Image from iFixit.org
Fantastic blog post by a guy named Kyle Wiens, who runs an awesome gadget repair site called iFixit.org. Kyle refers to his site as “kind of like an internet version of Consumer Reports.”
His team did what they do and they deconstructed the new Macbook Pro with Retina Display that Apple announced at this year’s WWDC – the laptop that everyone is raving about. Here is what Kyle and his team discovered about the ability to repair the news system if something goes wrong:
The Retina MacBook is the least repairable laptop we’ve ever taken apart: unlike the previous model, the display is fused to the glass—meaning replacing the LCD requires buying an expensive display assembly. The RAM is now soldered to the logic board—making future memory upgrades impossible. And the battery is glued to the case—requiring customers to mail their laptop to Apple every so often for a $200 replacement. The design may well be comprised of “highly recyclable aluminum and glass”—but my friends in the electronics recycling industry tell me they have no way of recycling aluminum that has glass glued to it like Apple did with both this machine and the recent iPad. The design pattern has serious consequences not only for consumers and the environment, but also for the tech industry as a whole.
Once again, Apple has a vice grip on the collective nut of its consumers. Read Kyle’s full post here.
