iFixit has shared a teardown of the new entry-level 13-inch MacBook Pro, which was refreshed this week with Intel's latest 8th-generation processors, a True Tone display, Touch Bar, Touch ID, and the Apple T2 security chip.
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The teardown reveals a larger battery with a 58.2 Wh capacity, which slightly exceeds the 54.5 Wh battery found in the previous-generation function key model. iFixit guesses this is how the 2019 model manages to power the Touch Bar, Touch ID, and T2 chip while keeping the same 10-hour battery life.
To make room for the Touch ID sensor alongside the Touch Bar, iFixit notes that Apple appears to be using a slightly smaller heat sink. The speaker opposite the fan also looks to have been shrunk in size.
While the previous-generation entry-level 13-inch MacBook Pro had a modular SSD, storage is soldered down in the 2019 model. However, there are some newly modular components, including the Thunderbolt board and the speakers. This configuration is in line with other modern MacBook Pro designs.
As we confirmed earlier this week, the notebook has the same third-generation butterfly keyboard with updated material as the higher-end 2019 MacBook Pro models introduced in May, with Apple promising improved reliability.
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Like most other modern MacBooks, this model earned a low repairability score from iFixit due to the usual concerns, such as Apple's use of proprietary pentalobe screws, a glued-in battery, and soldered-down storage and RAM. One positive is that the trackpad can be replaced without touching the battery.
Top Rated Comments
One day...maybe when we have new leadership that truly believes in sustainability and the right to repair.
The majority of "people" perhaps, but not the majority of businesses (especially enterprises). There's a reason why brands such as Latitudes and Thinkpads are so popular with enterprises and other large organizations: repair-ability. And soldiered parts don't necessarily made them more robust.
I can swap a dead lenovo keyboard in about 30 minutes and have a user back up and running. I can swap the SSD storage on any of our lenovo's in about 10 minutes if need be.if a laptop dies and needs to go to warranty, I can yank the drive out, put it into another laptop and the user continues working while we repair the machine without any change to data or workflow.
replacement and fixes can be done at just about any repair centre and take usually 1-2 days tops.
this is regular required work in an enterprise. And we're only talking about a small 200-300 person financial institution.
If I had to tell the CEO that if her laptop had a hardware failure the only solution was to be without her data or computer for 1-2 weeks while we send it in for repair, heads would roll. Especially if those repairs cost more than 1/3rd of the cost of the device in the first place. (we can get replacement keyboards for our lenovo's for about $50)
These new round of Mac laptosp arne't bad laptops. But the way they've been designed is clearly consumer focused first and not enterprise and not intended for long term large scale enterprise use. The lack of any sort of repairability means the turn around time should something go wrong is extended with additional risks of data loss should there be a problem. (replacing the motherboard shouldn't require replacing and losing all data)