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MacBook Air Disassembly Photos and Battery Access

SolRayz said:
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:
Click to expand...

Why would they introduce a bottom of the line product first?

That makes absolutely no sense whatsoever.

What does GM introduce in Detroit? The cheap little cars that it doesn't make any money on or the monsters that it makes money hand over fist on?

Apple is clearly going after the high end business user here, as well they should be.
 
I don't know about 'sexy' like Gizmodo calls it, but it looks a lot better than regular PC laptops for sure. :D

Cheers! :apple:
 
Upgrading the System

Upgrading the System

It’s should take too long for the third party developers to get some sort of battery replacement out to the market, just look at all of the different stuff that you can get at OWC to upgrade your system.

As far as the ability to upgrade the internal hard drive in the computer, I have found based upon studying the pictures that the hard drive’s specifications are as follows:

Manufacturer: Samsung Electronics
Hard Drive Model Number: HS081HB/A
The hard drive is part of Samsungs Spinpoint N series
Click HERE to see exact page on HD

Here are the specs listed below if you don't want to go to the link.
Drive Configuration
Capacity 80 GB
Interface PATA/ZIF
Buffer DRAM Size 2M
Byte per Sector 4K
Rotational Speed 4200 RPM

Performance Specifications
Average Seek time (typical) 13.0 ms
Average Latency 8.3 ms
Media Transfer Rate (Max.) 428 Mb/s
Interface Transfer Rate (Max.) 100 MB/s
Drive Reday Time (typical) 2.0 sec

Reliability Specifications
Non-recoverable Read Error 1 sector in 10^13 bits
Controlled Ramp Load/Unload 600,000

Acoustics
Idle 1.6 Bel
Performance Seek 2.2 Bel

Environmental Specifications
Temperature / Operating 5 ~ 60 C
Temperature / Non-operating -40 ~ 85 C
Humidity (non-condensing) / Operating 8 ~ 90 ％
Humidity (non-condensing) / Non-operating 8 ~ 90 ％
Liner Shock (1/2 sine pulse) / Operating 600 G
Liner Shock (1/2 sine pulse) / Non-operating 1500 G
Vibration / Operating 0.67 Grms
Altitude (relative to sea level) / Operating -300 to 3.000 m
Altitude (relative to sea level) / Non-operating -400 to 15,000 m

Power Requirements
Voltage +3.3V ±5%
Spin-up Current (Max.) 400 mA
Seek (typical) 0.8 W
Read/Write (typical) 0.9 W
Idle 0.30 W
Standby (typical) 0.07 W
Sleep (typical) 0.07 W

Physical Dimension
Height (Max.) 5.0 mm
Width 71.0 mm
Length 54.0 mm
Weight (avg.) 48 g

Assuming that you could find another hard drive that is 5mm thick and similar in dimensions, it shouldn't be too hard to swap it out for another hard drive. I don’t know much about SSDs so I wouldn’t be able to stay with any certainty if an upgrade would be possible. However assuming the connections would match up, it should not be too much trouble to upgrade the internal hard drive to your own personal preference.

I hope this helps some of you out. :)
 
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.
Click to expand...

Well, as far as DVD's are concerned, the licenseing-terms for CSS-scrambling prohibit the signal from being broadcasted wirelessly.
 
Box Beam (similar to motorcycle engineering)

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. ;)
Click to expand...


One of the ways they have crammed more powerful engines in to smaller motorcycle frames is that instead of making a rigid frame that cradles the engine block; they have been using the engine block as a stress block and mounting the bike onto the engine.

By using the battery as the stress block - The theory could definitely be used in designing "thinner" yet more rigid laptops.. Also the curved nature of the case doubles up as an optical illusion (aka curves edges of the iPods make them look thinner than they are) and provides a more rigid case over a similarly sized/weight box type enclosure.

Smart engineering!!
 
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.
Click to expand...

No problem, just buy a second MacBook Air. As always, Apple's solution is way more intuitive than what other notebook producers provide. The MBA isn't that heavy, so it's not a problem to carry around a second one.
 
ltldrummerboy said:
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.
Click to expand...

I think we'll soon see external battery extenders from various company's either via USB or the MagSafe power adapter port.
 
jnc said:
So would it be relatively painless to DIY a spare one in there, on a long journey for instance? Which assumes in the first place you're walking around everywhere with the right screwdriver... lord how I wish for the simplicity of a battery removable by a mere coin-turn...
Click to expand...

No, I think it would be extraordinarily painful....unless your idea of painless includes unscrewing 19 tiny screws of varying lengths, then putting them all back with the new battery. Fancy doing that on an airplane seat table?
 
The 160GB 1.8" model is only 3mm taller - 8mm instead of 5mm.

Can it fit with some judicious use of a dremel?

Northshore357 said:
Upgrading the System

It’s should take too long for the third party developers to get some sort of battery replacement out to the market, just look at all of the different stuff that you can get at OWC to upgrade your system.

As far as the ability to upgrade the internal hard drive in the computer, I have found based upon studying the pictures that the hard drive’s specifications are as follows:

Manufacturer: Samsung Electronics
Hard Drive Model Number: HS081HB/A
The hard drive is part of Samsungs Spinpoint N series
Click HERE to see exact page on HD

Here are the specs listed below if you don't want to go to the link.
Drive Configuration
Capacity 80 GB
Interface PATA/ZIF
Buffer DRAM Size 2M
Byte per Sector 4K
Rotational Speed 4200 RPM

Performance Specifications
Average Seek time (typical) 13.0 ms
Average Latency 8.3 ms
Media Transfer Rate (Max.) 428 Mb/s
Interface Transfer Rate (Max.) 100 MB/s
Drive Reday Time (typical) 2.0 sec

Reliability Specifications
Non-recoverable Read Error 1 sector in 10^13 bits
Controlled Ramp Load/Unload 600,000

Acoustics
Idle 1.6 Bel
Performance Seek 2.2 Bel

Environmental Specifications
Temperature / Operating 5 ~ 60 C
Temperature / Non-operating -40 ~ 85 C
Humidity (non-condensing) / Operating 8 ~ 90 ％
Humidity (non-condensing) / Non-operating 8 ~ 90 ％
Liner Shock (1/2 sine pulse) / Operating 600 G
Liner Shock (1/2 sine pulse) / Non-operating 1500 G
Vibration / Operating 0.67 Grms
Altitude (relative to sea level) / Operating -300 to 3.000 m
Altitude (relative to sea level) / Non-operating -400 to 15,000 m

Power Requirements
Voltage +3.3V ±5%
Spin-up Current (Max.) 400 mA
Seek (typical) 0.8 W
Read/Write (typical) 0.9 W
Idle 0.30 W
Standby (typical) 0.07 W
Sleep (typical) 0.07 W

Physical Dimension
Height (Max.) 5.0 mm
Width 71.0 mm
Length 54.0 mm
Weight (avg.) 48 g

Assuming that you could find another hard drive that is 5mm thick and similar in dimensions, it shouldn't be too hard to swap it out for another hard drive. I don’t know much about SSDs so I wouldn’t be able to stay with any certainty if an upgrade would be possible. However assuming the connections would match up, it should not be too much trouble to upgrade the internal hard drive to your own personal preference.

I hope this helps some of you out. :)
Click to expand...
 
I wonder what changes Apple will make to the first revision to the MacBook Air?

Besides the obvious revisions like bigger HDD, bigger/cheaper SSD options, I wonder what other tweaks they'll make?

It looks like there should be room for a second USB port by making the flip-down door longer.
 
Larger capacity battery

By the time a replacement is needed I am sure there will be higher capacity batteries available from 3rd parties.
 
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?
Click to expand...

My guess is that it's an engineering or manufacturing constraint.

The chassis is so damn thin, that it would be fairly weak when the battery wasn't present and highly susceptible to twisting. Not that people are really gonna use it "sans" battery, but during the swap out it would be vulnerable.

Also, from a manufacturing standpoint, it's easier to put a single cover over the base of the entire machine than it is to build out the frame around a battery compartment. The battery is clearly highly custom due to the shape they needed, so the frame would have been complex to build (and keep strong, especially near the front where the chassis gets really thing.)

In any case I doubt this will be an issue. Someone (perhaps even apple) will release an external battery that you can connect to the MagSafe port. The mac will see it as if it were external power and will work just fine. I know this isn't ideal since you'd need to put it somewhere, but in terms of what you carry, well if you were gonna carry an extra battery anyway... Someone will solve the "where to put it" problem with a clever design, all will be well. :)
 
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...

agreed, man. amazing people just don't get it. to complain about not being able to rip a cd off another computer wirelessly just doesn't make sense. you OBVIOUSLY have two computers in the room (or why would you be making this argument). fastest method - rip cd/dvd on desktop/MB/MBP, wireless send ripped cd/dvd to MBA. slowest method - ripping a cd from one computer to another wirelessly. THIS ISN'T MEANT TO BE YOUR ONLY COMPUTER, PEOPLE!!!
 
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