Who knew an upgraded keyboard could be such a huge upgrade?
Apple, has done some simple redesigns on it’s MacBook Pro and made it the most exciting
upgrade we’ve seen in years.
Not only have they given us a normal keyboard, but we also got a slightly larger display
and a physical escape key!
Apple says this updated Mac is all about listening to the customer but have they listened to
us and updated it’s repairability, we’re gonna say no, but just in case, let's tear
it down.
The same series of p5 pentalobe screws holds the case in place and with some force we’re
able to unlatch the rear case.
Turns out we’re dealing with pretty much the same internal design as before, there’s
not much here but a giant battery and a logic board.
There are a tons of cables ,and just as many screws to remove but then logic board and
heat sink lift right out.
Underneath that heat sink we find the 2.6 GHz 6‑core Intel Core i7 paired with the
AMD Radeon Pro 5300M, we also spot the 16 GB of DDR4 SDRAM and the 512 GBs of SOLid
state storage.
As with previous models all of these chips are integrated into the logic board making
upgrades impossible.
No surprise here, but disappointing like always.
What’s this?
We actually find some modular parts, both the newly re-designed fans and right and left
thunderbolt ports can be removed and replaced.
These fans are part of the new improved thermal design of this MacBook Pro.
The fans been re-tooled with bigger impeller blades,allowing them to push 28% more air.
The remainder of the upgrades are firmly glued to the case.
We spot the newly redesigned and awesome sounding speakers.
And of course the battery which is now rated at 99.8 Watt hours, just shy of the FAA’s
allowed to fly battery limit of 100 watt hours.
So with all these upgrades has the repairability score changed for the 16 inch MacBook Pro?
No, it scored a 1 out of 10 and here’s why.
On the upside the trackpad can still be removed and replaced with very little drama.
But on the downside minor components are modular, but the processor, RAM, and flash memory are
soldered to the logic board.
Glue and/or rivets secure the keyboard, battery, speakers, and Touch Bar, making those components
a tricky fix.
The Touch ID sensor is the power switch and is locked to the logic board complicating
third-party repair.
Oh if you’re wondering about that new keyboard?
We did a deep dive into it’s new, but also old, scissor mechanism on out live first look
live stream and if you’re totally in the dark as to why this new keyboard is such a
big deal we’ve also got a video explaining why the butterfly mechanism was such a disaster
and the various ways Apple has tried to fix it over the years.