MacBook Pro 15" Retina Display Late 2013 Teardown
ifixit.com
ifixit.com
Also, Apple will replace your battery for $99 (iPad), $130 (MBA), or $200 (rMBP). Lenovo charges $150 for a replacement battery for the X220. If you replace the battery midway through a 4-year service life of the machine, how much is the non-repairability costing you? $100 over four years?
The vast majority of people are better served by longer battery runtime. The need to maintain that second battery charge is something that you have to keep up on, and if you don't you have a $150 brick.
Oh c'mon. “Device made for traveling” is Macbook Air, —weightless and with over 10h life. Not a monster with swappable batteries
When my volvo died on the freeway, the "fix" was to replace the engine control unit, not some part of that computer.
This would be like complaining that just because you could replace the MMU on a Mac II in 1988, apple screwed you over by using a 68030 with on board MMU.
1. car 2. LCD TV 3. stereo 4. every other piece of electronics made after 2006 or so
They are just to complex anymore and I just do not care.
Still. Some don't care.
Look, if you do not like a product then do not buy it. That is the way it works. Apple makes higher priced higher quality kit and they charge for it. If you are not willing to pay for that then buy something else. If the world agrees with you then they will start to loose sales and change the thing that bugged you. I for one have no issues paying for the level of quality and service I get from Apple. In the life time of the device I buy that extra 10% just does not really matter.
I do think that glued in memory is a dumb thing. Memory is almost like a consumable and prices tend to vary dramatically within the service life of a laptop. Bigger chips come out, prices drop, etc. If 1% of the population is capable of doing a trackpad or screen replacement, 15% are capable of doing a ram upgrade.
Also your needs change. I never did video editing, ever -- then we had a baby. That new need drove me to upgrade my 2008 iMac, as it just didn't have the juice. Memory is different, there are lots of elegant ways to approach that problem without compromising the design aesthetic -- in fact Apple has done this with other computers.
Saying "buy a Ford" isn't a useful response. Apple is the sole owner of the Mac OS platform. I can buy an HP laptop, but I miss out on the value that the platform brings -- I don't want Windows or Linux.
Still? It never will be because Apple tries to make MacBooks as small as possible.
I like to upgrade the internals without paying an arm and a leg. You can almost upgrade your ram and ssd for what apple charges to go from 8-16gb of RAM.
But—the new high-end rMBP by default has 512 GB SSD (much smaller physically) and 16 GB RAM soldered on (takes up less space than using RAM on interchangeable headers).
[Nobody seems to complain about non-socketed CPUs in laptops.]
The arrow of Apple Progress doesn't go backwards. We're not getting replaceable RAM in mobiles again.
The newly released rMBP's are more appealing than last year. That 256 or 512 ssd sounds like more than enough especially coupled with that nice retina display. Especially if I can convince my girlfriend to use her education discount.
I'd love a retina display, but I'll be holding on to that outdated MBP for as long as I can. I don't really care for the reduction in thickness and weight these mono-block designs have purportedly made possible. It's not even about them overcharging me for parts I can easily upgrade myself for half the price, although they do.
For me the main problem is the fact that as these machines are mere appliances now, their capabilities are fixed from the moment of purchase. There is no way to upgrade RAM, or to replace a damaged part. Now, any kind of defect means the device is bricked. And I will never be able to extend it beyond its original functionality.
This is not OK for a device that costs € 3000+ and has an expected service life of 2-3 years. These devices are simply too expensive for a design that treats them as mere disposables. Because that's what they have become.
If those tightly-integrated hunks of plastic were getting cheaper, I'd say this is just the way things go: a rapid buy-and-replace cycle with a solid recycling process behind it. But that's not the direction Apple is going. They seem to be focusing on customers for whom a frequent multi-thousand dollar expense is no issue.
Increasingly, I just get the sense that Apple is screwing me and the profit margin on those devices is a good indicator for that.
I am horrified to think what will happen if I get a new rMBP and a year later something breaks. I dont buy apple care, so will I be stuck paying 1,000 for a whole new logic board because all the pieces are soldered on?
The score is arbitrary value, which is dictated by the market. And we all pretty well know what the market is like.
The extra ARM cores tend to be integrated into 802.11 controllers or storage controllers.
Cypress Semiconductor CY8C24794-24LTXI Programmable System-on-Chip
[1]: http://www.cypress.com/?mpn=CY8C24794-24LTXI
[2]: http://eessential.blogspot.com/2010/11/survey-of-microcontro...
The problem is the useful life for an iPad/iPhone is usually more like 2-3y, vs. 1-2y, and for a computer, maybe even up to 5y vs. 3y. I guess if it breaks after AppleCare, as long as you have backups, you just buy a replacement early. I miss the 5y service contracts with onsite service from IBM, though (and even better than Apple for take-in service in non-US countries; there aren't Apple Stores in every country, but there were IBM ThinkPad service locations essentially everywhere).
The loophole where you used to be able to buy valid applecare certs for about half price on eBay seems to have closed, so now they're only 20-30% cheaper than Apple.
I guess shiny displays and vibrant colours make sense for watching movies and the like. For working however I'm more than willing to trade sharpness for comfort.
I mean, from your link, look at this: http://i119.photobucket.com/albums/o139/callsign_vega/PICT00...
Which side of the screens looks best for coding honestly?
The best display I've seen for coding is probably the one on the Surface Pro, which is optically bonded to further increase clarity and reduce reflections. I haven't spent much time with an rMBP though.
However, the high-end model also has a GT 750M, so would presumably be almost identical to the previous model.
I think iFixit needs to start having a minus score on the repairability score - this can earn a one, it surely has to lose that for extra soldered and glued parts alone.
They're not making it one piece to say "screw you, HN user who wants after market RAM!" -- they're doing it because it makes the machine physically smaller and lighter.
If you don't like their new work, you can still go to HP and buy a laptop with a DVD drive, a bluray drive, two VGA ports, a PS/2 port, and a proprietary six inch wide docking station port.
The user hostile screws are just trying to say "Look, we're trying to save you from yourself. There's nothing in here you can fix without ripping cables and rendering your machine into an ineffective boat anchor."
When I bought my last MBP, I had them (at the Apple Store) upgrade the RAM, which meant I had to wait around for 90 minutes for them to do it.
I was a Swiss trained watchmaker before I switched careers and became a software developer. Back in the 40s through 60s, both the Swiss and American watch companies standardized on a 6-point case back that was removable with a two or three-pronged adjustable wrench. The same design is still being used for the most part in middle luxury brands. Though, if you ever look at the back of a modern mid-100 dollar watch (Casio, off-brands, etc.), you'll probably see a little lip where you can place the blade of a knife. Giving the knife a slight twisting motion easily pops the back off, giving anyone the ability to change the battery. But go take a look at some of the higher luxury brands and you'll see various variations of case backs. Rolex uses a fluted design unique to themselves. Breitling uses a design similar to the older 6-point, but it's more like a 18-sided polygon that requires a wrench with flat jaws. Omega uses a design with a number of deep holes in the case back, requiring a wrench with points that fit loosely on the back (instead of tightened onto it).
The reasons for the "proprietary" case back designs, especially with Rolex, is exactly the same as Apple using non-standard Pentalobe screws, which you point out. These things are not serviceable to 95% of the population (and if you think that number is high, go visit the mid-west for a week and get out of the big city costal echo-chambers). I can't tell you how many times some wiseguy walked into my shop with a small container containing all but a couple pieces of his watch asking me to put it back together after they took it apart to do some trivial task, most of the time one that probably didn't require any disassembly to begin with.
If you think you can personally take apart a retina MacBook Pro and replace the trackpad, no one is stopping you from buying the special screwdriver and doing it yourself with help from iFixit, but Apple certainly isn't going to honor that warranty. Requiring at least one hoop for you to jump through in order to even get the back off is enough evidence for them to know that anyone walking through their door with their product rattling around in an altoids tin intentionally decided to disassemble the thing themselves. It's a premeditative action, instead of an accidental impulse.
The clock thing above isn't a fair comparison, a computer doesn't fall apart into two hundred pieces once you unscrew the case, there are just a few discrete components and most of the time one just replaces one of them completely, almost nobody attempts to repair surface mounted components with a soldering iron, even at the repair shops. You don't have to have any special knowledge to do those things, just know a few tricks, ironically mostly related to opening things the producer didn't want you to open, and handle it with some care.
By the way, am I not, accidentally, at a site called "Hacker News"?
The parent's point wasn't that Apple was trying to lock out the standard HN reader, or that an HN reader shouldn't try to repair the device. His point was that Apple is putting an obstacle in the way of a nontechnical person shooting themselves in the foot.
>The clock thing above isn't a fair comparison, a computer doesn't fall apart into two hundred pieces once you unscrew the case
I think it's a good comparison. As the grandparent mentions as an example, removing the battery risks slicing the trackpad I/O cable. While that's not falling apart into hundreds of pieces, it certainly hinders use of the computer.
It's Orwellian or perhaps Huxley-an to me that people buy into the rhetoric that they close up every single thing they make in a closed ecosystem just because of this oh so great care about the customer. Apple is a company, they might not have evil plans to conquer the world, but the most important thing for them is to make profit - one shouldn't fall in love with a company, no matter how good their products.