I see someone (incl. iFixit themselves) said it could be for consistency. But do we know the speaker location on the 15 inch? I cannot see that on Apple.com. Also the design video doesn't really show that (I think). Does anybody have a source for the speaker location on the 15 inch?
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Teardown of 13-inch MacBook Pro With Touch Bar Reveals 'Cosmetic' Speaker Grilles [Updated]
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Soldering everything to the main board just seems like a recipe for disaster to me. How much are repairs going to cost in the future once you are not in Apple Care? The SSD and RAM are worth over £1500 alone. Let alone the cost of the actual logic board and processor.
And all because a touchID button dies?
Surely the more components that are on the main board leads to an increased risk of completely bricking your machine.
And all because a touchID button dies?
Surely the more components that are on the main board leads to an increased risk of completely bricking your machine.
Finally, this is the answer. Took a whole 9 pages of complaining to get there.
So the grilles are not entirely cosmetic, but only the tweeter sound comes trough. The heavy chunk of sound comes from the sides.
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You've been living in the out of warranty logic board replacement world for years and years. What's different now?
I don't get all this hate towards the charging method of the Magic Mouse with Lightning Port. It is clear to everyone that Apple is FORCING people to go wireless since Jobs days. If they put the charging connector port in the back of the mouse so that you can use it while charging it seems clear to me that many people would just be too conservative or too lazy not to disconnect it anymore. Apple would be breaking their own design rules of forcing people to go wireless. By putting it beneath the mouse it forces people to use it wireless. No matter how "dictatorial" it might be, it DOES make sense to me as the design of the Magic Mouse by a company that has historically forcing wireless everywhere it can since 2000s, at least....The fanboism is strong in this one.
But for the sake of argument, here are a couple of pics for you. Random pic:
More likely just means that every possible repair is going to have to be sent out.
My guess for the speaker grills is that they didn't want the 13" touchbar version to "look" like it has worse speakers than the non-touchbar.
Cosmetic speaker grills doesn't actually surprise me at all, but I would probably get annoyed trying to keep them from filling up with dust.
I looked over the teardown and did any of you brillant complainers ever think that due to the thinness of the design the intake air has to come from somewhere?
From the pictures it looks like the fans intake is on top of the fan and then routed to the CPU via ducts and essentially the top of the MB gets an air flow.
So could those "fake" speaker grills really be stylish intakes for air?
Look at the simulation at about 2:25 into the Apple video: http://www.apple.com/macbook-pro/
Hmmmm... just maybe there is some real engineering in these "fake" grills after all.
OK complain on!
Update: I'm starting to think it's more about styling than pure functionality. See my last post.
I like the old Batan and Robin better.
From the pictures it looks like the fans intake is on top of the fan and then routed to the CPU via ducts and essentially the top of the MB gets an air flow.
So could those "fake" speaker grills really be stylish intakes for air?
Look at the simulation at about 2:25 into the Apple video: http://www.apple.com/macbook-pro/
Hmmmm... just maybe there is some real engineering in these "fake" grills after all.
OK complain on!
Update: I'm starting to think it's more about styling than pure functionality. See my last post.
I like the old Batan and Robin better.
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Mine don't. Cushiest job in the world now.
From the Repair Manual.
Replacement of defective hard drive, graphics card, RAM or battery units.
1. Close MacBook Pro and hold firmly in one hand.
2. Drop into Recycle Bin.
3. Extract new MacBook Pro from storage.
4. Hand over new MacBook Pro to customer.
One of the things I appreciate about MacRumors is that they don't typically put their own spin on news. They just try to present facts (or rumors) without commentary on whether they're bad or good. They just are, and we can make our own decisions.
For example, this article. There's nothing inherently bad about it to me aside from the fact that I can't replace the RAM and SSD, but I already knew that going in, so that's certainly not on this article.
But previously a logic board replacement didn't also mean the adding on the cost of a replacement SSD (up to £1500 for 2TB) and the RAM...
No way anyone would ever design air intake from above, where dust settles. air intake is probably from the large side slits, and likely only the top part of the slits, as the bottom part seems to be where the majority of sound comes from.
Cognitive dissonance much? Although it's wireless, it's quite difficult using it when you HAVE to charge it. As a matter of fact, if Apple really wanted to go wireless, they would've included wireless charging as well. Did they? No. So no it doesn't make sense at all.
wow, you are right! so there actually are speakers and at least some of the holes go through. the ifixit and macrumors articles are misleading, everything is fine here. everyone can calm down.
So why can the magic trackpad and keyboard both be plugged in whilst being used...?
(Separate issue I discovered this week: My iphone lightning charger does NOT charge the magic trackpad, keyboard or mouse. Why not?)
Every Apple apologist embraces the straw man fallacy as a first line of defense.
Nobody is complaining about the improved sound quality — but do understand that improved laptop sound quality still equals terrible sound quality. What people are complaining about is further evidence of Apple's affinity for form over function.
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Grasping for straws, there, friend-o.
I guess the caveat lies in the fact that WE as customers have to pay like 1200$ or something to get the motherboard replaced but that doesn't tell you how expensive it is for Apple. The production cost of the motherboard could around, let's say, 60$. We've already seen breakdowns of the production cost of iPads and iPhones and they are usually far cheaper to make then they're sold for. Factoring in man hours to actually replace the motherboard, it may be more economical for Apple to replace the whole motherboard at once AND SIMULTANEOUSLY have you pay large sums of money for it with the marketing that "the whole computer is on there so it must be expensive".
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Honestly, I don't think so. Does the former MacBook Air have grills? No.
"So why can the magic trackpad and keyboard both be plugged in whilst being used...?"
They typically don't move when used. Plug the mouse in for a couple minutes and you'll get a day's worth of use.
"Separate issue I discovered this week: My iphone lightning charger does NOT charge the magic trackpad, keyboard or mouse. Why not?)"
I don't have the magic trackpad. But my magic keyboard and mouse charge fine with my iPhone Lightening charger. Maybe a trip to the Genius Bar would be helpful?
Could be just a coincidence, but the Apple refurb page is suddenly out of 2012 era macbook pros. In my opinion, that laptop was the peak of Apple design and a tribute to the Jobs/Ives team. Much like the Montana/Rice era, time marches on and we still root for the team; but damn, I am starting to get nostalgic.
2016, the year the MacBook Pro becomes a chintzy disposable fashion accessory.
They have been known to fake stuff before just to make it look pretty. I don't mind that at all to be honest. The only thing that gets me is that I won't be able to repair or upgrade my machine later down the line. I hope they will change that attitude in the future.
Guess how much of my first Mac - a 512Ke - was upgradable?
RAM? No. 512K soldered to the logic board.
Hard disk? Didn't have one.
I'd certainly prefer the ability to upgrade, but that's not the way things are in the Apple world. And it rarely has been.
For most users, though, it won't even be an issue. Buy what you want (or can afford), use it till it dies or you get something else.