iFixit teardowns reveal M1 MacBook Air, 13-inch MacBook Pro nearly identical to Intel mode...
The repair specialists at iFixit have completed teardowns of the M1-equipped MacBook Air and MacBook Pro, noting that not much has changed in their design beyond the new chip.
Credit: iFixit
Apple's 13-inch MacBook Pro and MacBook Air, along with a new Mac mini, represent the first wave of Apple Silicon machines. Though they share the same basic design as their predecessors, they come equipped with Apple's new M1 chipset.
The trio of devices look pretty much the same from the outside. And, according to iFixit, they look pretty much the same on the inside, too.
"While Apple touts its M1-powered Macs as nothing short of a revolution, internally, they could hardly be any more similar to their predecessors," the repair site wrote.
The major difference found is that the M1 MacBook Air lacks an active cooling mechanism, or a fan. In its place, Apple has installed a simple aluminum heat spreader.
The new cooling mechanism on the M1 MacBook Air. Credit: iFixit
Although iFixit notes that Apple's portable thermal reputation may not be sterling, the new cooling solution with no moving parts "means less maintenance and one less point of mechanical failure."
Apart from that, the new MacBook Air's internals appear nearly identical to its predecessor. The same goes for the 13-inch MacBook Pro, which features very few internal changes beyond the M1 chip, and still sports the same fan as its Intel-based predecessor.
The Intel-based MacBook Pro (left) versus the M1 MacBook Pro (right). Credit: iFixit
On the M1 chip, iFixit doesn't note anything that Apple hasn't announced. It did bemoan the lack of user-upgradeable parts and memory.
In terms of the difference between the M1 in the MacBook Air and the MacBook Pro, iFixit notes that the latter device has a board with a "beefier power phase design and a couple extra I/O expander chips."
"These are the MacBooks Apple has wanted to ship for years, made on its own terms. They're quiet, fast, and interesting. They're also less accessible for upgrades and repairs, and are going to be difficult to repair outside Apple's network for the foreseeable future," the repair site concluded.
Update, Nov. 24: iFixit published a video version of the MacBook Air and MacBook Pro teardowns to its YouTube channel. No new information is offered beyond the full disassembly, though the video provides a better look at what tools are required to take the devices apart.
Credit: iFixit
Apple's 13-inch MacBook Pro and MacBook Air, along with a new Mac mini, represent the first wave of Apple Silicon machines. Though they share the same basic design as their predecessors, they come equipped with Apple's new M1 chipset.
The trio of devices look pretty much the same from the outside. And, according to iFixit, they look pretty much the same on the inside, too.
"While Apple touts its M1-powered Macs as nothing short of a revolution, internally, they could hardly be any more similar to their predecessors," the repair site wrote.
The major difference found is that the M1 MacBook Air lacks an active cooling mechanism, or a fan. In its place, Apple has installed a simple aluminum heat spreader.
The new cooling mechanism on the M1 MacBook Air. Credit: iFixit
Although iFixit notes that Apple's portable thermal reputation may not be sterling, the new cooling solution with no moving parts "means less maintenance and one less point of mechanical failure."
Apart from that, the new MacBook Air's internals appear nearly identical to its predecessor. The same goes for the 13-inch MacBook Pro, which features very few internal changes beyond the M1 chip, and still sports the same fan as its Intel-based predecessor.
The Intel-based MacBook Pro (left) versus the M1 MacBook Pro (right). Credit: iFixit
On the M1 chip, iFixit doesn't note anything that Apple hasn't announced. It did bemoan the lack of user-upgradeable parts and memory.
In terms of the difference between the M1 in the MacBook Air and the MacBook Pro, iFixit notes that the latter device has a board with a "beefier power phase design and a couple extra I/O expander chips."
"These are the MacBooks Apple has wanted to ship for years, made on its own terms. They're quiet, fast, and interesting. They're also less accessible for upgrades and repairs, and are going to be difficult to repair outside Apple's network for the foreseeable future," the repair site concluded.
Update, Nov. 24: iFixit published a video version of the MacBook Air and MacBook Pro teardowns to its YouTube channel. No new information is offered beyond the full disassembly, though the video provides a better look at what tools are required to take the devices apart.
Comments
So if you hate iFixit and the right to repair your own computer, then don't complain about Apple soldering everything to the board because you somehow want to claim it is innovation. And the first complaint with the M1 MacBooks...the RAM and storage is not-upgradable and you must pay Apple's grossly overpriced fees to get more RAM and storage. Same with the iMac 21.5" and iMac Pro...everyone whining about the sealed RAM...but hey, that's innovation, so stop complaining.
This is complete rubbish, and isn’t true for any make of laptop.
iFixit: It looks the same to me.
Absurd.
Soldering, or using glue has nothing to do with "right to repair". Any metric showing how easy or difficult it is to repair something is only a gage of how easy something is to repair. There is a difference between right-to-repair and ease of fixing something. They are not the same thing. Not allowing people access to parts, schematics or diagrams while designing products to make them impossible to fix without special software or hardware not available to anyone else is the issues the right-to-repair movement tries to address.