Teardown of Retina MacBook Pro Finds Low Repairability with Custom Components

[Belgrano]

So if you have any battery problems they essentially have to replace the entire machine?

This is the problem. If you want a computer to last 3+ years, you WILL experience a dying battery.

This is it, folks! We're at the point where laptops are too thin for their own good. IMHO, packing anything more into a thinner size would be 100% academic.

Glad I bought the 2012 Air instead of this impractical tech experiment.

 

[nnokey]

OMG.... so much thermal paste....

 

[samac92]

This is the problem. If you want a computer to last 3+ years, you WILL experience a dying battery.

This is it, folks! We're at the point where laptops are too thin for their own good. IMHO, packing anything more into a thinner size would be 100% academic.

Glad I bought the 2012 Air instead of this impractical tech experiment.

These batteries should last 5 years according to Apple.

 

[Laird Knox]

I hear moans of soldered ram.
Ram is not needed for 99% of operations and with an SSD you don't need ram anyway.!

Do you know what RAM is? Hint: we aren't talking pickup trucks here.

 

[lilo777]

Oh the irony.

The most expensive laptop is, in essence, a disposable item. BTW, why did not they (iFixit) determine who manufactures LCD panel?

 

[HatterZero]

You can stretch Applecare. They often offer discounted replacement costs if they can't fix he wear and tear. Also, if the damage can somehow threaten anyone's safety, they will make exceptions. Applecare is the best warranty out there.

Examples:

-Water on laptop, fried the board. Took it to Apple, they said it would cost $700 to replace since it wasn't a manufacturing defect. However, they still couldn't fix it, so they sent back a brand new laptop. A newer laptop for $700.

-Flayed power cord. Apple said they couldn't replace it. Got manager on the phone, explained safety issues, they replaced it for free.

-Not to mention all the phones I've seen replaced over the years.

I buy my macs at Best Buy, I always purchase their geek squad protection. Few days ago I spilt soda on my 13 inch early 2011 macbook pro, just got the call for me to come in and pick up my mid 2012 13 inch macbook pro or pay the difference to upgrade to my 15.4.

covers normal wear and tear and accidental spills drops and cracks.

My friends ipad 1 16GB 3g ipad got damaged he got an ipad 3 4g for free....

Sure it costs more but I have always been pleased with BBs Geek Squad protection.

 

[Avatar74]

Like any new concept, it doesn't really pay to be a first adopter. the first of anything is, hopefully, clunkier than what follows... otherwise that's not innovation/improvement.

Simple as that... I have a Core Duo 15" MacBook Pro (mid-2009). I've got Applecare on it and I had the entire logic board replaced once or twice... inside of a week, including time to ship to/from the service center. There was no bickering between software and hardware vendors, no complaining about the slightest signs of wear being indicative of accidental damage, just replace the board... boom... done. Satisfied customer.

So I have no inclination right now to jump to the Retina. I tried that with the original Macbook Pro and it was the only lesson I needed. We don't live in the age where Steve Wozniak alone knows everything about every component inside your computer. He was the first and last personal computing engineer to possess that kind of knowledge, before systems became complicated by several orders of magnitude.

Here's what I like most:

1. I think the multi-vented thing is brilliant, and the asymmetric fans are genius. The whole setup design looks very similar to a turbocharger, so even aesthetically they've done it very cleanly... clean and functional is a lot harder than functional, and it shows a dedication to craft. They probably do other things very right.

2. Ditching the optical drive and winchester hard disk. I've been saying this for years, but removable storage is arcane, prone to damage/failure and completely unnecessary in the age of broadband/wireless. I'm glad they went down this road, and I hope all their devices are eventually flash-based, instant-bootable, wireless mobile capable ... winchester hard drives and internal slots are a heat source, a pain in the ass, and points of failure.

 

[PracticalMac]

Oh, great.

A $2300+ disposable laptop....

(battery is part most likely to fail)

 

[Pakaku]

I know I am shocked. Just shocked. I will definitely leave Apple now to find something much bigger and heavier that I can take apart with my walmart screw drivers.

Or I could just enjoy using a lighter machine with a beautiful display.

Nah, I like being able to open up my machine and replace parts if necessary.

Not being able to open a phone is justifiable, but not a computer...

 

[Avatar74]

Oh, great.

A $2300+ disposable laptop....

(battery is part most likely to fail)

Imagine for a moment a battery does fail. How often does the electrical problem that caused it go undiagnosed? Batteries don't just fail for no reason (nothing happens for no reason)... it's an electrical power source and a failure can mean some other electrical problem that could have already damaged other components.

So you might replace a failed battery, then a day later your other battery fails, then the logic board fails... how mad are you now?

There's a lot of upside for you, the user, in the end to actually put the responsibility for diagnosis/repair/replacement on Apple, and not yourself.

But for sake of argument, how many times have I replaced my battery on my 2009 MacBook? Zero. How many times have I needed to carry a second battery? Zero.

My Lenovo Thinkpad has a nice replaceable battery the connectors of which eat up a significant amount of space... it's clunky and it lasts about two hours max. Guess which laptop I like more?

 

[funkybudda]

For everyone complaining about Apple's rip off upgrade prices, check the aftermarket prices for 16GB of 1600MHz DDR3 RAM and 768GB SSDs.

Apple is a bit more expensive on the RAM front but not by an huge amount but the only thing close the their 768GB SSD I found is the OCZ 1TB at $2500!

Suddenly Apple's $500 charge doesn't seem too steep!

but you leave out the already-behind-the-curve GPU in 650M. PC laptops have 7970M since May and 680M this month, both will blow the 650M out of the water. You'd think a forward thinking company will Apple will use the most up to date GPU to drive the nice Retina display, but no, they decided to use older GPU.

 

[andiwm2003]

8g should be suffient for most NOW its in the future problems could occur. Best thing for Apple is that PROS might add extra ram making more money for Apple. Main thing is to purchase AppleCare anyway. Most PROS or money people will upgrade within the 3 year period.

For such an expensive product it's a shame but that's the price you pay for wanting thin laptops/desktops

I'm not worried about the RAM. It's only $200 to upgrade it right away and 16GB should be enough for the next 3-4 years.

I just hope the SSD can be upgraded without losing the warranty. SSD prices will go down in a relatively short time and the need for more SSD space will always be there. Right now 500GB is the minimum I would need. In two years I certainly would want a 1TB if available.

 

[notjustjay]

The things most important to me as I waited for the new Macs were (in no particular order):

Ivy Bridge
USB3
Ethernet port kept (Pro feature with no superior technology to replace it a cost that would be justifiable)
Optical Drive
Additional Thunderbolt Port
Retina Display
Keeping design from 2011 MBP. Works well, thin enough, light enough, no need to change it.
Good repairability
Upgradeable RAM and HDD/SSD

I agree with most of your post but I actually agree with Apple that it was time to take the optical drive out of the chassis. Not because I don't ever use it -- I do -- but because it was one of the only two components that had moving parts (the hard drive was the other one) and therefore one of the first things to fail.

The optical drive in my 2007-era MacBook Pro started acting up a few years ago. It still reads OK but doesn't reliably burn DVDs. When I want to burn discs, I plug in an external USB drive.

So I'm OK with removing the optical drive from the base configuration because the USB ones are cheap enough if you need one and that way if the drive breaks you're not lugging around dead weight like I am now.

 

[gnasher729]

You know the saying, "x, x, & x. Pick 2."

In this case it's "super thin, long battery life, & user-serviceable"

Apple picked their favorite 2 and they're the exact choices anyone could have predicted they'd make.

They also will happily sell you a 15" MBP with two other choices.

Oh, great.

A $2300+ disposable laptop....

(battery is part most likely to fail)

Not at all. Before 2008, batteries were consumables, like the tires on your car: You had to replace them from time to time. The new batteries last 1000 charges, and every charge is 7+ hours off the charger, so for most people now the battery will last as long as the computer. (And that is 1000 charges until the capacity is down to 80%, so the computer is still usable).

And I would think that Apple will know how to replace the battery when necessary.

 

[samac92]

Oh, great.

A $2300+ disposable laptop....

(battery is part most likely to fail)

As I've said, Apple says these batteries will last 5 years, and if they don't Apple will replace the battery for $200 out of warranty.

http://www.apple.com/support/macbookpro/service/battery/

 

[klover]

but you leave out the already-behind-the-curve GPU in 650M. PC laptops have 7970M since May and 680M this month, both will blow the 650M out of the water. You'd think a forward thinking company will Apple will use the most up to date GPU to drive the nice Retina display, but no, they decided to use older GPU.

A 680M in something the size of this Macbook? The heat would loosen up those glued-in batteries very quickly.

The 650M is the appropriate power-to-heat compromise for a case of these dimensions.

 

[andiwm2003]

Imagine for a moment a battery does fail. How often does the electrical problem that caused it go undiagnosed? Batteries don't just fail for no reason (nothing happens for no reason)... it's an electrical power source and a failure can mean some other electrical problem that could have already damaged other components.

So you might replace a failed battery, then a day later your other battery fails, then the logic board fails... how mad are you now?

There's a lot of upside for you, the user, in the end to actually put the responsibility for diagnosis/repair/replacement on Apple, and not yourself.

But for sake of argument, how many times have I replaced my battery on my 2009 MacBook? Zero. How many times have I needed to carry a second battery? Zero.

My Lenovo Thinkpad has a nice replaceable battery the connectors of which eat up a significant amount of space... it's clunky and it lasts about two hours max. Guess which laptop I like more?

I usually keep my old notebooks for a long time as backups. So being able to replace a expired (not damaged, just old) battery on the cheap after 5 years is certainly a plus for me. Now this option is unlikely to be there.

 

[TheBeastman13]

Nothing special. Actually I used the battery the way alexgowers describes (post 128). In the Apple store they told me that a battery starts losing capacity between 400 and 600 full charging cycles. Because mine was 400+ I had to buy a new one.

That is a shame. You must have had a faulty battery to only get 45 minutes of usage after a charge. My battery can go about three and half hours on a full charge depending on how much s*** Im doing at one time, and that is being said after 1233 cycles. Lol I hope I never get the "short end of the stick" when I buy my next Macintosh.

 

[polyh3dron]

In my 2007 MBP I went through about 4 batteries, all of which started bulging at the end of their quite short life. I finally gave up and stopped putting batteries in it. If the battery in this new MBP is anything similar and won't get fixed by Applecare if it screws up, I'll pass on it.

 

[Avatar74]

I usually keep my old notebooks for a long time as backups. So being able to replace a expired (not damaged, just old) battery on the cheap after 5 years is certainly a plus for me. Now this option is unlikely to be there.

Owning an old Mac is like owning a used Audi. Even if the car's paid off, it's a luxury car and parts are going to cost a lot more than lower priced models.

If it's a very big problem across the entire customer base, Apple will probably innovate ... but going toward more factory-replaceable batteries seems to be the trend because by and large it's not been a sore point for many customers.

I wouldn't expect that to change... so I would either plan to keep enough money around for repairs, or get a different laptop.

When someone thinks of the cost of a Ferrari, they see $350,000... but anyone who can actually buy one has to plan for about $20,000 a year in continued maintenance, too.

 

[Imhotep397]

Is this gonna be a GPU HOG?

The other major concern I have with this is performance. I mean, to drive a display that dense how much of the GPU will your work be getting? Would have made more sense to do this with a display, at least with a tower you could feasibly set up an SLI or Crossfire multi GPU rig and not have to think about it.

 

[reubs]

The only RAM option appears to be doubling from 8 to 16, and that's a $200 bump. OWC lists 16 gigs of RAM for $161.99, plus your own installation and removing it/reinstalling it during every troubleshooting or trip back to Apple.

I think it's more than fair for them to make it non-user serviceable for that rate. In the past, BTO upgrades have seemed cost-prohibitive in same cases, so this is a welcome change, IMO.

 

[iZac]

At least we can expect some aftermarket SSDs in the future, looks like anyone who gets this machine and expects to keep it for 3 or 4 years better max out the RAM and hope for a nice cheap SSD in a couple of years.

 

[OneMike]

It's a give and take. If you want newer, slimmer, lighter form factors, the manufacturer needs to break away from the designs we've been seeing the last 10 years. I'm all for it, I quit fiddling with the physical aspects of computers a long time ago.

As long as you can fiddle you have some control.

 

[mytdave]

caption incorrect

The picture caption is incorrect. The Intel CPU would be the one in orange (rectangular, centered to the RAM) and the nVidia GPU would be the one in red (square, close to corner of mobo). BTW, the color box around the RAM is turquoise, not green.