I like how the standards for "removable battery" went from a battery you could remove by pressing 2 tabs or one on the outside of the machine to... single use adhesive hidden behind a plethora of screws
Thankfully my current/prior laptops have (or have had) remvable batteries, though again different definitions of removable: Acer Aspire 5742: locked in with 2 tabs, externally removable and upgradable (from 6 cell to 9 cell) HP 15-ac Series: locked in with 2 tabs, externally removable (capped at 4 cell) HP OMEN 15-dc Series: remove back cover (screwed in), then remove battery (screwed in). More of a pain, and being Li-Po (instead of 18650) it is more prone to expanding later on in life (potentially damaging other components) but hey, at least it's not glued.
Because look comes first before functionality. We are at the era where showing off is easier and need wow factor every now and then to spice up the life.
@@kurttappe It is not 7 years. The battery is rated to 1000 cycles. That is typically 4-6 years for the average consumer, with most prosumers roughly 3-5 years typically. Heavy users 2-3 years easily.
The shared SoC RAM I understand. It does actually provide a sizable performance improvement that is hard to replicate with other options at the moment but there is no good reason to solder on a SSD, the M.2 socket is tiny anyway and if you are concerned with the thickness there are even versions that live in a PCB cutout on the same level as the PCB instead of sitting on top of it.
I agree, it’s a shame not to make it more repairable. if you use your laptop heavily and keep it on 24 hrs a day (I used to do that on a few of my computers), you will need a new logic board just because the ssd went bad. My 2015 MacBook ssd died, not cost effective to replace the logic board since the part alone costs almost $500.
Apple, business model is to sell you same model with more storage for 5 times price, NVMe SSD 8TB is 1.2k$ on average, but price jump for MacBook from 1tb version to 8tb is 3 times that. This is the reason to have SSD soldered there ;)
I love my removable ssd in the 2015 macbook pro, but i also understand if the engineers at apple are going for "lets make the fastest ssd in a laptop". With that mentality, plus trying to capitalize on the storage, they're going to solder it for sure. and that's a compromise I can take for a couple hundred bucks more while purchase. Sad, but it's not the worst thing to happen on a computer unlike the butterfly keyboard lol
Hear hear! While I would prefer user-serviceable RAM, I can understand why that’ll be a thing of the past in the near future, even if I grumble about how much I’m paying for the extra RAM. SSDs however, they wear out, and should be very much replaceable, even if only for security reasons.
@@DC90X That's negligible, I've got dozens of 10+ year old SSDs which are still at over 90% health, and that's them being used as cache drives and swap drives.
5:57 That spudger you're using is a glass-fiber reinforced spudger, meaning it has glass that may be exposed along the scraping edge. So it should be more like scratches at a level 5 with deeper grooves at a level 6, right?
Oh man, I think you might be right! I didn’t think about which spudger I picked up haha. It must have been that, or the thermal paste doing the scratching (which was my original thought). -TD
@@iFixitYourself I remember when you guys announced the pro-tech toolkit that the spudger was featured in! You have always made some amazing products for repairs! Compared to other plastic spudgers, yours are hands-down the best. I have been using your tools for the past 10+ years! Thanks for providing a great, reliable resource for tools and guides!
There should be separate "repair" and "upgrade" scores. Lack of removable memory would hurt the upgrade score but not the repair score since I've never seen an integrated memory module fail so it wouldn't hurt repair.
Good point. I'm not quite sure how you'd "upgrade" the battery though, surely that would also be repairs as the only time I can think of replacing a battery is when it runs down and stops holding charge or fails completely?
that's a good idea, but in this particular case, this macbook is simply not upgradeable. You cannot upgrade the ssd, ram, battery, wifi card. There are zero upgrades for this laptop, only repairs. On x86 PC laptops, yeah, this kind of separation would be nice. Infact it already exists, as ifixit provides guides on ram upgrades, ssd upgrades etc, for some laptop models, along with a maching "difficulty meter"
Playing devil’s advocate, the tight integration between the SoC, ram, and SSD is not just to increase performance; it’s also to increase efficiency. Right now, there are laptops that are just as powerful, if not more powerful than these new MacBook Pros that maintain modular components for the ram and SSD. However, none of them have the power efficiency which is what makes these M1 MacBooks such incredible feats of engineering, even if it does come at a cost of irreplaceable memory and storage. That said, Apple definitely has a lot room for improvements in terms of battery replacements, screen replacement, or even just opening up the machines themselves. They definitely made improvements and they should get credit for it, but they still need to go further.
I agree with RAM but not with SSD. It's almost impossible to make modular RAM for a SoC like M1 but current gen NVMe are more than enough for almost any even workstation loads.
@@sanjay_swain Yeah, integrated RAM is a key performance advantage in this design. In fact, integrated RAM is integral to the design. However, for the SSD, likely not so much. The good news though is Apple includes some of the best SSDs available.
Totally agree with the unified memory module. Can't get to such high level of efficiency and performance with traditional memory setup. Just wish those SSDs are replaceable.
i disagree with RAM, the actual DDR4 has a trnsfer rate about 50GB/s, these macs have it at 200 or 400 depending on the config, only GPUs that have baked VRAM can reach those speeds
yeah, totally living up to the hype. I'm just blown away by the screen blacks and the speakers. hopefully this MBP lasts as long as the one it's replacing.
I'm gonna go ahead and stick with my M1 MacBook pro, I have no need for the extra power of the M1 pro or max as I only edit In 4k60 and I am really offput by a notch on a laptop, since it only houses a camera and not a face ID system, to me there's zero reason for it to be there and it would have been much more apple like to not include a webcam and sell one separately. That being said I have no issues with larger bezels if it helps me avoid having a notch, I'd rather have a laptop with far less ports than to have a notch since I've already gotten used to the dongle life, I don't love it but I can deal with it, and Im so very happy with my 13 inch MacBook pro 😃
@@TechDove why do you care, though? The notch cuts into the menu bar only. Content is ALWAYS below… so it’s not that the notch cuts into the screen, it’s the screen that cuts into the bezel.
@@onemanshow4116 why do I care? Because I don't want a notch cutting into my display, it's unsightly and not a good design for a device that has so much room, that isn't necessary to have 3mm bezels. Why don't you care? I always see these notch defenders and that's exactly why we keep seeing them. Would you be defending the notch if it was on the f'n apple watch?! It's like apple can do no wrong to people like you
@@onemanshow4116 I wouldn't care if it was a teardrop style notch, but it's oversized for no reason, and believe it or not but it is possible to view full screen content on that laptop, where the notch DOES cut into it. So it's not "just the menu bar"
I REALLY appreciate you guys trying to expand your knowledge on whether the performance that is on the table with these new systems with integrated, "unified" memories is possible without soldering down everything to the motherboard. Thank you for being as objective as possible! And as we know by now, Right to Repair isn't all about making everything socketed or in general easier to repair by design, it's also about the company not making conscious efforts to get in the way of the end user having access to cost friendly, 'non-impossible' repairs, with non performance, efficiency, or space, but rather evil and greedy reasons.
Exactly. Having removable components, where it makes sense and without compromising performance and reasonable space concerns, is perfectly adequate. If people are educated about the real advantages and legit disadvantages, it's up to us to make our own decisions about what's most important.
To disconnect the battery you would first disconnect the battery detection flex cable (to the left of trackpad flex cable) to disable and stop powering from battery going into the MacBook then you disconnect the trackpad flex cable. It’s a small detail you’ve missed.. Good teardown nevertheless.
Great to see apple actually showing some advancement in the repairability of these new macbooks, I was surprised by how modular this laptop is compared to earlier models. I'm really hoping they don't start pairing components on macbooks like they do on iphones, and hopefully some day they might even stop pairing those because there is literally no benefit to it at all.
It's VERY similar to the previous 'touch bar' models. I just hope all the bugs with the logic boards are sorted but the whole soldered design is in my mind a huge issue. I had a 2017 MacBook Pro and the logic board failed within a year, the screen failed within 3 years, Yet my old 'classic' 2014 MacBook Pro continues on in 2021 without EVER a problem. Sort of says to me Apple made some very poor decisions in the redesign with the touch bar models. I wouldn't touch these new models until at least a year of others finding design faults and failures. It's just too much money to blow being the test pilot for this Apple bling.
Lol my 2014 had to have the logic board replaced 2 months after the warranty expired. Apple generously fixed it for free thankfully. Been great ever since though until I replaced it a few weeks ago
I am the reverse, beside the famous doubled space key my 2016mbp is the only one that didn't break. Can't say that about my older macs, mbp2012 graphics breaking 2 times, one row of keys not working, and camera; my white mb with inflating battery; macmini g4 broke too.
Lol that's such an anecdotal point you're making here. I don't see how your individual experience is representative of anything. Many people had more issues with older models, so it's the exact opposite. It's not a measure of anything.
Well this is a whole new architecture than the 2016-2019 Macbook Pro. The whole logic board would need a complete redesign when compared to the touchbar models.
All the batteries in Macbook air models have been put in a frame and screwed down to the top case assembly, but still some adhesive is used to maintain the lower portion of the battery to the top case, i admit it is easier to remove, thank you for taking time and tearing down this device.🙏
The use of on-package LPDDR5 has some fairly large implications on performance and battery life so I definitely think they can be given a pass for that, unlike some of their previous designs that used bog standard DDR memory. On the storage side it is a little bit more dubious, but there is no SSD controller on the mainboard so it does look like it's integrated to the SoC as well. I too am a little bit less salty about the lack of modularity inside the machine this time around. Now if only they were selling parts and publishing schematics.
AFAIK, Apple has begun selling parts and repair manuals, as of 1-2 years ago, so that people can repair their machines themselves. This is unprecedented for Apple. I'm glad they've seen the light.
@@lifeisbetterwhenyourelax Not for Macs unfortunately, and only for an extremely limited set of parts and repairs - ie screen and batteries of recent-ish iPhones. A move in the right direction to be sure, but one that feels a lot like a token gesture to preventively evade right-to-repair legislation.
Honestly it's impossible to get to that level of performance without the Unified Memory sitting next to the CPU. I'm all for removable RAM, but for this case, I'm actually very satisfied with the 400GB/s memory bandwidth of the M1 Max.
@@thedausthed so now we are playing grammar nazi? We are talking in context of mobile devices, so are you agree it’s impossible to achieve such high performance without the unified memory using our current technology within the context of mobile devices?
Ugh - the consternation over the notch. I saw one at a local Best Buy and didn't even thing about the notch until the person hovering over the laptop while I played with it mentioned it. And if it really bothers you there is at least one app that will shrink everything below the notch - but seriously it's nice to have the extra screen real estate. So while I wasn't originally thrilled when I heard about it, after playing with a machine that had it and not even noticing it (and no, it doesn't show in full screen video either!) for me it's an utter non-issue. And if it does bug the crap out of you as I mentioned you can shrink the screen and permanently ban it.
I think the soldered memory is justified for the M1 chip. The wiring and placement of the memory chip are the key to achieve high bandwidth, similar to those dedicated GPUs which also have soldered memory.
The memory is not 'soldered', and there are no 'wires' (at least not in a conventional sense). The CPUs, GPUs, memory, etc are all part of the single SiP (system in a package) which makes up the M1.
Yep, I really think the repair score needs to move on from this requirement. However, I'd still detriment the soldered on storage. Anecdotally, storage is more likely to fail, or the user finds a later need for more storage. I don't know if Apple would use the m2 format, but something, anything would be better than soldered on. Their proximity to the SoC is not a factor.
It kinda justifies the price we pay. Look at how nice and neat they have designed all those stuff. Look how much detail and care they have put into that. If I make that product by my self thinking all that, I would sell that for $10000
I love how my MacBook is sealed shut and no fans. But I also hate that.. cause at some point battery replacement is going to blow. But I bought an 8gb RAM SoC so I’ll bet I’m buying a new machine anyways. I think first time MacBook buyers like me always buy base.. then you learn having more RAM is a fantastic idea. I had wanted and was willing to spend the extra on RAM upgrade but of course Best Buy only sold base models. I was in between apartments living in hotels so I couldn’t order and ship one without a ton of risk so I said F-it.. Honestly hasn’t been bad. Only getting a RAM bottleneck with latest 14.5 update.. hopefully 15 Sequoia fixes that. And hey Jerry(rig)!!! Nice to see ya man
I'm not a fan of the fact that everything is integrated... but ... regarding the storage they use their own controller, and I don't know if that is integrated in the cpu, if it is you can't really use m2 storage for it, and regarding the ram, they definitely have a latency advantage by having it so close and in the same package as the cpu.
They're getting back to basics slowly which is nice. The fact most ports are back does make me happy. But no removable/upgradeable SSD or ram makes me a sad panda. Until those options are back, they won't see another penny from me. I'll keep my 2010 MacBook Pro going till the end of time if I have to.
8:32 the other thing that may make these better than the iPad's mini LEDs is if they had made each LED an independant dimming zone, or reduced the number of LEDs in each zone, instead of grouping those 10k mini LEDs into several LEDs per zone, making a significantly less than 10k zone mini LED, and not much different than a normal LED backlit LCD
I would love if you could confirm whether the speakers are the exact same in both computers? They look identical to me in the teardown, but people swear the 16" are "better"... which I'm finding funny... 'it's bigger so the speakers must be better'.
They should have at least an option for a second ssd via m2 slot in order to used it as a backup/storage device, via timemachine or something else. At this price level and “pro” usage isn’t acceptable at all.
Ok, I bought a 14 inch MacBook Pro. I got the Apple M1 Pro with 10-core CPU, 16-core GPU, 16-core Neural Engine with the 16GB ram. I’m sorry to say, I took it back after 3 days. I trade stock options, and my stock broker platform was lagging and it took a long time for it to load. Also, I’m a Scuba diver and thought I would edit some video from diving, and it kept saying; SD card could not be recognized on this device. I put it in a old Dell and the video came up. I spent hours trying make the SD card work, even with RU-vid help, it didn’t work. Lastly, I kept hitting the power button while typing and that added to the frustration. After 3 days of stress I gave up. I might buy the iMac 24 maybe for Christmas. Believe me I love Apple products. I bought my first iPad. A iPad Pro M1 and though it doesn’t aggravate me as much as the 14 inch MacBook Pro. Hopefully, I still get a gift card when I traded in my old 2017 MacBook Pro.
Wrong! Unified memory (which has nothing to do with where the memory is) has nothing to do with the current performance of the M1, unified memory only helps when a program is programmed to use both the CPU and GPU on the same task, which is rare and is not responsible for the M1's speed.
@@thedausthed unified memory does have something to do with the performance in that uploading to VRAM can be quite a bottleneck, and if I'm not mistaken will generally have to go via RAM first in conventional architectures. So even if data is to be used only by GPU, it seems that there should be a benefit of unified memory - particularly if the application is written knowing that the GPU is able to use it directly as soon as it is present in RAM, without needing to copy - but even if it isn't, and it does a redundant copy (as I expect we may see with games running through emulation layers etc) I would expect it to be quicker than having to push it across a PCI-e bus. Also while technically the fact of the memory being unified doesn't necessarily relate to where it physically is, in practice, the systems we're talking about with unified memory have it located within the SOC, and this again is significant to performance.
@@thedausthed See what you're reading RIGHT NOW, RIGHT THIS SECOND? Pixels on a Mac screen? Every single one of them is Thanks to the GPU and Metal. Every one. Every single one. CPU and GPU. And then there's the Neural Engine. And Image Processor. And Display Processor. And the Matrix accelerators. All those individual IP blocks. They all benefit from the...UNIFIED memory. All of 'em. They ALL DO. Every single one of 'em.
Unified memory has existed for decades. In fact it has been used for decades. Its just now they are marketing it as something new. Take any laptop that utilizes integrated graphics, the memory goes to both the CPU and GPU, nothing special about that. Not even the memory chips are unique either, its generic LPDDR5-6400, which can be purchased for chump change. Yet it still costs an arm and a leg just to get 16GB of memory. And for the socketed equivalent? DDR5-5600 is pretty common nowadays, and you aren't even sacrificing that much speed to achieve it either. But regardless, once your extremely small amount of RAM inevitably gets used up and you start doing memory swap. Now your "legendary-tier" macbook has become slower and less efficient, worse, it is now damaging itself.
After watching a certain person rant about the problems regarding repair problems in these computers it almost seems "they" listen and actually made changes pertaining to making repairs easier?! This bodes well for the future (when i can afford buying a second hand one) :D
Very nice. Thank you, iFixit. The only thing that worries me is for how long these Pros will not be "obsolete"? Taking into account the Apple's SoC development rate.
I would give 1-2 points... As these companies are making deliberate steps to stop repairs.... For being first to stand against this... ifixit we have respect for you...
Awesome!! I accidentally spilled coffee on my MacBook Pro M1 Pro and about a month or so later, I got a huge line on the screen, could it be from the display connector or just the screen
Those spudger tools are made from a glass reinforced/filled nylon right? So I would definitely expect the glass strands to leave scratches on almost anything but hardened steel or tungsten carbide lol.
Personally, I'm not a big fan of the exterior design. The curved bottom with a flat top doesn't bode well with me, even if it's an homage to the first MBPs. Nor am I a fan of the adhesive tabs. Hated it on the MacBook, and even more on the iPhone 5. The MLB and the display removal process looks smooth. I don't mind the notch, but I also don't understand why people hate it so much. Surprised they added the old ports, though. Seems like Apple has case of an identity crisis. At least the M1 chip is still decent and in the end, that's what matters most.
Stretchy removable adhesive is not the solution repairers wanted overall. We want screws. Besides that this is a step forward towards long term relevenacy
The MacBook already has find my technology integrated into it. Even when powered off. Even if it didn't and you planned on using that card, I wouldn't suggest putting it between the bottom panel and battery...
