Apple’s 12-inch MacBook Is Its Least Repairable Model Yet

Last month Apple unveiled their latest laptop in the form of the 12-inch Retina MacBook. This is probably one of Apple’s more compact laptops to date which is also largely thanks to the fact that it does not have any moving parts inside of it. There are no fans and no spinning hard drives, meaning that Apple had to compress everything to make it so sleek.

However as it turns out making it so sleek also made it immensely difficult to repair, as per the folks at iFixit who have rated the laptop a 1 out of 10 in terms of repairability. Yes, it is that low meaning that if you were in need for a repair, chances of you doing it yourself are pretty slim and you’d probably have to take it back to Apple.

This is largely due to the fact that Apple relies on the proprietary pentalobe screws which makes the opening of the laptop difficult. The new cable routing used in the laptop also presents itself as an additional hurdle. The USB-C port has also made things complicated as it is buried under the display brackets.

iFixit also found that the battery used in the MacBook has been glued into the lower case of the laptop, so taking it out will be quite hard. There is also no glass separating the Retina display as it is a fused unit, which means that replacing it will be an expensive process. The RAM and flash memory have also been soldered to the motherboard so if you’re thinking about adding your own RAM, you’re out of luck.

Tyler Lee
Categories: Apple, Computers
Tags: Macbook