“A year after release, Apple just announced its first update to the 12″ MacBook with Retina Display,” iFixit writes. “It’s sort of a baby update, so we decided to match it with a baby teardown. Besides a faster processor and zippier flash memory, what changed? There’s only one way to know: crack it open and spill its secrets. Join us for a mini-teardown of the Retina MacBook 2016.”
“Popping the hood on this MacBook gives us an indication that the rose gold beauty is much more than skin deep,” iFixIt writes. “The battery’s form factor seems 100% identical to the multi-lobed cell we found in the 2015 Macbook. And yet somehow, Apple managed to squeeze in a 4% capacity increase from the 7.55 V, 39.71 Wh battery in last year’s model. Apple claims this new 7.56 V, 41.41 Wh Li-ion power source should provide up to 11 hours of iTunes movie playback.”
iFixIt writes, “Retina Macbook 2016 Repairability Score: 1 out of 10 (10 is the easiest to repair).”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: With the Apple Reuse and Recycling Program, part of Apple’s commitment to minimizing the impact of their products on the environment and the best way to dispose of your electronic equipment responsibly, any Apple-branded product, including the new 12-inch MacBook, can be recycled for free. Find out more here.
MDN your “take” is stupid. At 1299 and 1599 we aren’t talking disposable. A repair score of 1 is embarrassing for a product at this price point. Apple is going in the wrong direction on most counts and it will eventually bite them in the butt.
First of all, Rob, the most important factor is reliability, not repairability. If devices don’t break, then you don’t have to fix them. Second, iFixIt has an agenda, like everyone else – Consumer Reports, for instance. You have to consider what is most likely to break and how difficult/expensive those items are to fix. My daughter broke her iPhone 6 display and got it fixed for $100. That is fairly reasonable. Third, you need a basis for comparison before throwing out words like “embarrassing.” How easy is it to fix any of the “Ultrabooks” modeled (copied, once again, from Apple) after the MacBook/MBA? Every design decision involves compromises.
It sounds like you would prefer a different set of design decisions. I understand that because I would like to change some decisions that Apple has made in the past. But it isn’t happening, especially not based on a complaint posted on this forum. If you want to attempt to influence Apple, then you need to go to the source and not waste your time bitching at MDN.
Apple’s management looked embarrassed at the recent MacBook release. Was this event really worth a major presentation and all the work that employees do for
such an event? I think not.
A minor speed bump in CPU performance 99% of users will not notice. Spec wise the SSD performance makes for a nice slide graph but will it make a meaningful improvement in the vast majority of people’s experience, again no it will not.
New colors don’t justify the event either.
If the delay in MBPs is just for similar “improvements” even Apple Fanboys may begin wearing paper apple bags on their heads