Apple outdid itself in terms of making the Retina MacBook 2015 hard to repair

Posted on Thursday, April 16 2015 @ 13:13 CEST by Thomas De Maesschalck
iFixit performed a teardown of Apple's new Retina MacBook 2015. Given the slim and compact design, it doesn't really come as a surprise that the device isn't going to be easy to repair but iFixit writes it almost looks like Apple took note of the iFixit repairability scale and actually tried to hit zero.
To be fair, the first gen of any new Apple design tends to be a little haphazard—as engineers struggle to tetris all that new hardware into a smaller form factor. But Apple really outdid itself here: It’s like they took note of iFixit’s repairability scale, and actually tried to hit zero. The internals are unnecessarily complex; it’s a minefield of pentalobe and tri-wing screws, fragile cables snaked around essential components, and a solidly-glued-down multi-cell battery. Tack on the non-upgradeability, and the Retina MacBook is a repair nightmare.
The laptop isn't upgradeable and iFixit deems the interior to be unnecessarily complex, it's filled with a minefield of pentalobe and tri-wing screws, the multi-cell battery is completely glued into the lower case and there are lots of fragile cables around essential components. The Retina screen is a fused unit with no separate glass and not only the processor and the RAM but also the flash memory is soldered to the motherboard.

Apple Retina Macbook teardown


About the Author

Thomas De Maesschalck

Thomas has been messing with computer since early childhood and firmly believes the Internet is the best thing since sliced bread. Enjoys playing with new tech, is fascinated by science, and passionate about financial markets. When not behind a computer, he can be found with running shoes on or lifting heavy weights in the weight room.



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