October 16th, 2008
iFixIt tears down both new MacBooks
iFixIt.com has completed disassemblies of the MacBook Pro and MacBook. They found:
- Apple’s new hardware design is significantly more elegant due to their use of the new ‘Brick’ manufacturing process.
- The design of both machines is significantly inspired by the MacBook Air. As a result, the MacBook and MacBook Pro designs have significantly converged and are much more similar than they used to be.
MacBook Pro:
- Upgrading the RAM and hard drive is very easy, but you do need a Torx screwdriver to replace the hard drive.
- Contrary to some fears, the keyboard in the MacBook Pro is user-serviceable. It’s a fair amount of work to remove (you have to remove 56 screws).
- The AirPort and Bluetooth boards are in the display assembly. The AirPort card is user-serviceable, while the Bluetooth board is not.
- They identified the dual Nvidia chips
MacBook:
- The new MacBook is really a 13″ MacBook Pro. It uses the same design, and same manufacturing quality. Bridging the gap between consumer and professional model.
- The SuperDrive is the same in the MacBook and MacBook Pro.
- They showed the parts to some industrial engineers familiar with manufacturing processes. Overall, they were extremely impressed by the build quality of the machine and the cutting edge mass-produced unibody.
Jason D. O'Grady is the editor of PowerPage.org, which has been publishing daily mobile technology news since December 1995. For disclosures on Jason's industry affiliations, click here or to view Jason's full profile click here.
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