Teardowns find Apple's 2017 MacBook & MacBook Pro models virtually unchanged in design

Apple's new 12-inch MacBook and 13-inch Touch Bar MacBook Pro models are essentially unchanged from their predecessors apart from performance boosts, according to teardowns published on Thursday.

The biggest design change, in fact, is that the 12-inch MacBook now uses a second-generation butterfly keyboard like the one in 2016 Pros, repair firm iFixit said. The tweak should make keys more responsive.

iFixit scored both of the test machines a 1 out of 10 on its repairability scale, noting that as before, the CPU, RAM, and flash memory are soldered to the logic board, making user replacements impossible. Batteries, meanwhile, remain glued-down, and the Pro's Touch Bar is said to "add a second screen to damage" without a way of safely removing it.

The situation contrasts with a teardown of this year's new iMacs, which found they were actually easier to upgrade than previous models, if still difficult because of the steps needed to get inside.

Both the 12-inch MacBook and 13/15-inch Touch Bar MacBook Pro lines now use Intel's Kaby Lake processors, and/or faster AMD Radeon GPUs. Prices start at $1,299 for the basic MacBook, and $1,799 for a 13-inch Touch Bar Pro. A 15-inch Pro is at least $2,399.

23 Comments

appex 670 comments · 11 Years

About 7 years ago

"as before, the CPU, RAM, and flash memory are soldered to the logic board".

Apple should use standard ports and components, not soldered. And why is the very same make and model of RAM purchased from Apple Store two to three times more expensive than in retailers like Amazon?

bestkeptsecret 4285 comments · 13 Years

Why haven't they given it a score of 0? Does it get a 1 because you can actually open it, or does the iFixit's server crash if they try saving a 0?

shapetables 201 comments · 10 Years

The big advantage of Kabylake will be better battery life and faster graphics when the Mac is not equipped with or not engaging a discrete (Radeon) GPU, but Kabylake is also vital if somehow you're doing 10-bit (as opposed to 8-bit) HEVC compression; otherwise I think it's just a small performance gain (under 300MHz).

But...besides the faster on-chip graphics in the Kabylake processor, those new top of the line MBPs also come with Radeon 5xx mobile GPUs that are much faster than the previous generation's Radeon 4xx mobile GPUs. While a faster built-in GPU would be great for visually interacting with data or gaming on-the-go, when back at your desk, you would probably want to use a desktop-class GPU anyway (connected via Thunderbolt 3 using one of the new kits) thus negating any real value of the newer models' 5xx mobile GPUs.

cutykamu 228 comments · 14 Years

Just bought a new MacBook Pro 13" touch bar a month ago and I'm happy that the latest one which launched few days ago is not that much different from mine.

Actually quite its happy about it 😃

Soli 9981 comments · 9 Years

appex said:

"as before, the CPU, RAM, and flash memory are soldered to the logic board".

Apple should use standard ports and components, not soldered. And why is the very same make and model of RAM purchased from Apple Store two to three times more expensive than in retailers like Amazon?

1) Do you have proof of this? I've never seen any soldered RAM for sale on Amazon. I also couldn't tell you the exact make and model of RAM they use, only brands and some specs when they're manufactured onto various boards/sticks.

2) To understand pricing you need to look at the entire model line. You can't look at a build option and say, "but the cost difference from the vendor is only x so Apple should only charge me x to upgrade." The lowest-end of a product line usually has a lower profit margin than the top end so that a company can create an average profit margin. This isn't shady or even clever. It's standard business. You see this quite prominently with their iPhones which only used storage capacity as their differentiating factor. We know that the cost of doubling (or quadrupling, in some cases) the NAND isn't a flat $100, and we know that other components can be of higher quality.