Apple is notorious for making its products difficult—and in many cases prohibitively expensive—to repair. iFixit’s teardown of the latest MacBook Pro models revealed that Apple has made some concessions to repairability with its new laptops, however, so maybe there’s a glimmer of hope.
The new MacBook Pro models feature the latest in Apple’s custom silicon, the M1 Pro and M1 Max, along with up to 64GB of memory and 8TB of storage. They also boast 14- or 16-inch mini-LED displays, a new keyboard, and an updated webcam housed inside a prominent notch.
iFixit discovered that Apple’s latest laptops are more repair-friendly, too. “Apple’s M1 silicon is rocketing the industry forward in a bunch of ways, and it’s unfortunate repairability isn’t advancing as quickly,” it says. “Still, this design represents a major move in the right direction.”
Highlights from a repairability standpoint include iFixit’s finding that “battery replacements are reasonably well prioritized, if not exactly easy,” and that “display replacements have been greatly streamlined” in the new MacBook Pro. Many of its components are also replaceable.
iFixit still gives the MacBook Pro a four on its 10-point repairability scale, however, because of problems that have affected the MacBook lineup for years (the keyboard’s design, soldered-on storage) or are caused by the M1’s design (the use of what Apple calls unified memory).
That means the changes made to the new MacBook Pro are a net positive. Some of Apple’s decisions are hard to defend—most notably the use of non-upgradeable storage—but at least potential buyers should be well aware of those limitations before they click the “Buy” button.
