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MacBook Air Disassembly Photos and Battery Access

matthewHUB said:
they took it apart but they didn't mention whether the HD is soldered in, or whether it looks replaceable. For me, the option to upgrade to SSD in 6 months and save $600 is a plus.
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Aagh! You make me turn into The Incredible Snark! :eek: SNARK SMASH!

Now I know that the people who put up that album are guilty of the cardinal sin of putting up three pictures when one would tell the story (I'd hate to sit through their vacation photos - "and here's another shot of me in front of the moscone centre") but your answer can be found in fewer clicks than the keystrokes it took you to ask! :D

I'll reduce it to a single click for you... you're looking for something that looks like a Phillips screw next to a metal boxy thing that says "HDD" on it. :)

"... and here's another shot of the MacBook Air, this time with my right hand resting lightly on the frame..."
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tjcampbell said:
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU like Mac OS X; en) AppleWebKit/420.1 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/3.0 Mobile/4A93 Safari/419.3)

the battery situation is totally balls.
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Waaaaaahhhh!

And I too think it's funny you have an iPhone and complain about spare batteries.
 
Question, Why didn't apple just make the battery part of the outside of the unit. Would it be to flimsy or is it more of a strategy?
 
bacaramac said:
Question, Why didn't apple just make the battery part of the outside of the unit. Would it be to flimsy or is it more of a strategy?
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I would initially guess that the structure of the enclosure depends significantly on the pieces being largely sized without weak points.

Possibly why there are so many screws to keep the guts inside. They may have chosen to bolt everything together and have the shell screw to this, versus having everything bolt to the shell.

I haven't touched / molested one yet, so what do I know.
 
jnc said:
Man people just love using that word here, don't they? You can still get away with light day-to-day usage on G3 iBooks so the Air should function much longer than you'll need it to. Everything it can do today it'll be able to do ... well, always.
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Unfortunately that is all you will be doing with the MBA, is light day to day usage. IMO the MBA should have been priced $799 aux lieu $1799, affordable to a larger demographic of not so savvy computer users.:rolleyes:
 
erockerboy said:
really???!? WEAK!!!!
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No not really.

The reality is.....

If you have another computer what the hell is stopping you ripping your disc on that computer which would probably be faster than doing it wirelessley, and then simply sending the MP3's or AAC's over to your MBA as files via wireless network ?

Same as ripping DVD's too.

Some people are making some noise out of nothing.
 
mashinhead said:
you're right. i meant to pigeonhole you into buying superdrive.
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In that case I agree ;) At least you can use wireless migration to move already-ripped tracks and movies from another computer.

Right? :eek:

MacRumorUser said:
No not really.

The reality is.....

If you have another computer what the hell is stopping you ripping your disc on that computer which would probably be faster than doing it wirelessley, and then simply sending the MP3's or AAC's over to your MBA as files via wireless network ?

Same as ripping DVD's too.

Some people are making some noise out of nothing.
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It's just another step to take, and people are lazy (as evidenced by the uproar caused by some 3G USB broadband adapters not fitting the MBA unless you buy a $2 extension cord). It is a shame that remote disc does not work in this manner though, it does seem pointlessly crippling(as in, in the absence of evidence that it is impossible to do, it just appears like Apple have purposefully left it out).
 
Battery replacing on the other Macbooks is a cinch but I like the way one can access the innards to replace the components by removing a few screws.

Excluding the battery location, I hope apple moves in this direction for their future Macbooks. Imagine if the pro was this easy to replace the HD.
 
SolRayz said:
^^unfortunately and for the most part, that is all you will be doing with the MBA, is light day to day usage. IMO the MBA should have been priced $799 aux lieu $1799, affordable to a larger demographic of not so savvy computer users.:rolleyes:
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There it is again... all complaints here usually boil down to price.

If the MBA was made with the cheapest parts that could be found and was running Vista, then we'd humor the complaints.

Oh, and I wanted to add that the larger iPhone's initial retail price was $599.00 - With your logic, I see how you could add $200.00 and get the Macbook Air. ;-) -- That is sarcasm, by the way.
 
Potential for Growth

Someone will probably build a replacement bottom housing for the MBA that will allow a larger battery say a 80W replacement battery which should give you about 10 hours of run time. It would only increase the height a little more though.
 
joelypolly said:
Someone will probably build a replacement bottom housing for the MBA that will allow a larger battery say a 80W replacement battery which should give you about 10 hours of run time. It would only increase the height a little more though.
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If this were possible and simple, I'm sure Apple would have given it as an option.
 
mashinhead said:
very easy, but the fact that they crippled the remote disk to not include cd's and dvd's (to pigeonhole you from buying them from itunes) pretty much tipped this thing to the wrong side of the thin line it was walking on.
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Who wants to play a DVD via remote disk.

For business travelers who feel the need to play a DVD they can carry the external optical drive.

My guess is most will do their ripping at home and either carry their movies via a much larger external HD or just put the movies on the internal MBA HD.

jnc said:
Such good news. Now I feel ok with ordering the 80GB but with 1.8GHz, and holding out for cheaper SSDs.
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This is good news.

I expect that SSDs will significantly drop in price and increase in capacity in the next few years.

MacRumorUser said:
No not really.

The reality is.....

If you have another computer what the hell is stopping you ripping your disc on that computer which would probably be faster than doing it wirelessley, and then simply sending the MP3's or AAC's over to your MBA as files via wireless network ?

Same as ripping DVD's too.

Some people are making some noise out of nothing.
Click to expand...
Agree.
 
joelypolly said:
Someone will probably build a replacement bottom housing for the MBA that will allow a larger battery say a 80W replacement battery which should give you about 10 hours of run time. It would only increase the height a little more though.
Click to expand...


Maybe throw in some room for a fatter drive, that 3G card, or who knows what kind of after market attachment.

Rj
,
 
I don't suppose that it could be charged on the go with an external USB battery. Anyone know if it's possible? We all know it works the other way around.
 
19 screws is a little painful but it was uneventful. I was half expecting some sort of nasty tamper evident seal on the inside of that thing. Other then the number of screws it does look as easy as the standard MacBook to upgrade.

Now if the MacBook Pro was only that easy...

Kudos to Apple not making the MacBook Air's interior a trip to hell like the iBook was.
 
Ja Di ksw said:
Ok, so it's possible to take a battery out and put a new one in. Question though . . . these batteries look very specialized. Will Apple even sell these? If they don't, if they want you to send it in, it doesn't matter if it's possible for us to do it.
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It does if they end up allowing a certified Apple repair person to do it with a kit.

That means every University (as well as most towns of any size at all), will have at least one store where you can take the MacBook Air in and get the battery replaced in less time than it takes to change the oil in your car.
 
I bet an entire mod market will open up, given that the case opens up so easily. Like a poster mentioned, a custom bottom case with a higher capacity battery (10 hrs. runtime), with extra ports. Capability to replace the drive with a 128GB SSD one year from now is certain.

I can say that I'm 100% pleased with the MBA (without even seeing or trying it). Since I was in the market for a lightweight laptop... the timing is perfect, and custom ordered with 1.8GH 80GB HD.

About RAM, I don't know why people are complaining so much. It is what it is. The level of technology the MBA brings (to me at least) will meet my needs for some years to come. A kick ass secondary portable computer that I can carry everywhere for work, travel, and leisure. A 5 or 6 lb. computer is too much.

If you need the high end graphics, lots of RAM, multiple ports, a computer that does it all.. then just go or stay with the MBP, or MB. This machine is a marvel of technology, and I would never have imagined a computer like this when I first turned on my Mac Classic.
 
AppleMojo said:
I would initially guess that the structure of the enclosure depends significantly on the pieces being largely sized without weak points.

Possibly why there are so many screws to keep the guts inside. They may have chosen to bolt everything together and have the shell screw to this, versus having everything bolt to the shell.

I haven't touched / molested one yet, so what do I know.
Click to expand...
Bingo.

The shape of that battery, especially integral the side brackets and the centre channel, combined with lots of screws to attach it, essentially makes a box beam. At least that's what it looks like in the video.

By securing the outside bottom with lots of screws around the edge, the entire casing also becomes a kind of seed or shell form that would have quite a huge amount of stiffness/strength for it's (low) weight.

The rest of the components are just sort of dropped into the cavity in the thick bit and probably don't contribute to the overall strength.

Quite a brilliant design really. Probably some English person made it. ;)
 
Virgil-TB2 said:
Bingo.

The shape of that battery, especially integral the side brackets and the centre channel, combined with lots of screws to attach it, essentially makes a box beam. At least that's what it looks like in the video.

By securing the outside bottom with lots of screws around the edge, the entire casing also becomes a kind of seed or shell form that would have quite a huge amount of stiffness/strength for it's (low) weight.

The rest of the components are just sort of dropped into the cavity in the thick bit and probably don't contribute to the overall strength.

Quite a brilliant design really. Probably some English person made it. ;)
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You are so right on this. A formed and curved casing is way stronger compared to a boxed case like with the MBP. In fact, I recently owned a MPB (that I sold) and I have witnessed it flex considerably a few times when I picked it up in an unbalanced manner. Just surprised I did not crack the logic board or something.
 
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