M4 MacBook Pro shows Apple is still glued to the idea of unfixable laptops
- Reference: 1732572068
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2024/11/25/m4_macbook_teardown/
- Source link:
The reassuringly expensive brand is hardly alone in building hardware deemed hard to mend, and in the pursurt of slimmer and lighter devices, the company's engineers have - at times - been a little too liberal with the glue and difficult-to-find screws.
Yet Apple has recently taken strides to undo its bad reputation for repairability and upgradeability and things seemed to be changing.
[1]
The iPhone 16, for example, [2]received plaudits for featuring adhesive that debonded when an electrical current was passed through it – useful for switching out the battery. Similarly, the recent M4 Mac Mini featured storage and a CMOS battery that could be changed without a soldering iron or logic board replacement.
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Hopes were therefore high for Apple's M4 MacBook Pro – [5]before being dashed . Sure, [6]MacRumors spotted a reference to repair parts for speakers, but replacing the battery on an M4 MacBook Pro appears to be just as tricky a repair as on the previous generation. Storage is also unhelpfully soldered to the logic board.
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M3 and M4 MacBook Pro internals compared (pic: iFixit)
Although many of the ports are modular, it is most likely the battery that users will seek to replace to extend their device's life. Getting to it required the removal of multiple screws by the iFixit team, the trackpad, and stretch-release adhesive tabs (after first disconnecting the battery from the laptop). It is no more onerous than the previous model, but a shame considering the strides taken by Apple with other devices.
"Logic board removal in the MacBook is a bit of a 'process,' which is a gentle way of saying it's incredibly complex and tedious," iFixit said.
Most of that process can be accomplished with a set of screwdrivers, yet it is not a task for the faint-hearted. Some of the ports – the card reader and MagSafe ports, according to iFixit – are also soldered to the logic board, so replacement would require some impressive soldering skills.
[8]Apple drops soldered storage for 2024 Mac Mini
[9]Canada passes new right to repair rules with the same old problem
[10]iFixit to the rescue: McDonald's workers can rescue their own ice cream machines
[11]iPhone 16 dubbed Apple's most repairable model in years
However, Apple's decision to stick with soldered storage is frustrating and speaks more of the company's reluctance to redesign the MacBook Pro than any technological limitation. With hardware replacement cycles lengthening, having to ditch an entire laptop rather than swap out the storage is, at best, irritating. As far as Apple's enterprise ambitions are concerned, it is, at worst, a reason for administrators to use alternatives.
The iFixit team has yet to give the M4 MacBook Pro a repairability score at the time of writing. However, since the hardware is very similar to the previous generation, the score will likely be broadly the same: 4 out of 10.
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An iFixit spokesperson told El Reg : "Parts pairing and calibration issues remain a major obstacle. Batteries and ports are relatively repair-friendly, but swapping displays or logic boards is a minefield of software locks.
"Apple has told us that they want to make progress on removing those obstacles, but we haven't seen it in practice yet." ®
is hardly alone in manufacturing hardware as user-unfriendly as possible in the pursuit of slimmer and lighter devices, the company's engineers have, at times, been a little too liberal with the glue and difficult-to-find screws.
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Also starts mid-sentence. So probably not bot written, just a human editing mistake
Bit disappointing but not surprising given that, for most reviewers and, apparently, the 99% of consumers who don't come here, thin is the most important part of the spec for PCs, just as it is for phones.
I had one of the tall Apple Airport Time Capsules die on me recently and was pleasantly surprised at how easy it was to swap the drive, probably cos they don't fall into the set of things that have to be thin. Power and data were on connectors, albeit tiny and a bit fragile looking for my clumsy fingers. The only slight difficulty was cutting the rubber support bungs that hold the corners of the drive in place because the drive was a bit different shaped, but it all went back together and works OK.
I still have no idea...
...why they glue these things down. It's not like there's huge amounts of space in there for the battery to be rattling around in. When it's in, it's in. Once it's in place the back of the machine would hold it in, there's nowhere for it to go! Put some bloody sprung contacts under it and a couple of bits of foam and you wouldn't even need a lead to connect it to. The only reason for this is being deliberately obstructive.
Re: I still have no idea...
B-b-b-but, if they did that, would the inside still be as *stylish* as it is? And its all black too!
Re: I still have no idea...
Same problem for why they rivet keyboards to the faceplate.
It saves on labor costs and weight.
They're a publicly-traded company.
Who is a true competitor and is repairable?
Anybody?
So...
Did a bot actually write this? The last paragraph is also most of the first paragraph. Pretty shoddy, chaps.