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Teardown of Apple's 11.6-Inch MacBook Air Underway

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Apr 12, 2001
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iFixit has wasted no time in getting its hands on a new 11.6-inch MacBook Air and beginning to disassemble it to see what's inside. While the leaked prototype image offered an idea of what the innards would look like, iFixit will almost certainly find some additional tidbits of information.

Some notes of interest:

- The case is screwed shut with 5-point Security Torx screws, suggesting that Apple does not want consumers disassembling the machine.
- The battery consists of six separate cells offering a total of 35 watt-hours of power.
- The machine's 64 GB of flash storage is composed of four 16 GB Toshiba chips together with a controller chip on a removable board.
- The new MacBook Air uses the same Broadcom Wi-Fi/Bluetooth chip as in the current MacBook Pro.

We'll update with additional information as the teardown progresses.

Article Link: Teardown of Apple's 11.6-Inch MacBook Air Underway
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2010/10/21/teardown-of-apples-11-6-inch-macbook-air-underway/
Hmmm... interesting... But sadly enough I wasn't that excited about those new machines considering their weak hardware and relatively high price...
 
I'm amazed that they only managed to get that much battery life out of the thing. Using that much space for batteries would have suggested to me at least 8 hours of usage on the battery. if not 10 or 12.
 
applemike said:
I'm amazed that they only managed to get that much battery life out of the thing. Using that much space for batteries would have suggested to me at least 8 hours of usage on the battery. if not 10 or 12.
Click to expand...

That's what you get when you don't use a whimped out processor like you'd find in a netbook.
 
applemike said:
I'm amazed that they only managed to get that much battery life out of the thing. Using that much space for batteries would have suggested to me at least 8 hours of usage on the battery. if not 10 or 12.
Click to expand...

well if that's not scientific, i don't know what is. :rolleyes:


maybe with an intel atom processor....
 
applemike said:
I'm amazed that they only managed to get that much battery life out of the thing. Using that much space for batteries would have suggested to me at least 8 hours of usage on the battery. if not 10 or 12.
Click to expand...

You have to remember that the batteries can't be very deep though.
 
The machine's 64 GB of flash storage is composed of four 16 GB Toshiba chips together with a controller chip on a removable board.
Click to expand...

This is of interest to me. The notion that it can be upgraded down the road is a big selling point.
 
was hoping for upgradable ram however not looking good, cant see why they bothered to tut the SSD on an separate board and fixed the ram as they offer factory upgrades of both ?
 
Check out the connector left from the RAM, looks like this is this trick for the in-store upgrade from 2to 4GB.
4rYk1TIISyISQoCb.huge
 
SPUY767 said:
That's what you get when you don't use a whimped out processor like you'd find in a netbook.
Click to expand...

tempusfugit said:
well if that's not scientific, i don't know what is. :rolleyes:


maybe with an intel atom processor....
Click to expand...

Very true, but still I'd expect that kind of battery life if they had managed to up the CPU to an i3, it's certainly what a lot of others where expecting. I know there are the heat issues, but still, I'd have thought apple, one of the greatest manufacturers of this age, would manage it.

I think im not the only one tired of seeing C2D as well
 
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I have security Torxes in my toolkit. An essential thing to have for anyone who likes opening/repairing things :)

lsvtecjohn3 said:
DrivinWest said:
This is of interest to me. The notion that it can be upgraded down the road is a big selling point.
Click to expand...

Where did you hear that from? I thought you were not going to be able to upgrade.

Edit just saw it sad removable Board
Click to expand...

yep. Not officially user upgradable (like many Apple things) but looks simple enough for a hacker type. If I'm not mistaken, the SSD looks like it's on mini-PCIe which is a standard fitting. Say hello to upgrades from Runcore :)
 
MacRumors said:
- The case is screwed shut with 5-point Security Torx screws, suggesting that Apple does not want consumers disassembling the machine.
Click to expand...

A security torx is six points with a pin in the center so it's hard to use a small flat head screwdriver or a non-security Torx bit. This doesn't have that pin.
 
JeffDM said:
A security torx is six points with a pin in the center so it's hard to use a small flat head screwdriver or a non-security Torx bit. This doesn't have that pin.
Click to expand...

Can buy a cheap set of eBay if necessary, I have a half descent set, about £20 for every size you can think of. With these I can get into everything.
 
foobarbaz said:
Had to look up "Security Torx" on Wikipedia. Stupidest thing ever...
Click to expand...

Yup. And all it really means is that you have to go to some trouble to get the bits, which are expensive and useless for anything else -- it doesn't actually stop anyone from opening it.
 
JeffDM said:
A security torx is six points with a pin in the center so it's hard to use a small flat head screwdriver or a non-security Torx bit. This doesn't have that pin.
Click to expand...
Even those Tamper Proof Torx bits and drivers can be bought anywhere, they're not Top Secret, so it shouldn't be too much of a big deal and a non-issue for anyone looking to take this apart even if they were there.
 
How fast is the Toshiba Controller

on these SSDs? Really have to see how fast these Flash Memory compared to the retail SSDs.

I wonder 13.3" MBA might use different Flash and Controller ...
 
JeffDM said:
A security torx is six points with a pin in the center so it's hard to use a small flat head screwdriver or a non-security Torx bit. This doesn't have that pin.
Click to expand...

Ah, so those are Torx Plus, then. Still more annoying than the regular six point Torx, though.

They do also make a security version of Torx Plus, called Torx TX, to be extra obnoxious.
 
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