Apple's new MacBook Neo design makes it startlingly quick and simple to repair, with Self Service Repair program instructions proving the point.
Apple first announced its Self Service Repair program back in 2021, and it was really a case of doing it before being forced to by law. It's slowly expanded out, launching first for the iPhone in April 2022, and later expanding to Macs.
Throughout, it's been criticized for being expensive and for making users go through hoops to get the work done. Now, though, Apple appears to be embracing the Right to Repair pressures it has faced, and do so both with the program, and with its designs.
That's the conclusion of one YouTube video that set out to do a complete MacBook Neo teardown. They completed the teardown in six minutes.
"[This] is absolutely amazing for an Apple laptop," says the company in its teardown video.
"I can't say we've ever had a Mac that looks as repairable and as modular as this one," it continues. "It's just super straightforward, elegant design."
Cheaper keyboard repair
Apple has published detailed repair instructions for the MacBook Neo, as well as the iPhone 17e and more, on its Self Repair Service site. What it has not done at time of writing, though, is include the ability to buy any parts for the new devices.
Doubtlessly the parts are coming, and presumably coming soon. But for the moment, it means it's not possible to specify the prices for any repair.
However, the one that is unquestionably going to be much cheaper is to do with the keyboard. That's because previously such a repair meant replacing the entire top case of the MacBook Air or MacBook Pro.
The disassembled MacBook Neo keyboard in the teardown video actually looks like it's part of a top cover, but Apple describes it as being separately repairable.
For the MacBook Air, where it is required to replace the entire top cover, the cost is initially $461.72. With the 16-inch MacBook Pro, the initial cost is $664.12.
These prices include the replacement parts and also a seven-day rental of the necessary tools for $49. The price also comes down by $88 later, if you return the failed upper case with embedded keyboard.
Again, it's not yet known what the cost of a new keyboard for the MacBook Neo is. But without having to also replace the whole top cover, it's surely got to come in at significantly less than the final $373.72 of the MacBook Air or $576.12 of the MacBook Pro.
The imagery that our ex-service shop employee, Mike Wuerthele, has seen of the keyboard reminds him a bit of the old Pismo G3 PowerBook keyboard replacement process, writ modern.
Where this matters
That amount of money, plus the time and the skill required to perform the repair, still means that few individual users are going to undertake it. But for repair shops, this will save money twice over — once for being presumably cheaper, and then for being so much faster.
Corporations and schools that maintain their own equipment with a stock of supply parts will see a boost from this too.
What's more, it appears that the greater repairability comes very specifically from the new design used for the MacBook Neo. We'd like to think Apple will carry these lessons forward on future devices, but that remains to be seen.
