Apple's latest iMac gets disassembled, earns low repairability score
Tech repair site iFixit has torn down the latest model of Apple's iMac, finding that the refreshed desktop has a lot in common with its predecessor, including a low repairability score.
iFixit has done the requisite teardown on the late 2013 iMac update that Apple announced on Tuesday. While acknowledging the updates Apple packed into the device, the site notes that very little has changed from last year's model to this year's.
"We are 99% sure that this iMac is 99% the same as its predecessor," the teardown reads.
iFixit worked with a both a 21.5-inch iMac and a 27-inch model, finding that Apple has once again used a foamy adhesive to hold the display on the device in place. Adhesive use in construction is an ongoing complaint by iFixit about Apple products, in that such construction methods make devices more difficult to open and for non-specialized technicians to repair. The site also notes that the new iMac has the same display cable as its predecessor, which is said to be delicate and "prone to disaster."
Removing the logic board from the iMac, iFixit found that the 21.5-inch model features an empty PCIe SSD slot, which means that it could very well be expanded if a user chose to do so. The 27-inch model also features this empty slot.
Continuing, iFixit noted the new Broadcom AirPort card, which supports the new 802.11ac Wi-Fi standard, first appearing in Macs with the refreshed MacBook Airs. The desktop also packs three Skyworks SE5516 dual-band 802.11a/b/g/n/ac WLAN front-end modules, as well as a Broadcom BCM20702 single-chip Bluetooth 4.0 HCI solution with Bluetooth Low Energy Support.
Apple has also streamlined some components of the iMac's internals. The hard drive SATA power and data cables have been unified, saving a step in disassembling the device. Apple also streamlined the CPU heat sink, giving it a "slimmed down and beautified" appearance, although the tradeoff is that the new CPU is soldered in place on the logic board, meaning that it cannot be removed, replaced, or upgraded. iFixit believes this is the first aluminum iMac to feature a soldered CPU. The 27-inch model, though, does not have its CPU soldered into place, a fact that iFixit celebrates.
Overall, the device receives a very poor score of 2 out of a possible 10 on the reliability scale. iFixit notes that users can replace the RAM and hard drive, so long as they are willing to cut through adhesives, and that users can add a second hard drive. The soldered-in CPU, though, as well as the fusion of the glass and LCD, as well as the construction that places the replaceable components behind the logic board: all of these contribute to a repairability sore even lower than the one the 2012 iMac received.
Recently, the tech repair site, which not only publishes guides for repairing devices but also sells specialized equipment, has reviewed the iPhone 5s and the iPhone 5c. The latter received one of Apple's higher repairability scores in some time, scoring 6 out of a possible 10.
Readers in the market for a new iMac can head over to our Mac Price Guides, where MacMall is offering AppleInsider readers the lowest prices anywhere through exclusive coupons:
iFixit has done the requisite teardown on the late 2013 iMac update that Apple announced on Tuesday. While acknowledging the updates Apple packed into the device, the site notes that very little has changed from last year's model to this year's.
"We are 99% sure that this iMac is 99% the same as its predecessor," the teardown reads.
iFixit worked with a both a 21.5-inch iMac and a 27-inch model, finding that Apple has once again used a foamy adhesive to hold the display on the device in place. Adhesive use in construction is an ongoing complaint by iFixit about Apple products, in that such construction methods make devices more difficult to open and for non-specialized technicians to repair. The site also notes that the new iMac has the same display cable as its predecessor, which is said to be delicate and "prone to disaster."
Removing the logic board from the iMac, iFixit found that the 21.5-inch model features an empty PCIe SSD slot, which means that it could very well be expanded if a user chose to do so. The 27-inch model also features this empty slot.
Continuing, iFixit noted the new Broadcom AirPort card, which supports the new 802.11ac Wi-Fi standard, first appearing in Macs with the refreshed MacBook Airs. The desktop also packs three Skyworks SE5516 dual-band 802.11a/b/g/n/ac WLAN front-end modules, as well as a Broadcom BCM20702 single-chip Bluetooth 4.0 HCI solution with Bluetooth Low Energy Support.
Apple has also streamlined some components of the iMac's internals. The hard drive SATA power and data cables have been unified, saving a step in disassembling the device. Apple also streamlined the CPU heat sink, giving it a "slimmed down and beautified" appearance, although the tradeoff is that the new CPU is soldered in place on the logic board, meaning that it cannot be removed, replaced, or upgraded. iFixit believes this is the first aluminum iMac to feature a soldered CPU. The 27-inch model, though, does not have its CPU soldered into place, a fact that iFixit celebrates.
Overall, the device receives a very poor score of 2 out of a possible 10 on the reliability scale. iFixit notes that users can replace the RAM and hard drive, so long as they are willing to cut through adhesives, and that users can add a second hard drive. The soldered-in CPU, though, as well as the fusion of the glass and LCD, as well as the construction that places the replaceable components behind the logic board: all of these contribute to a repairability sore even lower than the one the 2012 iMac received.
Recently, the tech repair site, which not only publishes guides for repairing devices but also sells specialized equipment, has reviewed the iPhone 5s and the iPhone 5c. The latter received one of Apple's higher repairability scores in some time, scoring 6 out of a possible 10.
Readers in the market for a new iMac can head over to our Mac Price Guides, where MacMall is offering AppleInsider readers the lowest prices anywhere through exclusive coupons:
Comments
Who cares? Apple doesn't design their products around getting a good score from iFixit.
Overall, the device receives a very poor score of 2 out of a possible 10 on the reliability scale.
No it was 2 out of a possible 10 on the repairability scale.
I know they're interested in the hardware, but I'd love to know what build of OS X came on these units.
Either 10.8.4 or 10.8.5 by the release notes for the EFI update. What other build were you expecting them to have?
Who cares? Apple doesn't design their products around getting a good score from iFixit.
BRAVO! BRAVO!
Well Said!
These guys make so much noise to sell 10 different sizes of one screwdrivers and 200+ Ads on each & every page on their site! That's what they do.
It just reminds of bunch of little kids get together and unscrew whatever they can get their hands on!
Look Ma, what we did with our new toys!
What often gets ignored is that there's a tradeoff. Systems that are more repairable may be less reliable to start with.
As just one example, soldered RAM is harder to fix, but it fails far, far, far less often than memory sticks that are inserted into a slot. Personally, I'd rather have a system that's designed not to fail than one that fails frequently, but is easier to fix.
Well, I do wish serviceable components like disks and ram would be more easily available. A hard disk went on my 2007 iMac, and doing it myself was so time consuming that I ended up paying a service depot. Note the Apple Store itself wanted nothing to do with it, as it was well past warranty. I had to find a third party Apple Service depot to do it.
I don't see anything unreasonable in your story at all. A four year old computer that's well out of it's warranty cost you a tiny bit of money to repair. So what?
It is funny … on par with the Fox downgrading the hen house as it is hard to break into!
Maybe the reliability over a few years for these modern Macs that can't be tinkered with will start to show up as a score that might justify this.
Not that I like it personally since I have been upgrading my own Apple gear since 1978. But I can imagine the headache for Apple dealing with home repairs and your local hole in the wall PC Repair Shop (Now fixing Macs too) types.
On a related note I hope the New MacPro although not upgradable by all accounts can at least be upgraded by taking to an Apple Store.
Silly iFixit.
Computers with the highest customer satisfaction and reliability ratings *don't need* high repairability by default.
BRAVO! BRAVO!
Well Said!
These guys make so much noise to sell 10 different sizes of one screwdrivers and 200+ Ads on each & every page on their site! That's what they do.
It just reminds of bunch of little kids get together and unscrew whatever they can get their hands on!
Look Ma, what we did with our new toys!
It's even more amusing in light of their iPhone "liberation kit" having philips heads screws that are far more prone to having stripping issues than the pentalobe screws they replace. So in fact, when the average person ends up stripping their screws and can't get them out of their phone they have a much bigger problem than the overblown issue of pentalobe screwdrivers being hard to find (which they haven't been for quite some time).
Cars have gone the same way and so has reliability. I don't recognize much under the hood of our cars these days but I set off to drive to New England without a box of tools, hoses and other bits and pieces as I would have driving a fraction of that distance in the days I could replace anything I wanted in a car. Local 'iFixit It garages' screamed bloody murder as this happened too.
@[B]Gazoobee[/B]: what have you done this time?
Who cares? Apple doesn't design their products around getting a good score from iFixit.
Indeed, why do they constantly give these guys a platform for their old-fashioned views without any criticism? I enjoy the tear downs just like I enjoy Linux sometimes but that doesn't mean I want to buy into the outdated philosophy behind either.
...
@Gazoobee: what have you done this time?
I put it in my sig, but the thing is they are using a new "Huddler" moderation system that isn't under their control at all. So I haven't tried it, but I think if you complain about someone they receive points, and eventually get banned and it's all automatic.
The bad part is that once you are banned, you can log in, but you can't see your PM's and therefore you don't have any idea why you were banned or how long it's going to last. It's like a great dark hand sweeping you off the board into purgatory and you just wait and keep trying to post. Sometimes you can even post, but the posts never show up. It's all very confusing and stupidly done.
It also seems like it can be gamed, in that the whiners who complain about every little perceived slight now have the upper hand and fairness has nothing to do with it. Pretty soon those being banned will have to fight back by "reporting" those who they don't like and we will all turn into little Nazis tattling on each other like kids.
Bring back the human moderators!
But seriously, I expect this post to be removed because they probably don't want anyone to know these things.
Excellent point.
I used to do my own tuneups (anyone else remember points and condensers?), oil changes, thermostat replacements, and so on. There's no way in the world that I could do those things now - but since tuneups don't need to be done every 12,000 miles and oil changes don't need to be done at 3,000, who cares?
Yes, that would have been relevant.
It wouldn't make me care any more, but it would have been more balanced.
While I appreciate iFixit for what they do and they are useful for people like me who do work on Macs I can't see the score as a big deal. The days of people getting inside their computers are falling by the wayside. Computers today are much more robust in terms of specs vs the computers from before. They're faster processors are more than most need, even on a cheap model, have plenty of RAM and hard drive space. Only the serious people do these upgrades and repairs. Others could care less.
That being said, I do hope iFixit keeps doing what they're doing in terms of taking things apart. It really is useful to people.
Well, I do wish serviceable components like disks and ram would be more easily available. A hard disk went on my 2007 iMac, and doing it myself was so time consuming that I ended up paying a service depot. Note the Apple Store itself wanted nothing to do with it, as it was well past warranty. I had to find a third party Apple Service depot to do it.
What often gets ignored is that there's a tradeoff. Systems that are more repairable may be less reliable to start with.
As just one example, soldered RAM is harder to fix, but it fails far, far, far less often than memory sticks that are inserted into a slot. Personally, I'd rather have a system that's designed not to fail than one that fails frequently, but is easier to fix.
Agreed, and I would also expect that designing a device that is easy to disassemble and repair leads to higher manufacturing costs and hinders miniaturization. Definitely a tradeoff.