we've had a long and complicated history
with Apple's MacBook Pro with Retina
display
when I say complicated I mean I'm torn
by being impressed by the technology but
also disappointed by the environmental
impact it's virtually impossible to fix
or upgrade which forced us to give the
original MacBook Pro Retina we faced a 1
out of 10 on the repairability scale on
Tuesday Apple had a lot to say about the
low environmental impact of this machine
citing everything from its EP gold
writing to its arsenic-free glass but we
see things very differently from Apple
and if you'd like to know why we wrote a
great article on the subject that's on
wired and we'll put a link in the
description below have things changed in
the updated version well there's only
one way we know to find out and that's
to tear it down
hi I'm Gwendolyn with iFixit and today
we're tearing down the 13-inch MacBook
Pro with Retina display on the surface
not much has changed and the model looks
pretty identical to the early 2013
versions the 13-inch MacBook Pro Retina
comes in at one point 8 centimetres
thick which is a bit thinner than the
previous versions 31 point 4 centimeters
across 21 point nine centimeters in
depth and weighs in at one point five
seven kilograms
the display is a 13.3 inch LED Retina
display with a resolution of 2560 by
1600 and a pixel density of 227 pixels
per inch before we open up this little
guy we noticed the all new model number
and we're hoping that's a sign of new
and interesting things to come and just
as we thought the first thing we see
when we get inside is that Apple has
pared down on the cooling from 2 fans to
only one and where there used to be a
fan there's a removable SSD looks like
Apple has been doing a little
redecorating in here with just a twist
of our spudger we disconnect the airport
antenna cables and remove the airport
card looks like we've got another
upgrade here this card is capable of 802
11 AC which is three times faster than
the wireless end card found in the early
2013 version of this machine now on to
the piece that's hogging all the room
the battery well it's not a shocker it's
always a disappointment when batteries
are adhered to the rear case and the
13-inch MacBook Pro retina battery is no
exception so we turn to our trusty eye
opener and one of our handy prying cards
for some support and after
heat and careful scraping it's out this
battery is a slightly smaller battery
from the previous generation which was a
74 watt hour battery this one is a 70
1.8 watt hour 6330 milliamp hour battery
but even with that slight decrease in
watt hours Apple is claiming that you'll
be getting an additional two hours of
battery life out of it now that we
covered the heart let's talk about the
brains sorry I'm just really excited
about Halloween the logic board is
decked out with the latest generation
dual-core intel core i5 or i7 CPUs and
an integrated intel iris graphics
processor we've come to the end of our
teardown which means it's time to talk
repairability
and iFixit it's our mission to teach
people how to repair everything so we
give every gadget we tear down a repair
ability score between 1 and 10 10 being
the easiest to repair and one being the
most difficult the 13-inch MacBook Pro
with Retina display got a 1 out of 10
and here's why the battery is even worse
than the previous model now it's more
like the 15-inch and nearly impossible
to remove without damaging either the
battery or the upper case also below the
battery is a trackpad plate that is
adhered to the top case this complicates
things even further if you ever need to
replace your trackpad the display is
simply is almost impossible to take
apart so if anything ever fails inside
the display you'll need to replace the
display as a whole
proprietary pentalobe screws continue to
make opening the device a chore the RAM
is soldered to the logic board following
the lead of the MacBook Air and finally
the proprietary SSD is now in PCIe
format but still isn't a standard drive
cross your fingers for future compatible
drives for now you're stuck with what
you've got with the score that low it's
important to know that Apple is phasing
out their upgradeable in repairable
machines there's no longer an option for
an on retina 15-inch MacBook Pro and
it's pretty clear that's the direction
Apple wants to go with the 13-inch model
as well so take your last look at the
non retina 13-inch MacBook Pro as it's
likely the last time you're going to see
it for the complete teardown including
tons of beautiful high-quality images
head on over to ifixit.com don't forget
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