Teardown of 13-inch MacBook Pro With Touch Bar Reveals 'Cosmetic' Speaker Grilles [Updated]

[Z3man]

Does Apple actually say they are speaker grills? Could they be for air flow instead?

I doubt it, the review says the holes are fake and don't go clean through the top panel, so they are purely for show i would think.

 

[bjet767]

Replace capacitor? What are you writing about, a transistor radio from the 60s? A MBP isn't a Heathkit radio.

Ten years ago my son's high end hp laptop had the video fail. Guess what the replaced? The mother board for $1200 under Geek Squad warranty.

 

[JetLaw]

The fanboism is strong in this one.
But for the sake of argument, here are a couple of pics for you. Random pic:

Haha! Yup. This was a nonsense decision, as is any attempt to justify it.

 

[Frederico Luna]

#fakespeakergrillesgate

 

[Sedulous]

So when can we just buy disposable Macs from a vending machine in the snack room?

 

[MarsViolet]

Oh what's that? Didn't see that there is actually a tweeter under the speaker grills? Looks like someones got a good grasp on those straws.

I never said there wasn’t, but I am saying you missed an apostrophe, likely due to your rage.

 

[Scary Spice]

The first image is of a wireless Magic Mouse 2 charging. Two reasons they put charge port on bottom is 1. to make the device more seamless looking during the 3 months not charging and 2. to ensure that when it is charging no users mistake it for a wired mouse—it's literally impossible now.

The second image is of an Apple pencil charging (on the go). This is for those times when Pencil runs out when you are not near a wall outlet. 15 second gets you thirty minutes of drawing time. It's not meant to be left in there for hours. MR forum members ignore nuances. Not so deep.

Wow, you are really drinking the kool-aide.

 

[A MacBook lover]

Wow, you are really drinking the kool-aide.

 

[jay1188]

This internal image would suggest otherwise. It appears that there's a small section above the second speaker/tweeter where the speaker grills go all the way through, which makes sense to me.

It also makes sense aesthetically as to why they made the external grill larger. Could you imagine what it would look like if they designed it with that small section of the grill on the outside?

 

[Santiago]

The only thing apple has to do is find a way to cram it inside an aluminum case.

Right, cause any idiot can just cram a bunch of heat-generating components into a case willy-nilly and have it be fine. It's not like certain phones have design flaws that lead to overheating and component shutdown (like the Nexus 5).

 

[bobob]

Ack this headline is inaccurate, not sure who's fault it is but you can clearly see the holes going throw above the tweeter speaker:
https://d3nevzfk7ii3be.cloudfront.net/igi/dwcGTXRBHLXjNG4W.huge
And iFixIt says "Judging from the through-holes under the smaller speaker, we assume this is a tweeter designed to produce high frequency audio."

Still no correction or update on MacRumors story, of course. The page views are in the bank.

I have replaced EVERY replaceable component in EVERY Mac I have owned since 1990,

...therefore EVERY Mac buyer will want to replace EVERY component forever. I have spoken.

 

[Kevin2055]

Who cares where the speaker holes are, as long as the sound quality is not compromised.

 

[keunchilla]

Fake speaker grills.
The implications of such are so grave and beyond anything that Apple ever once stood for.
I am certain that by now Dieter Rams will now have a very view of Apple.

A quote by Rams, some time ago, talking about Apple:
"They understand that design is not simply an adjective to place in front of a product’s name to somehow artificially enhance its value."

 

[Larry-K]

...therefore EVERY Mac buyer will want to replace EVERY component forever. I have spoken.

Of course not, I condone people being lazy and stupid, just as when somebody takes my reply out of context.

The OP erroneously doubted I had ever done an upgrade myself.
[doublepost=1479348256][/doublepost]

Larry-k

You paid rip-off prices and then replaced the rip-off components with better ones and just through them in a drawer?

I understand wanting top performance, but I really don't get your logic here or why that strategy is better then Than mine. But Apple got both yours and my money in the process. I'm happy with my decisions and you seem to be with yours.

It's the USA.

The original components Apple supplied are best left in a drawer, why waste a RAM slot with a 2GB module these days? If you would like one of their lousy hard drives to use as a coaster, simply remit shipping.

Apple got as little of my money as possible.

Reputable third party vendors benefited substantially at Apple's expense, not mine.

It is the USA, not the "ASA" so why pay the "Apple Tax"?

 

[iLLUMI]

Super quick job but here you go

It actually looks much nicer, smarter, without the speaker grills.
Nice work Scott!

 

[Kameha]

MAKE APPLE GREAT AGAIN hahahaha

 

[MarsViolet]

Could you imagine what it would look like if they designed it with that small section of the grill on the outside?

I imagine a good designer could make it look good either way.

 

[RY∆N]

Doesn't seem like Apple was hiding this fact.
Its on their website:

 

[eco7777]

I doubt it, the review says the holes are fake and don't go clean through the top panel, so they are purely for show i would think.

Maybe they are there to collect dust.

First time in my life that i prefer buying an old Apple than the new one.

 

[Duophonic]

So when can we just buy disposable Macs from a vending machine in the snack room?

Yea, from the "wheel of death" lol lol

 

[Make Apple Great Again]

MAKE APPLE GREAT AGAIN hahahaha

yes?

 

[Tech198]

so, looks like with more and more soldered to the board over time would mean more expensive logic board replacements when warranty runs out ?

Who cares where the speaker holes are, as long as the sound quality is not compromised.

what if the fan spins up and volume sound comes out of the same vents? I thought it would of made more sense to have the grill attached, since u have air vents anyway. u don't need extra..

 

[Rogifan]

MR needs to update their original post as iFixit updated theirs. From Ars Technica:

Update: iFixit has updated its teardown with some new information—while some of the holes in the speaker grilles do appear to be cosmetic, others are used for the laptop's tweeters. Most sound is routed through the laptop's air vents as previously reported.

 

[rumplestiltskin]

I'd consider this ill-conceived applicance when I can buy five years of AppleCare. iFixit score of 1/10? This unit is a train-wreck.

 

[ryanwarsaw]

but the holes are just halfway through the plate, so no air can go through!

The holes are psychological engineering at it's best. It makes the speakers feel louder.