iFixit teardowns reveal M1 MacBook Air, 13-inch MacBook Pro nearly identical to Intel mode...

Posted:
in General Discussion edited May 2021
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
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
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
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

  • Reply 1 of 20
    lkrupplkrupp Posts: 10,557member
    iFixit is hell bent on stopping innovation and hardware advancements by demanding things be “repairable” according to whatever their definition of the term is. If iFixit had their way every component would be socketed, everything else connected with plugs and cables, weigh a ton, pop open, and be ugly as sin. Screw these douches.
    edited November 2020 bloggerblogwatto_cobra
  • Reply 2 of 20
    sflocalsflocal Posts: 6,092member
    lkrupp said:
    iFixit is hell bent on stopping innovation and hardware advancements by demanding things be “repairable” according to whatever their definition of the term is. If iFixit had their way every component would be socketed, everything else connected with plugs and cables, weigh a ton, pop open, and be ugly as sin. Screw these douches.
    Thankfully, folks like iFixit, including their whining supporters are the (vocal) minority.  Everyone else love it!
    watto_cobra
  • Reply 3 of 20
    lkrupp said:
    iFixit is hell bent on stopping innovation and hardware advancements by demanding things be “repairable” according to whatever their definition of the term is. If iFixit had their way every component would be socketed, everything else connected with plugs and cables, weigh a ton, pop open, and be ugly as sin. Screw these douches.
    Why are you so hell bent on not being allowed to do your own repairs when the warranty expires?  You are so full of BS.  Repairability is the ease to repair the item yourself with access to the same parts, without paying Apple a fortune to do what you have every right to do on your own.  It is not stopping innovation.  Your argument makes you sound ridiculous.  How about if you were not allowed to work on your own car, like changing your own oil?  How would you feel about that?  I have saved a ton of money by being able to do my own repairs on Macs that are well out of warranty because the parts were not cemented in with heavy glue.
    michelb76lkruppchemengin1MplsP
  • Reply 4 of 20
    Chalk me up as one who wishes aftermarket upgrades for storage and RAM were an option. It makes the competition more attractive for my needs. 
    michelb76caladanian
  • Reply 5 of 20
    Hmmm...people get upset when Apple solders the RAM, SSDs, uses glue to seal batteries or access inside, yet here they are apparently upset about the right to do your own repairs out of warranty.  You can't have it both ways.  People have a right to do their own repairs out of warranty and should have access to the same replacement parts.  Having an excellent guide makes it easy to do.  Why do you people have such a problem with this?  Parents with kids that constantly break their phones are not paying Apple full price for repairs.  They are going to a mall kiosk to pay for an inexpensive repair, something they could actually do on their own.  I replaced my iPhone X display for $59 because I was not about to pay Apple $275 for their ridiculous mark up!  

    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.
    michelb76
  • Reply 6 of 20
    These MacBooks are not entirely the same as their Intel counterparts.  Unfortunately, the M1 MacBooks cannot drive two external displays.  An unfortunate downside and a deal-breaker for most.  Not sure why Apple would do this when the base model Intel MacBooks can.  It is like when Apple pulled FireWire 800 from the MacBook and then restored it later after they realized their huge mistake.
  • Reply 7 of 20
    chadbagchadbag Posts: 1,999member
    These MacBooks are not entirely the same as their Intel counterparts.  Unfortunately, the M1 MacBooks cannot drive two external displays.  An unfortunate downside and a deal-breaker for most.  Not sure why Apple would do this when the base model Intel MacBooks can.  It is like when Apple pulled FireWire 800 from the MacBook and then restored it later after they realized their huge mistake.
    Not driving more than one external display is not a deal breaker for most.  Most people, if they put an external display on, put one on.   You (and I) and a few other (relatively speaking “few”) power users/enthusiasts would put 2 or more on (my intel iMac has 2 screens attached and my work MacBook Pro 15 has 2 screens attached).  Most purchasers probably don’t put any screens on their MacBooks or as I said, if they do, they out one on.  
    jdb8167caladanianwatto_cobra
  • Reply 8 of 20
    chadbagchadbag Posts: 1,999member
    lkrupp said:
    iFixit is hell bent on stopping innovation and hardware advancements by demanding things be “repairable” according to whatever their definition of the term is. If iFixit had their way every component would be socketed, everything else connected with plugs and cables, weigh a ton, pop open, and be ugly as sin. Screw these douches.
    Why are you so hell bent on not being allowed to do your own repairs when the warranty expires?  You are so full of BS.  Repairability is the ease to repair the item yourself with access to the same parts, without paying Apple a fortune to do what you have every right to do on your own.  It is not stopping innovation.  Your argument makes you sound ridiculous.  How about if you were not allowed to work on your own car, like changing your own oil?  How would you feel about that?  I have saved a ton of money by being able to do my own repairs on Macs that are well out of warranty because the parts were not cemented in with heavy glue.
    This makes no sense.   No one is stopping you from fixing things yourself.  With cars, most people who do their own work buy after market parts because factory OEM parts are usually way expensive.  And must car manufacturers don’t make a lot of the parts available to enthusiasts or put barriers up like encrypted CAN access to the computer requiring expensive factory authorized equipment.   

    Oil changes on you car are not the same thing as relaxing parts internal to your phone or computer.  

    watto_cobra
  • Reply 9 of 20
    Rayz2016Rayz2016 Posts: 6,957member
    These MacBooks are not entirely the same as their Intel counterparts.  Unfortunately, the M1 MacBooks cannot drive two external displays.  An unfortunate downside and a deal-breaker for most. 
    You think most users plug two monitors into a MacBook?

    This is complete rubbish, and isn’t true for any make of laptop. 
    watto_cobra
  • Reply 10 of 20
    ivanhivanh Posts: 597member
    50% cheaper and Apple should still be very profitable.
  • Reply 11 of 20


    "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.

    Apple: We built a monster chip that is revolutionary.
    iFixit: It looks the same to me.

    Absurd. 
    jdb8167chemengin1watto_cobra
  • Reply 12 of 20


    "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.

    Apple: We built a monster chip that is revolutionary.
    iFixit: It looks the same to me.

    Absurd. 
    Well, it does look the same internally? I didn't expect Apple to design new internals for the first few M1 machines. The fact that the mac mini is mostly empty means Apple wasn't prepared to overhaul their design, manufacturing and logistics for these machines. Which is smart, as it gets to market faster and the people who buy these don't care anyway.
    watto_cobra
  • Reply 13 of 20
    There are advantages and disadvantages to socketing chips - soldering means it is far less likely for mechanical issues to cause problems and reduces RF noise, but socketing allows for component replacement and upgrades. Personally I wish they'd socket all memory and SSD storage and leave the rest soldered since CPUs and GPUs don't have the same standardized interfaces (although that would be a nice future advancement!) and memory and SSD upgrades are a common way to extend the life of an otherwise useful system.
    watto_cobra
  • Reply 14 of 20
    neilmneilm Posts: 985member
    "Nearly identical" seems like an oversimplification. I think the proper summation would be that the M1 MBP's internal layout is similar to that of the internal version. The batteries appear the same. The M1 MBP motherboard is different from a component standpoint, but it sits within the same footprint. The cooling fan appears the same, but its heat pipe to the SOC is slightly different to match the size and placement of the M1 SOC.
    mknelsonwatto_cobra
  • Reply 15 of 20
    mknelsonmknelson Posts: 1,120member
    neilm said:
    "Nearly identical" seems like an oversimplification. I think the proper summation would be that the M1 MBP's internal layout is similar to that of the internal version. The batteries appear the same. The M1 MBP motherboard is different from a component standpoint, but it sits within the same footprint. The cooling fan appears the same, but its heat pipe to the SOC is slightly different to match the size and placement of the M1 SOC.
    Indeed! I don't think they'd do very well at one of those "spot the differences puzzles"! Those logic boards look very different to me.
    watto_cobra
  • Reply 16 of 20


    "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.

    Apple: We built a monster chip that is revolutionary.
    iFixit: It looks the same to me.

    Absurd. 
    Absurd would be conflating iFixit's opinion of the internal/external design similarities with your commentary about the M1 chip. 
  • Reply 17 of 20
    MplsPMplsP Posts: 3,911member
    lkrupp said:
    iFixit is hell bent on stopping innovation and hardware advancements by demanding things be “repairable” according to whatever their definition of the term is. If iFixit had their way every component would be socketed, everything else connected with plugs and cables, weigh a ton, pop open, and be ugly as sin. Screw these douches.
    And you are hell bent on equating 'innovation' with non-repairability/upgradability. Is soldering the SSD and the memory chips onto the logic board innovation? Hardly. The battery, memory and hard drive are all things that people commonly want to replace/upgrade (although given the current 16GB memory limit for the M1 devices means memory upgrades are going to be limited and less of an issue for these models.) Making it feasible to do so is not that big of an ask; Not so long ago you could upgrade the memory on an iMac by opening a door on the bottom of the machine.
    mobird
  • Reply 18 of 20
    wood1208wood1208 Posts: 2,905member
    Duh! As introduction the first iteration of M1 MACs to come out with minimum changes to make it cost effective. Next year when some noticeable physical and internal changes will be implemented including 14.1" MBA/MBP called for.
    watto_cobra
  • Reply 19 of 20
    MplsPMplsP Posts: 3,911member
    wood1208 said:
    Duh! As introduction the first iteration of M1 MACs to come out with minimum changes to make it cost effective. Next year when some noticeable physical and internal changes will be implemented including 14.1" MBA/MBP called for.
    There were no glaring issues with the previous MacBook designs (except the butterfly keyboard, that is,) so it made perfect sense for them to keep the previous design and focus on the M1 chip and related architecture. The revolution is the switch from Intel's x86 to Apple's M1 architecture, not the design of the logic board.  For me, the real question is not whether the logic board looks like the that of the previous generation. I find it interesting, but beyond that I don't care. What I care about is how well a machine functions.

    edited November 2020 watto_cobra
  • Reply 20 of 20
    chadbag said:
    lkrupp said:
    iFixit is hell bent on stopping innovation and hardware advancements by demanding things be “repairable” according to whatever their definition of the term is. If iFixit had their way every component would be socketed, everything else connected with plugs and cables, weigh a ton, pop open, and be ugly as sin. Screw these douches.
    Why are you so hell bent on not being allowed to do your own repairs when the warranty expires?  You are so full of BS.  Repairability is the ease to repair the item yourself with access to the same parts, without paying Apple a fortune to do what you have every right to do on your own.  It is not stopping innovation.  Your argument makes you sound ridiculous.  How about if you were not allowed to work on your own car, like changing your own oil?  How would you feel about that?  I have saved a ton of money by being able to do my own repairs on Macs that are well out of warranty because the parts were not cemented in with heavy glue.
    This makes no sense.   No one is stopping you from fixing things yourself.  With cars, most people who do their own work buy after market parts because factory OEM parts are usually way expensive.  And must car manufacturers don’t make a lot of the parts available to enthusiasts or put barriers up like encrypted CAN access to the computer requiring expensive factory authorized equipment.   

    Oil changes on you car are not the same thing as relaxing parts internal to your phone or computer.  

    "No one is stopping you from fixing things yourself"  Apple is.  You can't buy aftermarket parts for a lot of Apple products. Apple prevents companies who make their parts from selling to anyone else.  And any parts that these companies produce for Apple that are sold to a third party can be seized at customs with no recourse from the person who bought the parts.  Customs can just call them counterfeit and seize/destroy them. Customs did this with competing earbuds from oneplus back in September. Customs called them counterfeit and seized them.  Apple also makes it so their devices have to be "programed" to accept replacement parts or the device won't work or they will produce an annoying warning. 

    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.  
    MplsP
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