop manufacturers did the same for all their models.

I don't even know where to begin...

Having a hot exterior is so much worse, really? How about running the processors & ram hot all the time? So you wish all laptop makers trapped the heat inside a fanless sealed design?

How about simply using a heat spreader and the aluminum chassis to cool the chip like the M1 Air did.

 

[Tagbert]

I don't even know where to begin...

Having a hot exterior is so much worse, really? How about running the processors & ram hot all the time? So you wish all laptop makers trapped the heat inside a fanless sealed design?

How about simply using a heat spreader and the aluminum chassis to cool the chip like the M1 Air did.

And the M1 Air also would hit its limits and throttle to cool off. The M2 is still faster than the M1 when they reach these limits.

 

[tobybrut]

I already DID buy the Macbook Pro 16" M1X and I (unfortunately) got ripped off by Apple buying the 2019 model that came before it.

A Macbook Air has never been the computer for me.... I *do* expect to be able to do tasks like transcoding video quickly, and I don't want to carry around an underpowered machine that can't handle a demanding task if one should come along. (Most of us can probably say we usually just surf the web or check email or edit documents... But to me, it's about owning a machine that's not limited to only being suitable for those tasks.)

And yes, when a processor chip of any kind gets hot, the design goal should be to try to cool it back down as much as possible! I'm "stuck on that" because it's common sense. If you care about longevity of electronic components, that's always a good goal. If you'd like a computer that actually computes at its full capabilities, that's pretty much a necessary goal.

Probably just in the interest of cost-cutting and in selling more product, we've seen this trend in recent years about letting things run insanely hot, just because "the specs say the chip won't self-destruct at this temperature". This is exactly why you had so many people getting black screens of death on their 2 or 3 year old, $450+ 3D graphics card on a Windows PC. And it likely helps explain at least some of the problems with rupturing/ballooning battery packs in laptops too.

Apple designed the M2 Macbook Air around the idea that "it won't destroy it prematurely to just let it slow down every time it gets too hot to process at its full capacity, so we'll go with that". It's a design choice that I'll never like enough to pay top dollar for, with a new purchase of one.

For Windows graphics cards, it’s because people are uncertain what the limits are for GDDR6X chips. Some insist it’s 120C at the T-junc. Others insist it’s 95C. That’s a pretty big range. People who run it over 110C are begging for their GPU’s to die quickly, IMO, but there are others that will say it’s perfectly safe. Unfortunately, the chip manufacturer (Micron) has been vague in its documentation as to the safe temperatures, so people are basing their guesses on GDDR5X temperature ranges.

The GPU’s throttle at 120C back down to about 110C, but you can run it up to about 115C without them throttling. Whether it’s safe or not, I’m thinking no, but I could be wrong. I have quite a few 3080’s and 3090’s, so I’m quite familiar with the temperature issues. I’m one of the ones who think the safe spot is closer to 95-100C for sustained loads. You’d be surprised how much the temperature changes depending on the time of day.

If Apple is letting it run to 108C, then it’s probably fine. They designed it, so they’ll know better than anyone what the maximum sustained temperatures should be and they program their firmware to throttle appropriately when it gets dangerously high. If they screwed that up, they’re going to liable to one heck of a class action lawsuit. Now the CPU dying early is a far easier thing to sue for than putting one storage chip instead of two (a bit jokingly since so many people have advocated a lawsuit. For what, I have no idea).