iFixit has performed more of its traditional high-quality teardowns on both the new 13-inch Retina MacBook Pro and new 15-inch Retina MacBook Pro,
revealing various improvements to the components of both that enhance
performance, but also unsurprisingly make both harder to manually
repair.
One of the more interesting changes relative to the new 13-inch model is
that Apple has apparently reversed its decision to move the 13-inch
model's battery away from the trackpad as seen in the previous generation of the laptop, instead choosing
to glue the entire battery assembly into the case. This design is very
similar to the battery of the original 15-inch Retina MacBook Pro, which
was heavily criticized by iFixit for being extremely difficult and time-consuming to remove without puncturing the cells.
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| 13-inch Retina MacBook Pro |
As Apple stated during its press event, the new 13-inch Retina MacBook
Pro now uses faster PCIe flash storage, but is still proprietary as seen
in the previous generation and does not allow for easy replacement.
Other changes to the new version of the laptop include Intel's i5
Haswell processor and Iris Graphics, the inclusion of only one fan as opposed to two in the last generation, a rearranged cabling system, and a slight update to the MagSafe 2 connector.
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| 15-inch Retina MacBook Pro |
Meanwhile, the new 15-inch Retina MacBook Pro reveals a similar internal
layout to the 13-inch model, but includes higher grade components such
as Intel's i7 Haswell processor and Iris Pro graphics. The glued-in battery system
and the soldered RAM as seen in the previous generation are also still
included, which indicates that no improvements have been made to the
accessibility of the new model.
Overall, the teardowns of both new Retina MacBook Pros otherwise yield
few surprises compared to the previous models, and the similar
challenges of proprietary pentalobe screws, soldered RAM, an integrated
display, and glued-in battery system have led iFixit to award each of
the new 13-inch and 15-inch models a repairability score of 1 out of 10.
Compared to the teardowns of last year's models, the 13-inch Retina
MacBook Pro has scored one point lower than the last generation, while the 15-inch MacBook Pro scored the same as the previous model.
~ Richard Padilla
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