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Comment by coldtea | Hacker News Reader

>For example the macbook airs have non standard ssd that is not replaceable, so when the disk dies, whole notebook is done...

Or you can go and get either a warranty extension (before it runs out) or an aftermarket SSD, like millions (including me) have done.

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But you can't do that with the latest MacBooks, which have their SSDs soldered directly onto the logic boards. And you can't do that with memory for any Apple notebook from the last several years for the same reason.

My 7 year old MacBook Pro is running okay thanks to some memory and storage upgrades. I would not be able to get the same life extension with one of the new models, which makes me hesitate to get a new Mac.

To be fair, most new laptops like the Surface Pro or Dell's XPS 13 make it pretty darn hard to upgrade the memory or hard drive.

XPS laptops use standard nvme m.2 SSDs. Source: have one that I've opened up

> most new laptops

_some_ new laptops

Most new laptops are still fully serviceable.

Most is really ambiguous here. By units sold? Probably not (mass quantity low end laptops aren't upgradable). By dollar amount sold? Definitely not (Apple has an outsized share of the market based on revenue). By new models? Probably.

”Apple has an outsized share of the market based on revenue”

On profit, I can believe, but on revenue? Even at 10% market share, Macs would have to be five times the price of PCs to bring in equal revenue.

Sure. It isn't just the macs that you need to count, but the PCs as well. Non upgrade-able ultra lights dominate the post $1000 market even for pcs.

Apple has about 7% of pc market world-wide. It's average sales price is around $1,200 to $1,400 (haven't checked lately). Average PC maker ASP is $500-$600, so Apple likely has 15-20% of market by revenues, and more than 50% of market profits, given it's 15-20% margins vs. 2% PC maker margins.

This is all PCs. In laptops it's likely that Apple's share is even higher.

I upgraded my Dell XPS 13 recently. Only tricky part was buying the special screwdriver bits which cost me 10 dollars on amazon. It was probably the easiest laptop upgrade I've ever done in the last 17 years.

I swapped out my XPS 13's broadcom flaming piece of shit radio for a intel chipset, AU$25. The disk is a swappable M.2 . They retail for ~AU$600 for a 500G. Dropped a mail to Dell Australia for a quote to upgrade the 8G MB to 16G, took them 5 working days to quote: 2 week job, AU$2300, I paid AU$2100 for the machine new.

Fuck you Dell.

I bought a Macbook Air recently and love it, almost want a Macbook Pro but I don't want a laptop where I can't replace the Hard Drive or RAM two things which sometimes just need a replacement. I guess I'm going for a Dell with Ubuntu next instead.

In which case you'll find a small but annoying set of new problems. Dell can make some great stuff, and Ubuntu can be great. Dell+Ubuntu can be great, or fine, or ok, or a disaster. Unfortunately, and inexplicably, you can't ever really be sure which case you'll get until after you've plunged in. Ask me how I know this :).

I am talking about models that have ssd as chips soldered to the motherboard. You cant buy aftermarket replacement for that.

True, was reffering to the models with merely "non standard" SSDs that vendors like OWC sell. There are warranty extensions to 3 years though.

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