Apple's new MacBook Pro scores a mere 1 on iFixit's repairability index
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Last week Apple announced the much anticipated MacBook Pro with a 16-inch display. Along with the bigger screen, the MacBook Pro also features a new keyboard layout which fixes the issues Apple has been having with their keyboards.
While everyone’s praising Apple for their keyboard improvement, there’s one area where MacBook still misses the mark and that’s repairability. Just a week after the official launch, the folks over at iFixit popped open the MacBook Pro and gave it a mere 1 out of 10 on their repairability. iFixit summarised the teardown with the following bullet points.
- The trackpad can still be removed and replaced with very little drama.
- Minor components are modular, but the processor, RAM, and flash memory are soldered to the logic board.
- Glue and/or rivets secure the keyboard, battery, speakers, and Touch Bar, making those components a tricky fix.
- The Touch ID sensor is the power switch and is locked to the logic board, greatly complicating repairs.
- Once again, the keyboard assembly is riveted down. It’s basically 2016 all over again: a new keyboard married to a non-serviceable design, with only Apple’s word (and fairly reliable precedent) that it won’t break.
- The MacBook Pro’s 99.8 Wh battery flies just under the FAA radar, weighing in at 16.2 Wh more capacity than the most recent 15” model. With such a slight increase in case size, this capacity increase is surprising.
While MacBook Pro is not the first device to receive such a low score (Surface Laptop 2 received 0), it certainly is the worst scoring premium device. With Microsoft Surface Laptop 3 scoring 5, the burden now falls on Apple to redesign their laptop inside out.
