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Comment by zdw | Hacker News Reader

Just an example of how Apple has changed the build of their equipment for ease of maintenance:

I had someone give me an broken iBook G4 and ask "Can you see about getting the data off the drive?". Here are takeapart instructions for it:

http://www.ifixit.com/Guide/Repair/Installing-iBook-G4-14-In...

14 pages, 60 screws.

Compare to a recent MacBook:

http://www.ifixit.com/Guide/Repair/Installing-MacBook-Unibod...

3 pages. 3 screws.

That's progress.

(in fairness, that's the model with the door on the bottom - the more recent models have 14 screws to remove, but the disassembly isn't difficult compared to the iBook: http://www.ifixit.com/Guide/Repair/Installing-MacBook-Pro-13... )

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The big problem I have with Apple is that they sometimes have the tendency to be a bit too restrictive for apparently no good reason. Their most recent MacBooks have no door which allows you to quickly replace the battery which is fair enough (it’s a feature I personally don’t really need anyway).

The battery, however, is still pretty much the same as before. There is not much you can do wrong replacing it all on your own when it stops holding a charge (which will happen sooner or later). It’s not harder than replacing the hard drive or RAM, really. Yet, contrary to the hard drive or the RAM, you lose your warranty replacing it.

Were my battery to stop working I would have to drive 400km (two times 100km to the nearest place Apple deems worthy and back) and be unable to use my MacBook for a few days. When the same thing happens to my current 2007 MacBook Pro (this actually happened to me a few times but that is another story) I just have to call Apple and they send me the battery. All I have to do is hand the UPS guy my old battery.

Apple, don’t treat me like an infant. You are selling me a product called MacBook Pro, trust me with disconnecting a freaking cable! I like your small cars (iPad, iPhone) but it would be very nice if I could continue to buy nice trucks from you.

I was under the impression that the latest MacBook Pros had different, more embedded batteries to enable them to have that 10-hour battery life, and that was why they can't be user-replaced.

They do have different batteries but you can remove the new one by unscrewing three screws and disconnecting a cable [+]. The battery has even a pull tab which allows you to easily lift it out of the case.

That’s a little more involved than previously when you only had to open a latch and pull out the battery but it’s pretty much exactly as hard as replacing the hard drive.

[+] Here is iFixit’s guide: http://www.ifixit.com/Guide/Repair/Installing-MacBook-Pro-15...

It was my understanding that parts that are officially consumer replaceable parts need to be more structurally sound for safety compliance (e.g. in case it is dropped when it is outside the machine), and that this extra battery casing takes up significant space—space that could otherwise be used for more battery.

Aha, here we go:

"With the MacBook Pro, Apple engineers went further. To make the lithium-polymer battery even bigger, they looked for extra space within the enclosure. And they found it in an unlikely place — the removable battery itself. Removable batteries take up a lot of space. They require infrastructure that takes up space. The batteries themselves have to be encased in bulky plastic housings to withstand the wear and tear of handling. Those housings take up more space. And the notebook enclosure has to include mechanisms for a separate battery compartment, such as latches and a door. All those parts take up space that could be used for the battery itself."

Source: https://www.apple.com/macbookpro/battery/

Apple's marketing copy gives a plausible reason for their design decision that makes them look good? Shocking. Apple's site is not going to say, "if the battery was removable, we couldn't charge $99 to replace it," which is probably the real reason.

"3 pages. 3 screws. That's progress."

I wanted poke around inside my new Thinkpad X100e. Might be four screws I had to twist, and they were designed to not fall out; they loosen up but stay in the cover hole, so no more concerns over lost screws. Very nice touch.

It may well be progress, but as this guy describes Thinkpads are unreasonably friendly to disassembly. They have little graphics on the underside to show you what size screw goes in what hole on my X61, and the hard drive comes out with just one screw

What's the point? How often do you disassemble your computer?

I'm pretty happy to go and look up some instructions (or, y'know, just undo all the screws) rather than having ugly stickers all over my laptop.

They aren't stickers, they are simple icons printed directly next to each screw hole with a table under the battery. It's very slick. Not vital as you say, but very nice. Especially if your manual is a pdf, the task is 20 pages long, and your only computer is the laptop.

Thinkpads have a lot of nice little touches like that. Mine even has drain holes for the keyboard in case of beverage. How often have i spilled? Never. Do i appreciate their presence? Very much so.

I have to inquire as well, how many laptps you serviced? 'cause they are usually a complete pain in the *#?!$.

For other people? None. For myself? Three.

They've all been as easy as piss to change RAM/HDD. Though I'm not sure if this is what you mean by 'service'

Dells are not as nice to get inside, but the D810 had a handy feature. The hard drive was attached to a tray, and the tray slid into the side. With an extra tray it became a snap to swap drives for times when I wanted to boot off a different drive. The D830, however, no longer has this. It's similar, but it's not quite as nice for swapping drive.

Captive screws/fasteners are lovely. I've personally encountered them on the engine housing of a Cessna (where a lost or loose screw may be much more than an inconvenience) and an iMac G5 (where just three drive the latch that holds the computer onto the back panel/stand). In both cases I was left with the impression that the entire remainder of the screw-turning world is missing out.

Objection. Look at first generation iMac G5s which had the entire back panel come off granting access to practically every part of the logic board, followed by the next generation G5s that only offered user upgradeable RAM to the C2D intel iMacs only offering an upgradeable RAM slot. Consider also the removable battery of the pre-unibody laptops compared to the built-in one on the unibody MacBooks.

Progress is relative depending on what you want out of your machine. I want matte 16 bit screens back.

HP's Envy line, essentially MacBook Pro clones, has the exact same design. One latch removes the metal panel covering the battery and hard drive. They actually paid attention to the details of the MBP, not just the aesthetics, when creating their own premium line.

My no-name (HP) work laptop only requires a single screw to get at the hard drive. And you can hot-swap it.

Thinkpads have done this since about 1995.

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