at the World Wide Developers Conference
this Monday Apple announced the release
of their new MacBook Airs while there
were no actual changes to the weight and
size and no noticeable changes made to
the outward appearance they boasted
about the extended battery life faster
flash memory and the low environmental
impact
well outward appearances don't mean much
to us so we're taking a look inside by
giving the 13-inch MacBook Air the
iFixit treatment and tearing it down
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hi I'm going to Lin with iFixit and bear
with me today because it's not only my
first teardown but I also had emergency
wisdom tooth surgery so I may be a
little puffy and maybe in a little bit
of pain but that's not gonna stop me so
let's jump right in with the 13-inch
model weighing in at a superlight 2.96
pounds and these still amazing profile
which is only 0.68 inches at its
thickest the air carries on the
tradition of ultra portable computing
but that's not the only tradition this
MacBook is carrying on this machine even
has the same model number as the 2012
version in fact to the untrained eye
there are no differences between this
model and the 2012 version but there is
a difference can you spot it that's
right the 2013 MacBook Air has a
slightly different microphone hole after
exhausting our eyes trying to find
something unique about this new version
we gave up and turned our attention
inward to see what was making the new
air run more efficiently opening the
MacBook Air was relatively easy with the
exception of needing one of our
increasingly useful pentalobe drivers
after removing 10 count them 10
pentalobe screws holding the rear
caisson we got our first look inside and
maybe it shouldn't be a surprise but the
machine that looks the same on the
outside looks the same on the inside
well there are a few differences but
we'll get to those in a bit like with
the other versions of the MacBook Air
this battery takes up the majority of
the rear case this battery is a 7 point
6 volts 7150 milliamp hour battery which
is an upgrade from the 2012 7.3 volt
6700 milliamp hour power source
this upgrade most certainly contributes
to the increased battery life which
according to Apple is around 12 hours
pretty impressive
next out of the case was the flash
memory
apple claims a 45% increase in
performance with these upgraded Samsung
chips previous generation MacBook Air
models use the SATA interface while the
new version is using the PCIe which can
reach speeds of up to 800 megabytes per
second
next out is the totally redesigned
Airport card
this ship has added 802 11 AC Wi-Fi
connectivity thanks to its Broadcom BCM
4360 which enables operation on the 5
gigahertz band at speeds up to 1.3
gigabits a second and communication via
bluetooth 4.0 lastly it only took us a
couple of screws to get the logic board
out and with it we were introduced to
the 1.3 gigahertz dual core Intel Core
i5 processor and the Intel Thunderbolt
controller here at iFixit we're
interested in knowing just how
repairable devices are not just because
we want to support the growing DIY
repair community but because repair is
essential and ensuring we're making the
best use of raw materials possible and
now we're on the path towards
responsible consumption to that end we
score every device we tear down for
repair ability between 1 and 10 1 being
the least repairable and 10 being the
most repairable the 2013 13 inch MacBook
Air scored a 4 out of 10 and here's why
on the plus side a lot of the parts are
pretty easily replaceable the negatives
are the use of proprietary screws on the
case which require a special driver as
with other MacBook Airs this machine's
biggest detriment is the lack of upgrade
ability the RAM is still soldered to the
logic board and the SSDs are not
compatible between generations and
that's it for this teardown for the
complete teardown including tons of high
quality images head on over to
ifixit.com
and while you're there check out the
tear downs for the brand new 11 inch
MacBook Air and the airport extreme
we've got some busy Terror Downers in
the office today don't forget to
subscribe to our YouTube channel to stay
up to date on all the latest tear downs
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on facebook at facebook.com slash iFixit
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