Re:The M1 MacBook Air: Perfection
by AriaMinaei on Friday December 11, 2020 @11:14AM
(#25387355)
Some people associate repairability with bulk and thermal issues. This is almost never the case.
There is ultimately some tradeoff between repairability and size/weight/thermals due to physics. But companies compromise on repairability way below an actual physical limit.
Examples:
- To replace the batteries of a MBP Retina, you must disassemble the entire motherboard before freeing up the batteries [0]. A lot of people end up damaging the board in the process.
- The Surface Laptop isn't even meant to be opened. If you open it, you can't put it back together [1]. I wonder what "physical tradeoff" Microsoft made here that even Apple didn't have to make in an iPhone?
- All MBPs after MBP Retina have the NVMe drive soldered on [2]. The drive is paired with the secure enclave, but clearly they could've offered a mechanism/service to pair a new drive rather than force the user buy a whole new laptop.
There is ultimately some tradeoff between repairability and size/weight/thermals due to physics. But companies compromise on repairability way below an actual physical limit.
Examples:
- To replace the batteries of a MBP Retina, you must disassemble the entire motherboard before freeing up the batteries [0]. A lot of people end up damaging the board in the process.
- The Surface Laptop isn't even meant to be opened. If you open it, you can't put it back together [1]. I wonder what "physical tradeoff" Microsoft made here that even Apple didn't have to make in an iPhone?
- All MBPs after MBP Retina have the NVMe drive soldered on [2]. The drive is paired with the secure enclave, but clearly they could've offered a mechanism/service to pair a new drive rather than force the user buy a whole new laptop.
[0] https://www.ifixit.com/Guide/MacBook+Pro+15-Inch+Retina+Disp...
[1] https://www.ifixit.com/Teardown/Microsoft+Surface+Laptop+Tea...
[2] https://www.ifixit.com/Teardown/MacBook+Pro+16-Inch+2019+Tea...