Retina MacBook Teardown Reveals iPad-Like Battery Connector, Details Force Touch Trackpad

[Blue Fox]

I find it a little humorous that most of the people complaining about the score of this MacBook aren't even interested in buying one. They're just complaining to complain about the repairability score for some reason.

I understand that some people can't see the point of this device, complaining that the processor is underpowered, and they want to be able to upgrade it. Meanwhile, the people who are actually going to be buying the device and using it will enjoy it as it's exactly what they need. Something extremely light and thin to travel with, to do simple tasks like email, web browsing, watching video, etc.

I want one to travel around with on airplanes as it would be the PERFECT machine for that. And for some people, that is more important than benchmark tests and or some websites "repairability" score.

 

[Quu]

I'm not a fan of these glued in batteries. With my current laptop I can buy a replacement battery and fit it myself for 4x less than Apple charge for a battery replacement on a MacBook. And that's with a genuine Apple battery in both cases.

But it's not just about the cost it's also inconvenience. I can buy a battery online, have it delivered and fit it myself in 5 minutes. Or I can locate my closest Apple store, spend hours getting to the store, wait around or have them keep it overnight for what should be a very simple swap if it wasn't for all that glue.

To me the glue is lazy. Apple projects this brand image that they do things the right way. Glue isn't the right way when it comes to batteries, it's the lazy way.

 

[Keerock]

So say intentionally rate things hard to fix, then say but ya they are hard to fix without breaking something?

Yes, I was referring to the fact that they want to rate things as difficult but in fact some things are difficult to fix. Two separate thoughts.

 

[lcseds]

$199 for the battery? geez... I thought laptop batteries were in the $129 range back when they were removable. I bet this is mostly labor and profit

For Apple, the whole top cover gets replaced as the battery is glued to it. So the price is actually for a battery and a palm rest which may also include the trackpad.

 

[deconstruct60]

But has Apple produced its own SSDs?

http://images.anandtech.com/doci/9136/MB_SSD_575px.png

A quote from the article....
"... Apple does have plenty of internal resources to develop SSDs, including the assets they gained in their 2011 acquisition of Anobit, so from a technical perspective Apple developing an SSD is not too hard to believe. ...
we’ll have to wait on the crew at iFixit to get around to tearing down the new MacBook, "

http://anandtech.com/show/9136/the-2015-macbook-review/8

No,

same in the MacPro.

Not like the MacPro. MacPro doesn't have a NVMe SSD which as the Anantech article points out are quite rare in consumer (affordable) products. It also doesn't have a SSD controller with no manufactures name on it.

https://www.ifixit.com/Teardown/Mac+Pro+Late+2013+Teardown/20778

SAMSUNG is printed there plain as day on the large squarish chip nearest to the pins.

It's more or less easy to change the firmware of any component and type in your manufacturer / reseller.

The component makers still put their name on the component. Even if just codename indicator along side an Apple logo (e.g., the Apple A__ chip packages ).

If bother to look at the iFixit teardown there is no SSD controller highlighted explicitly. There is 512MB of RAM for a SSD controller (that probably needs some RAM for cache and metadata overhead work ). There are two Flash packages. But no Toshiba/Samsung/etc. SSD controller. [ The cluster of two wireless controllers and the even slower/smaller DDR3 RAM is probably not anything to do with the SSD. ]


There is a mystery chip named "980 YFE TM4EA231 H6ZXRI 49AQN5W GI" with no logos or manufacturer mark at all. It is relatively close to the 512MB of RAM. If that is not a SSD controller then the huge mystery is where is the SSD controller. The logic board isn't that big and the unlabeled remaining chip packages are pretty small to be a 4x PCIe SSD controller.

If that mystery chip is the controller it wouldn't be surprising that it was not the ultimate speed daemon. Probably optimized more so for smaller package size than maximum throughput (less internal cache/memory, less parallelism, etc. all save space. )

 

[deconstruct60]

For Apple, the whole top cover gets replaced as the battery is glued to it. So the price is actually for a battery and a palm rest which may also include the trackpad.

That is backwards in terms of this MacBook Retina. The bottom cover is what the batteries are glued to. ( it is only "top" if have placed the system upside down to undo the screws. )

Step 7 from the teardown https://www.ifixit.com/Teardown/Retina+Macbook+2015+Teardown/39841

The trackpad is in the "top". The change here is that the logic board and speakers are mounted in the bottom. Conceptually, they could be removed and placed in new bottom that arrives with batteries.

 

[Tech198]

1 out 10, or 0 of of 10 (if that's even possible), nothing beats iFixIt..

They'd use a sledge hammer if possible..

You must expect now tons of glue goes into these batteries now.

Apple's wasting all that glue..

I still say "look at all those batteries"

 

[MeFromHere]

What I don't understand about your comment is why it's a good thing that Apple's notebooks are now sealed-off, unrepairable disposables that you can't upgrade.

The only benefit for that is taken by Apple, not by you as a customer. Why would anyone find that positive is beyond my understanding.

Here's a hint: they're NOT "sealed-off", "unrepairable", or "disposable". But it benefits iFixit if you think they are, because it generates web traffic and helps them sell "proprietary" pentalobe screwdrivers and spudgers.

 

[Tech198]

Its only sealed off from the average joe who can't access the internals straight away with nothing now than a phillips screwdriver..

Since that always changes anyway with screw bits comes out later,, it just gives us the "illusion" that no one can do it straight away...

Apart from iFix it again.... of course.

No ready available tools (yet) is all... Nothing to worry about.... Nothing is ever disposable very long.

 

[kemal]

Keep in mind the battery replacement for the MBP Retina 13/15" is $199. For that Apple have to replace the keyboard, trackpad (battery) and frame. With the new MacBook it is the battery and bottom cover. This is a win for Apple.

 

[HobeSoundDarryl]

I agree if Apple wanted to build laptops to score better than "1" on iFixIt, they probably could do it, though there would be costs in terms of weight, thickness, cost of components, supportability, etc.

Why are those "costs" automatic? Do you know that for sure or are you just speculating such "costs" to make it seem like the way they chose to go is the one and only way to get something pretty close to the end result?

For example, they didn't have to choose "proprietary pentalobe screws" for these products, though that does contribute to the iFixit score of "1". Choosing a non-proprietary screw would have NO effect on their ability to deliver this exact same product (no thickening or weight gains).

The shapes of the batteries appear to fit into battery-shaped slots. Everything seems thoroughly packed in. Why do they need the battery glue? If the shape of the batteries fit the slots and there is no room for them to move around in there, why glue them down? Conceptually, the lack of glue doesn't change thickness, weight, etc unless it's very, very slightly more favorable.

Does the ram and flash memory have to be soldered down to achieve the same thickness, weight, etc? No way to slot it? This one is probably arguable but I would guess that Apple could make it work without soldering if they wanted to do so... without having to fatten the case or make it heavier.

I can't talk to "cost of components" very well. I would assume that there would be a little more cost in slotted ram & flash vs. soldered. Only Apple can talk to "supportability." But both cost of components and supportability seemed to work fine for Apple when they made laptops without soldering those parts down. Again, it didn't seem to be a huge problem back then. Besides, I'm yet to see anyone question whether Apple can easily make their margins on this rMB. Personally, I suspect pricing is such that there is a good deal of room in there for some additional unit cost (but of course, I can't know that for sure).

----------

For Apple, the whole top cover gets replaced as the battery is glued to it. So the price is actually for a battery and a palm rest which may also include the trackpad.

...by design though. It doesn't have to be that way. That's they way they chose to make it. I suppose the automakers could make it such that car tires required replacement of the entire wheel (not just the tire but the wheel parts themselves). Maybe they could engineer the wheel so that one pretty much must replace the brakes if they replace a wheel? And maybe engineer the brakes so that one must replace the struts when they replace the brakes?

So then we rationalize a manufacturer repair bill that exceeds what it could be by saying "the whole wheel, brake and strut gets replaced when you blow a tire". See how that works? Take our love for Apple out of the scenario and it's much less appealing. Why is the battery glued to the top cover? Why does replacing a battery possibly require replacing a perfectly fine trackpad? Other than Apple deciding to glue down what appears to be a fitted battery, why do we pay for a new palm rest and maybe a trackpad too? (rhetorical, but hopefully illustrating the point).

 

[Popeye206]

I don't see this as a big deal. PC's that are easy to repair are also bulky, and in most cases heavy and ugly.

This is the price we pay for miniaturization and design. Besides, being all solid state... there should be not much to go wrong. Not counting accidents.

 

[numlock]

I find it a little humorous that most of the people complaining about the score of this MacBook aren't even interested in buying one. They're just complaining to complain about the repairability score for some reason.

I understand that some people can't see the point of this device, complaining that the processor is underpowered, and they want to be able to upgrade it. Meanwhile, the people who are actually going to be buying the device and using it will enjoy it as it's exactly what they need. Something extremely light and thin to travel with, to do simple tasks like email, web browsing, watching video, etc.

I want one to travel around with on airplanes as it would be the PERFECT machine for that. And for some people, that is more important than benchmark tests and or some websites "repairability" score.

they arent interested because of the reasons behind many of the decisions it gets such a low score. its not humorous its obvious.

quantify the advantage of this one over mba or mbp in travelling?

 

[Dayv]

On my iBook G3, the last model before they went to G4s, I was able to replace the RAM, and Airport card pretty easily. Although removing the keyboard almost always would cause a key or two from the keyboard to fly off.

I did replace the hard disk, but that was pretty time consuming if I remember correctly.

I salvaged the hard drive from a friend's dead iBook (G3 or G4, not sure which), and it was a nightmare. I had to disassemble the entire thing, and a piece of the internal frame snapped in the process.

It really made me appreciate the ease of access to the hard drive via the battery compartment when I had to replace a dead one in my wife's ~2008 Macbook.

I miss the upgradeability of the best-engineered of last decade's laptops, but I see it as a perfectly valid tradeoff for the advances of today's in lightness and battery life.

 

[dBeats]

Boohoo iFixit. I'm sick of your whining. There's enough buyback infrastructure and recycling infrastructure, that it's just better to sell your old unit and buy a new one. Then people who can't afford new hardware, can buy refurbished and recycled ones and get a quality product instead of a plastic POS that has hinges and doors all over the place that get dust and dirt and crack off and cause all other sorts of issues.

The teardowns are great to watch, but the high holy repairability and removable battery BS has got to go. Innovate or die, maybe you should start your own exchange/refurbish store instead of selling silly tools to people who don't want them anymore.

 

[HVDynamo]

Really, which machines did you own? The iBook, Powerbook and the early Macbook Pros had easy to detach batteries, but that was about it. What else could a customer do (in terms of fixes) with an Apple Laptop (other than replace the battery) that was considered a "common repair"?

Upgrade/replace RAM, and HDD.

 

[deconstruct60]

... Or I can locate my closest Apple store, spend hours getting to the store, wait around or have them keep it overnight for what should be a very simple swap if it wasn't for all that glue.

An Apple Store is not the only place possible to get Apple certified/qualified support service. There are other vendors in most places and countries. Apple Stores are the easiest t to find but the support page at Apple.com can do lookups for alternatives. In some places Apple Store or mail-in container is the only certified path, but in locations where Apple has had a long term footprint the alternatives are not so limited.

To me the glue is lazy. Apple projects this brand image that they do things the right way. Glue isn't the right way when it comes to batteries, it's the lazy way.

It takes up less space. If have to bracket/inclose the battery in a container and/or frame then those components take up space. Likewise screw holes / latch or whatever other mechanism. Glue spreads out into a very thin flat film.

The other issue is disposal. I take to professional service providers for replacement then less batteries end up in the general trash. These batteries shouldn't be thrown away carelessly. Careless disposal is more indicative of lazy.

 

[Andrei90]

I'm going to go out on a particularly long limb and say that the MacBook's demographic isn't likely to repair their own electronics.

You're right, but the reparation costs will go up though

 

[sirdir]

Benchmarks

Maybe one should stop talking about differences between 1.1 and 1.2 ghz CPUs. The GPU is nowadays much more important for the 'feel' of OS X anyway. The benchmarks are pretty much useless. Especially in a computer that will start throttling the cpu/gpu as soon as it's really working for some seconds.

 

[doelcm82]

Why are those "costs" automatic? Do you know that for sure or are you just speculating such "costs" to make it seem like the way they chose to go is the one and only way to get something pretty close to the end result?

For example, they didn't have to choose "proprietary pentalobe screws" for these products, though that does contribute to the iFixit score of "1". Choosing a non-proprietary screw would have NO effect on their ability to deliver this exact same product (no thickening or weight gains).

The shapes of the batteries appear to fit into battery-shaped slots. Everything seems thoroughly packed in. Why do they need the battery glue? If the shape of the batteries fit the slots and there is no room for them to move around in there, why glue them down? Conceptually, the lack of glue doesn't change thickness, weight, etc unless it's very, very slightly more favorable.

Does the ram and flash memory have to be soldered down to achieve the same thickness, weight, etc? No way to slot it? This one is probably arguable but I would guess that Apple could make it work without soldering if they wanted to do so... without having to fatten the case or make it heavier.

I can't talk to "cost of components" very well. I would assume that there would be a little more cost in slotted ram & flash vs. soldered. Only Apple can talk to "supportability." But both cost of components and supportability seemed to work fine for Apple when they made laptops without soldering those parts down. Again, it didn't seem to be a huge problem back then. Besides, I'm yet to see anyone question whether Apple can easily make their margins on this rMB. Personally, I suspect pricing is such that there is a good deal of room in there for some additional unit cost (but of course, I can't know that for sure).

I'm agreeing with you. Apple absolutely doesn't want to make the new MacBook slightly thicker, slightly heavier, with more slots and clips inside, so that you can open it up and easily swap out components. They don't even sort-of want to do that. It's not their priority. They definitely could do it if they wanted.

 

[oliversl]

Copper!

It has been a while I didn't that mucho copper in a computer.

 

[D.T.]

I'm not a fan of these glued in batteries. With my current laptop I can buy a replacement battery and fit it myself for 4x less than Apple charge for a battery replacement on a MacBook. And that's with a genuine Apple battery in both cases.

But it's not just about the cost it's also inconvenience. I can buy a battery online, have it delivered and fit it myself in 5 minutes. Or I can locate my closest Apple store, spend hours getting to the store, wait around or have them keep it overnight for what should be a very simple swap if it wasn't for all that glue.

To me the glue is lazy. Apple projects this brand image that they do things the right way. Glue isn't the right way when it comes to batteries, it's the lazy way.

~$105 delivered from OWC about 2-3 weeks ago. Better specs than the OEM battery (7290mAh)

Went into my 2011 MBP that's running 16GB RAM (self-installed, < 10 minutes, $99), an MX100 SSD 512GB (self-install, ~1 hour, $179), and this battery that was probably another < 10 minute install (the supplier even included the required tools).

 

[ZipZap]

I find it a little humorous that most of the people complaining about the score of this MacBook aren't even interested in buying one. They're just complaining to complain about the repairability score for some reason.

I understand that some people can't see the point of this device, complaining that the processor is underpowered, and they want to be able to upgrade it. Meanwhile, the people who are actually going to be buying the device and using it will enjoy it as it's exactly what they need. Something extremely light and thin to travel with, to do simple tasks like email, web browsing, watching video, etc.

I want one to travel around with on airplanes as it would be the PERFECT machine for that. And for some people, that is more important than benchmark tests and or some websites "repairability" score.

The camera and price are unforgivable. If you (or anyone) feel that spending $1500, plus tax, plus applecare, plus dongles...makes sense then waste your money. Perhaps, if people stopped forking over huge amounts of cash for disappointments, Apple would make better customer centric decisions instead of profit based ones.

 

[burgman]

Except it's over twice the cost.. Fortunately, it's not "just" an iPad with a keyboard.

How much would a 256GB or a 512GB iPad cost? Then add a keyboard without mouse or trackpad support.

Reading some battery replacement posts, and others I think many here have never owned an Apple device since the battery program has existed for all nonuser replaceable batteries for years.

----------

The camera and price are unforgivable. If you (or anyone) feel that spending $1500, plus tax, plus applecare, plus dongles...makes sense then waste your money. Perhaps, if people stopped forking over huge amounts of cash for disappointments, Apple would make better customer centric decisions instead of profit based ones.

Geez thanks for the permission on spending my money. I don't think you waste your money but i could be wrong

 

[doelcm82]

The camera and price are unforgivable. If you (or anyone) feel that spending $1500, plus tax, plus applecare, plus dongles...makes sense then waste your money. Perhaps, if people stopped forking over huge amounts of cash for disappointments, Apple would make better customer centric decisions instead of profit based ones.

If only people would listen to you when you tell them what is good for them, then you could bend Apple to your will. But neither Apple nor the people is listening to you.