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iFixit's Full 16-Inch MacBook Pro Video Teardown Highlights Internal Design Changes
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For me the major repairability issues are:
1) The HDMI and SD card ports are soldered to the logic board rather than a separate board. There is no technical reason (signal loss, efficiency, etc.) requiring these on the logic board. There's really no excuse.
2) The SSD should be replaceable. There may be power savings for a soldered module vs socketed, but SSDs have a finite lifespan and really should be replaceable. I suppose someone skilled at rework might be able to do such a replacement, but I wouldn't have a lot of confidence as far as reliability goes. I wonder if there's any data about signal/power losses for similar SSDs.
3) Requiring the use of proprietary tools to register genuine replacement parts (else they're nerfed or disabled), even if they were swapped from a genuine machine.
The pentalobe screws should really be a nonissue for anyone repairing one of these devices. If you're new to repairs, you look up what tools you need and buy them for a few bucks. If you're a repair veteran, you still look up the tools you need and maybe not buy them because you already have them. If getting the right screwdriver is a nonstarter for someone, it'll serve them well to have to think twice before opening their device.
1) The HDMI and SD card ports are soldered to the logic board rather than a separate board. There is no technical reason (signal loss, efficiency, etc.) requiring these on the logic board. There's really no excuse.
2) The SSD should be replaceable. There may be power savings for a soldered module vs socketed, but SSDs have a finite lifespan and really should be replaceable. I suppose someone skilled at rework might be able to do such a replacement, but I wouldn't have a lot of confidence as far as reliability goes. I wonder if there's any data about signal/power losses for similar SSDs.
3) Requiring the use of proprietary tools to register genuine replacement parts (else they're nerfed or disabled), even if they were swapped from a genuine machine.
The pentalobe screws should really be a nonissue for anyone repairing one of these devices. If you're new to repairs, you look up what tools you need and buy them for a few bucks. If you're a repair veteran, you still look up the tools you need and maybe not buy them because you already have them. If getting the right screwdriver is a nonstarter for someone, it'll serve them well to have to think twice before opening their device.
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Especially their new two-part tear downs. Come for the tear down, come again for the ads!
Where hard to come by in this case still just means $7 for a set of 5 on Amazon with Prime shipping.
A couple years after I bought my 2015 MacBook Pro, I replaced its drive with a faster, larger NVMe drive. It was reasonably straightforward to do, and was a significant improvement over the original. I’m still happily using it - I’m glad it was possible.
The challenge with these it SoC’s is that once one thing dies, the entire SoC needs to be replaced, which includes the SSD, the GPU/CPU, the memory… Which makes replacement very expensive.
If Apple is as green as they say they are, at least don’t solder the SSD. There is no reason to solder it.
If Apple is as green as they say they are, at least don’t solder the SSD. There is no reason to solder it.
Thanks for the Intel machines, Apple, using double the power with half the cooling. Jesus f**king Christ…
On one of the photos posted in another article (Link), I see that the 16" MBP has 8 solder pads on one side of the PCB -- I wonder if there are any on the other side of the PCB?
It would be helpful to know the # of channels used for the different SSD sizes; for the 14" MBP: 512 GB (4 X 128 GB; pictured in the ifixit teardown), 1 TB, 2 TB, 4 TB, and 8 TB (assume this is 8 x 1 TB).
Its a nice looking design internally. The battery removal was great. I cringed when he really scratched the surface of the SoC after taking the thermal compound off just to see its logo.
I'm still confused, how can plastic scratch that metal surface?
If it is so easy to scratch even with plastic, wouldn't it get deformed under heat?
Battery pull tabs are very welcome. Allows for easier replacement.
To be fair though, it seems like we get better thermals on Apple’s own PCIe gen 4 storage than any replaceable NVME chip. I haven’t seen a single review yet complaining of storage heating issues or any kind of throttling, like you see with some high end Samsung, WD, Adata, etc.
Which is why it is so fast. Hat tip to Apple on that.
So close, Apple! Now please stop soldering on the SSDs and we’re good.
It’s not about the cost. It’s about data recovery, and security when the laptop reaches end-of-life. “Pro,” remember?
Only one last ill-considered Ive-ism to go, and we’ll have fully recovered the 2015-era Macbook utility.
It’s not about the cost. It’s about data recovery, and security when the laptop reaches end-of-life. “Pro,” remember?
Only one last ill-considered Ive-ism to go, and we’ll have fully recovered the 2015-era Macbook utility.
The SSD controller is built into the SoC now, so you wouldn't be able to replace it anyway.
It would have to be a clunky solution as it is with the Mac Pro where you have NAND flash ram on a board you can replace.
They didn’t take the compound off to just see the logo. They were going to need to replace that compound after separating the heat sink. So they had to take it all off.Its a nice looking design internally. The battery removal was great. I cringed when he really scratched the surface of the SoC after taking the thermal compound off just to see its logo.
How much more secure can you get than a drive that’s not readable unless you have the password OR the biometrics to decrypt it? Plus, if, instead of throwing in the trash you take it to Apple, not only will they tear it apart, they’ll do so in a way they can use a lot of those materials in a new device.
Regarding data recovery… “Pro’s“ should know to have a professional backup process in place, so there’s no need to recover anything.
When you think about it, Macs are not really overpriced for what they are, and now deliver the performance too.
I originally didn't like that Apple did this as it seemed to me to be a way to prevent people from opening up their own devices. At this point, it's easy to get an appropriate screwdriver, and I assume pentalobe screws do not strip as easily, which is a big plus. I have to agree with you on this point.
I've got a 2014 MBP. What NVMe drive did you use, and in what way did the performance feel faster? Was it just on synthetic benchmarks, or did documents actually open faster?
Back in the era of 2.5 inch SSDs, I always used those from Crucial.com.