New MacBook teardown

A teardown of Apple's new aluminum MacBook and MacBook Pro systems reveals a "beautiful" layout, according to iFixit. Both computers are said to have extremely well-arranged interiors, which in the case of the Pro is said to be "cleaner" and with much better flow than previous versions. Regarding the basic MacBook, iFixit claims that Apple may be right to promote the workers involved in its new manufacturing process.

Part of this stems from the relative ease of accessing components such as the hard drive and RAM, although technicians needing to service the keyboard may have a difficult time reaching it. It is in fact suggested that Apple is treating the upper case as an individual part, meaning that damage to the keyboard may necessitate substantial and/or expensive work. It is, however, possible to fix the keyboard at home.

Investigation of the regular MacBook reveals components from a relative handful of identifiable companies, primarily Intel, Cypress and Realtek. Speakers on the system are said to have been substantially improved, and the display is said to weigh less than that of earlier MacBooks, despite moving to a nominally heavier aluminum and glass arrangement.

The MacBook Pro is a more complex disassembly due to additional parts, but shows touches such as subtler speaker grills, and many-bladed fans, which enable slower fan speeds and thus less noise. Internally, the major difference over the MacBook is the presence of the GeForce 9600M GT graphics chip, which dominates its section of the logic board.

by MacNN Staff