Roger Fingas
A teardown of the latest 11- and 13-inch MacBook Airs shows few differences over their 2014 counterparts, and in fact demonstrates a rare decision by Apple to continue using non-adhered batteries.
Self-repair firm iFixit noted on Wednesday that the Air appears to be the only remaining MacBook without a battery glued to other parts. The 12-inch basic MacBook announced on Monday uses terraced battery layers inserted into every free crevice.
The difficulty with glued batteries is that it makes a notebook harder and more expensive to repair. Gluing a battery to the frame, as in the Retina MacBook Pro, effectively forces a MacBook owner to send the computer to Apple or an authorized service provider when a replacement is needed.
iFixit added that the new Airs continue to use the same model numbers instituted since 2012, A1465 and A1466.
They have, however, switched to Intel's Broadwell architecture, making little impact on performance, but shrinking transistors and increasing power efficiency by as much as 30 percent. Apple officially promises 10 or 12 hours of web browsing or video for the 11- and 13-inch models, respectively.
As with last year's machines, iFixit gave the 2015 Air models 4 out of 10 score for repairability. A specialized pentalobe screwdriver is needed to open the casing — while major components are then easy to access, the RAM remains soldered to the logic board. Both the RAM and the SSD are proprietary, and non-upgradeable.
Malcolm Owen
Amber Neely
Andrew Orr
Christine McKee
31 Comments
The iFixit agenda of pushing for "repairability" doesn't fit with what most consumers do when their Apple products break. They aren't hobbyists, and they will never tinker with the innards of their hardware.
True, Joe Consumer isn't going to crack open the case, but it is of interest to the few people who run Mac repair shops, a handful of tinkerers, and people like enterprise/university IT types.
It should be pointed out that iFixit sells computer repair tools and spare parts, hence their interest in performing these product teardown.
For me, this is a minor curiosity since I don't bother servicing my own computers anymore.
Still, I think I'd rather read something like this versus some random rumor emanating from DigiTimes, or some silly market analysis from Gartner/NPD/whoever. At least this is about a real thing and not some cockamamie "theory."
When batteries begin to die, they also swell, in my experience. Will being glued to other parts cause the battery to rip-apart the other components of the Mac, thus necessitating even more costly repairs? In the case of my mid-2009 Macbook, when the battery began swelling in 2012, it caused some distortion of the keyboard, but no real damage, and I replaced it with a 3rd party battery and still use the 6yo computer today. I would hate to have to replace Macbooks every 3 years. Heck, my 14yr old Powerbook "Pismo" still works fine....
MacBook Airs sticking with non-adhered batteries
I hope you intended this, because I love it.
"suddenly newton" agenda on the other hand is knowing all behaviors by users. Instead of accusing iFixit ask yourself why this happens rather than stating the fact. Simply put if something does not need repairs then there is no problem and quality is high, but when it breaks do not produce garbage by replacing device with new. Just fix it. Apple is not exactly inexpensive. Ask your peers in different regions of these world what they think\. I know. I spoke with them and not neccessarily while being in the USA. People are forced to replace entire device, because they would be charged for repairs of devices that are made hard to repair and so repairs are expensive. If you pay attention to keeping the planet clean then it does not allign very well even though materials are "green"/RoHS - you still need to process used and defective device. "Cheap" is not always cheap. BTW are you in marketing or sales? You definitely sound like it.