the new MacBook Air landed on our
teardown table loaded with much
anticipated features like touch ID and a
design that allows for batteries to be
replaced all the cart could it be the
greenness and most repairable MacBook
yet it's time to tear it down and find
out we start by putting our blue and
black driver to work to free 10
pentalobe screws from the bottom case
after some clips are released the rear
panel slides off to reveal a new sleek
layout as always we disconnect the
battery for safety by removing the tiny
screws holding all the cable brackets in
place we move on to the logic board
disconnect the cables and remove 6 Torx
screws holding it in place but before we
can lift it out we spot a cable bracket
still attached underneath on the board
we spot the Intel Core i5 processor
along with the t2 Co processor as well
as 128 gigabytes of flash storage and on
the back we spot 8 gigabytes of SK Hynix
LP ddr3 RAM the headphone jack lives on
in the air but comes out next after
removing a bracket and a few screws and
the fan is freed similarly just three
screws to remove it and it lifts up and
out the new touch ID sensor and power
button is screwed in place and can be
pushed out through the keyboard and the
stereo speakers have pulled tabs for
removal and underneath the speakers are
more adhesive strips holding the battery
in place the air has a super thin eleven
point four volt 49.9 watt hour battery
that rests on a metal plate so if you
accidentally break the strips and have
to pry the battery out it still has some
protection underneath and according to
Mac rumors apple says that they'll start
replacing these batteries solo instead
of the entire top case which is a big
win for the environment and repair lasts
to be removed as the display the air has
a 13.3 inch Retina display with a
resolution of 2560 by 1600 and 227
pixels per inch and we're left at the
keyboard which features the upgraded
butterfly mechanism and a nifty membrane
that helps keep the keys cleaner and
quieter will be supporting to Apple we
can see that Apple is trying to put the
air back and repairable but there's
still room for improvement so the
MacBook Air scored a 3 out of 10 here's
what we liked many components are
modular and straightforward to access
including the port's fan and speak
apart from the pesky pentalobe screws
this laptop opens as easily as any the
battery is secured with a combination of
screws and stretch release adhesive but
you'll have to remove the logic board
and speakers for access what can be
improved the keyboard is integrated into
the top case requiring a full teardown
for service and soldered non serviceable
non upgradable storage and RAM is a
serious bummer on a $1200 laptop