With the new MacBook Pros beginning to ship to customers, iFixit has gotten their hands on the new 13-inch MacBook Pro with Touch Bar and have, of course, tore the computer open. There are a few interesting tidbits tidbits that they’ve found that you may not have known..
For starters, most of the internal component layout has been adjusted to accommodate the new Touch Bar. iFixit gives the notebook a 1/10 for repairability as the Touch Bar is difficult to replace and the battery is ruled onto the case. iFixit also says the the speaker grills on the 13-inch MacBook Pro are purely cosmetic.
As shown in the photo above, the speakers are indicated in orange while the grills are indicated in red. The speakers themselves reside on the bottom half of the notebook, while the grills are located on the top.
iFixit also says that the cutout for the grill isn’t clear so it leads them to believe that they’re purely cosmetic.
And just like the 13-inch MacBook Pro without Touch Bar, the trackpad is easily replaceable and slides out after removing the ten accessible screws. And it appears that the trackpad component on both 13-inch variants are exactly the same.
Unfortunately, that’s the only positive thing iFixit can say about the new MacBook Pro in terms of repairability. Beyond the trackpad, the MacBook Pro isn’t meant for the user to crack open. The processor, RAM, and SSD storage is non-user replaceable, and the 5-cell battery is glued down with adhesive.
The new Touch Bar is super hard to replace. In fact, iFixit actually broke the component as they were removing the chassis. The flex cable for the component also wraps underneath which makes removing it even more difficult.
Lastly, idixi notes that the because the Touch ID sensor doubles as the power button, which talks to the Apple T1 chip, fixing or repairing the power button would likely require replacing the entire logic board.
You can read through iFixit’s full teardown here.
