Teardown of 15" MacBook Pro with Touch Bar reveals non-removable SSD, extra trackpad touch controller, more

Repair firm iFixit on Friday completed its dissection of Apple's 15-inch MacBook Pro with Touch Bar, which boasts upscaled components and extra hardware not found on its smaller 13-inch sibling.

Though the overall internal design is similar to the 13-inch Touch Bar MacBook Pro, complete with "mustache" logic board, the 15-inch Pro features two — larger — fans, larger speakers, a revised battery layout, and extra components to power the much larger Force Touch Trackpad.

Much to the chagrin of aftermarket upgrade purveyors, the 15-inch Pro sports the same soldered-on SSD module design, meaning users are hard pressed to change out the drive without authorized help. Further, iFixit discovered a connector that has no readily apparent purpose. Though not confirmed, the component, also seen on the 13-inch model, is thought to be an SSD diagnostics port.

Also of note is MacBook Pro's gigantic Force Touch trackpad. With the 15-inch model, Apple had to incorporate a second touch controller to handle the extra surface area.

Other notable findings include a faux speaker grille with through-holes limited to a small round section just above the two up-firing speakers, improved heatsink and an Apple APL1023 343S00137 chip thought to be the Touch Bar's T1 controller. Interestingly, Apple might have mislabeled the T1 chip in a product promo video aired during last month's special event. It turns out the silicon highlighted by Apple is a Texas Instruments chip also present in the 13-inch MacBook Pro without Touch Bar, suggesting the actual T1 controller is a larger, Apple-branded component positioned just below the T1 part.

Overall, iFixit says the 15-inch MacBook Pro with Touch Bar is incredibly difficult to repair due to its non-removable SSD, glued-in battery, impossible to replace OLED Touch Bar and integrated Touch ID power button.

76 Comments

Soli 9981 comments · 9 Years

About 7 years ago

Though not confirmed, the component, also seen on the 13-inch model, is thought to be an SSD diagnostics port.
Based on the available data, that was my guess. Hopefully someone like OWC will be able to make a USB-C-to-MBPwTB-SSD adapter so we can copy and wipe data from the SSD before disposing or shipping off for repair.

djkfisher 131 comments · 13 Years

Its kind of like people that buy old Fords like to tinker under the hood and those that buy New Corvettes let the pros do the work. As these machines get smaller and more complex, it is going to be harder to dig in and pull it apart. And then, put it back together again......

mattinoz 2473 comments · 9 Years

AppleInsider said:

Much to the chagrin of aftermarket upgrade purveyors, the 15-inch Pro sports the same soldered-on SSD module design, meaning users are hard pressed to change out the drive without authorized help. Further, iFixit discovered a connector that has no readily apparent purpose. Though not confirmed, the component, also seen on the 13-inch model, is thought to be an SSD diagnostics port.

Any change it could be a SSD expansion port?
Solder on the basic configurations then use add in module(s) for larger configurations.

bluefire1 1310 comments · 10 Years

Went to my local Apple Retail Store today and marveled at the 13" and 15" Touch Bar MBP's. One question that the consultants couldn't answer (they were too busy) was whether the Touch Bar will only work with Safari or other browsers (such as Chrome) as well. Anyone here know the answer?

Rayz2016 6957 comments · 8 Years

bluefire1 said:

Went to my local Apple Retail Store today and marveled at the 13" and 15" Touch Bar MBP's. One question that the consultants couldn't answer (they were too busy) was whether the Touch Bar will only work with Safari or other browsers (such as Chrome) as well. Anyone here know the answer?

I don't see why it shouldn't, but Google has to write the code to support it.