
MacBook Pro 13" Touch Bar Teardown - Lwrless
https://www.ifixit.com/Teardown/MacBook+Pro+13-Inch+Touch+Bar+Teardown/73480
======
trymas
I am surprised by few things after newest rMBP teardowns

\- Battery takes less space, than I thought, just eyeballing it but it seems
that in (classic)rMBP battery takes more volume percent-wise.

\- Battery is smaller by ~10% than non touch bar model (49.2 Wh vs 54.5 Wh)
and significantly smaller than the classic rmbps.

\- Two fans, classics had 1.

\- Touchbar has speakers speakers under palm rest, and not under grills, thus
it has slits on the bottom whereas the non-touchbar has not.

\- Visually speakers are bigger in the non touch bar version

\- Touchbar has ssd soldered and non-touch bar - removable ssd

\- Touchbar has more gaps and unused volume - mainly in battery area.

Maybe there will be major reconstruction inside rMBP13 next year? Just like
2012 vs 2013 rMBP13? 2012 model was a mess (by Apple standards) inside.

Like the comment in iFixit, maybe rMBP13 was not designed for touchbar in the
first place? It was decided later to make it?

~~~
beojan
> 49.2 kWh vs 54.5 kWh

That would be quite the battery. Really, it's 49.2 Wh and 54.5 Wh, not kWh.

~~~
trymas
Thanks for mentioning. Edited.

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kalleboo
I love the fake speaker grilles that don't even go all the way through the
machine... Form follows function, minimal design indeed.

~~~
marvindanig
I hate to admit this but I'll bite. Apple is being steered by fifty shades of
Steve Ballmer now. Colored and extra-large iPhones, death to magSafe, stupid
mini-iPads that have no reason to exist other than being a marketing offer.

Decisions for the sake of making decisions.

~~~
trymas
> Colored and extra-large iPhones, <...> being a marketing offer.

I do not understand how they are stepping on the same thing like 20+ years ago
- they have too many versions for the same type of device.

They have different names for it: Pro, SE, S, Plus, Air, mini. And it's
inconsistent, e.g. ipad Air is not the smallest ipad, where does SE stack in
current Apple naming?

They add colors to mix all this (not to mention gazillion bands for watches).

They do not transition their mobile tech to usb-c which creates miserable
dongle-gate within their own hardware ecosystem. Maybe can someone give a
reason why they are still sticking with lightning? Even using it for their
pencil, new mouse, new trackpad and new keyboard.

Apple has much better name and consistency than most hardware manufacturers,
but it's getting so confusing than it used to be[0]. I understand there are
more products today, but I guess all of them can be delivered in Pro and
consumer versions with consistent peripherals so when people spend couple of
thousand bucks on your products they do not need to go back to the store and
spend another hundred to dongle up.

[0]
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3iTNWZF2m3o](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3iTNWZF2m3o)

~~~
m3rc
The not moving iPhone to USB-C is the real killer. It makes NO sense from a
technical standpoint, and makes every self-indulgent speech about moving
technology forward just drip with marketing bullshit.

It even makes other decisions, like USB-C on the new macbook line look stupid
because now you can't defend that by saying they're just trying to move
everything to one standard because Apple themselves are fragmenting the
standards.

------
bwindels
> Repairability 1 out of 10

This is my main reason to stop buying Apple hardware, not so much the lack of
an Esc key. The Mid 2012 model still scored 7 / 10.

~~~
maxerickson
I have used 1 Apple device in the last 15 years, an iPod shuffle I got as a
gift (I shorted it out by sweating near it).

Are other manufacturers doing much better? On my older laptop, the HDD is 2
screws to access. On the laptop my mom used previously, you had to take the
CPU fan assembly out after removing the keyboard to get at the HDD.

~~~
EpicEng
Was the HDD soldered in place once you got there?

~~~
maxerickson
I gave up when I looked at the procedure.

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korginator
This is really an iPad running MacOS, with everything soldered on, zero
upgradeability and near-zero repairability. That's the antithesis of a
"professional" machine.

I wonder if we'll see a similar trend with the mac pro if Apple doesn't decide
to scrap it completely.

We run quite a few mac pros and macbook pros at work, so this has us thinking
hard.

~~~
rayiner
Why is upgradability inherent in professional? I've never worked somewhere
that upgrades work machines. Every couple of years we get new ones.

~~~
EpicEng
We upgrade the SSD for every dev. 1TB instead of a paltry 256GB.

~~~
fufonzo
If you bought it with 1TB already in it, you wouldn't have to upgrade
anything. ;)

It would be nice to be able to upgrade, but really, it's not a dealbreaker for
me. I really enjoy developing on Mac and I needed to upgrade for my AIr, so I
bought a new one of these.

Windows is still lacking on the dev side (though I'm hoping it gets there
soon), and Linux isn't quite where I need it to be for my personal stuff.

~~~
EpicEng
>If you bought it with 1TB already in it, you wouldn't have to upgrade
anything. ;)

You're right; it would just cost an absurd amount of money considering what a
1TB SSD actually goes for. The procedure takes all of ten minutes, well worth
it.

I actually can't stand doing real work in OSX, I use Windows. I just like the
hardware.

------
n1000
can anybody tell me why Apple didn't try harder to max out the battery??
apparently the 15" version has even more unused space:

[https://9to5mac.com/2016/11/15/2016-macbook-pro-non-
removabl...](https://9to5mac.com/2016/11/15/2016-macbook-pro-non-removable-
ssd-small-batteries/)

if this is really a compromise to hit some weight target I will have to join
the "Apple don't care about the Pros anymore" camp...

~~~
n1000
I can see the marketing storyline: 3.0 pounds sounds cooler than 10+h battery
life. Because: 10 hours = 1 working day = enough

~~~
reacharavindh
I use a 2014 rMBP. I need to keep Virtual desktop client running all through
the day, Outlook for corporate email, and Safari for everything web-based. I
can go though 70% of my day without needing to plug in. I really really really
wish Apple add little more capacity so I don't need to be anxious about
spending a work day on the move.

------
8draco8
I will copy very interesting question from ifixit:

> How do you do a power rest if the machine hangs? Before you held down the
> power button for a few seconds. Would that work with a touch ID button?

Any ideas?

~~~
werdnapk
They do also say in the article about the Touch ID button: "That button also
doubles as the power button, so fixing a power button may be a more costly
affair than it once was."

------
f_allwein
Repairability score: 1 out of 10. No big surprise.

~~~
gutnor
They could have done 2 if the SSD was user replaceable.

You have to carefully planned your MBP configuration, unfortunately SSD
upgrade are terribly expensive. An extra 25% of the price to go from 256GB to
1TB.

Actually that's probably fine for a professional machine, as you will be
alright with a smaller disk until you replace the MBP anyway. For a power-user
machine that you plan to keep several (5+) years, that's another story.

~~~
maxxxxx
The fact that you have to plan your disk and RAM configuration years ahead is
really annoying. Especially for a laptop that's on the high end of the price
range.

------
revelation
They sure as hell sacrificed a lot of battery for those useless stereo
speakers.

~~~
louhike
They might be useless for you, but some people use them. This design decision
might be coherent with their main target audience.

~~~
stinos
That's always a bit double. At one point I appreciate they try to improve the
sound (and maybe succeed? didn't hear the last model yet), on the other hand I
loathe the marketing 'best sound ever'-like phrases and hope not too many
people fall for it, as it is in fact physically impossible to get anywhere
near proper source reproduction whith such small speakers placed behind a
cover. Then again, as you say target audience might not care about that.

~~~
asmosoinio
For me video conferencing on a laptop is a very usual use case, and improved
audio makes that better. I don't think I'm the only one.

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unwind
Mods: there's a wonky "smart quote" in the title, that would be great to fix.

~~~
TazeTSchnitzel
The correct symbol for the inch is the ″ (DOUBLE PRIME).

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bdz
The mid 2012 Pro still got 7/10

[https://www.ifixit.com/Teardown/MacBook+Pro+15-Inch+Unibody+...](https://www.ifixit.com/Teardown/MacBook+Pro+15-Inch+Unibody+Mid+2012+Teardown/9515)

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dubcroster
Could anyone tell me why there is a three-microphone array built in to the
touchbar? My privacy-sense is tingeling like crazy over this.

~~~
JoeAltmaier
Well microphone arrays are directional. Is that the question? It allows an app
to home in on the speaker, avoiding background noise.

~~~
joezydeco
Probably necessary to make Siri more reliable.

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spacehacker
I'm wondering what necessitates the second fan. The 2016 function keys MBP
only has one fan.

~~~
alfanick
2016 MBP FK has processor with lower TDP

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_ao789
How do you perform a power reset without an actual button?

~~~
tempay
You can do it the same way as any other mac as the touch id sensor is still a
physical button.

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agumonkey
I wonder how much cost their fingerprint scanner btw.

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jlebrech
I would have preferred an iphone dock where the touchpad resides, just replace
the supplied touch pad with your iphone and you get and additional screen.

but they gave us this useless touch screen.

~~~
bakadana
Before I saw leaked photos of the touchbar channel, I had convinced myself
that Apple was going to put a screen under the track pad. Oh well.

~~~
mthoms
I have a gut feeling that this is still in the works and the main reasons for
the trackpad size expansion that no-one in particular was asking for.

------
rasz_pl
I told you SSD will be permanently soldered to the PCB, received downvotes in
return :)

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12826005](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12826005)

Apple finally decided with this round of macbooks to shift from producing
laptops into content consumption appliances like iPhone. Next step of this
internal plan involves processors.

~~~
audunw
".. content consumption appliances like .."

That's still quite a hyperbole isn't it?

Is 40Gbps Thunderbolt 3 for content consumption? Is 3.1/2.1Gbps SSD for
content consumption? Edit: Is a super accurate and wide color gamut screen for
content consumption?

"Next step of this internal plan involves processors."

What exactly are you alluding to here? Apple designing its own processor? x86
or ARM? Do you think Apple will go through another architecture switch on
macOS?

Laptops are going to become even more integrated. That's just physics. Long,
wide traces are not good for either power consumption or bandwidth.

But how that will manifest in future MacBooks is hard to say. They could still
go for off-the-shelf components and packages (probably Intel will start to
deliver processors with stacked or silicon interposer bonded RAM). But it
would make some sense for them to design their own processors. Though Intel is
still really far ahead in semiconductor process and processor architecture.
I'm not sure they can come close enough to justify it.

~~~
anonymfus
_> Is 40Gbps Thunderbolt 3 for content consumption?_

Considering that using USB3 bandwidth disables WiFi[1], yes.

[1][https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NYVjIjBMx6o](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NYVjIjBMx6o)

~~~
audunw
See, why do you have to use the "it's for consumers" argument when it doesn't
apply?

If it's a laptop which includes features which is WAY beyond the requirements
of your average consumer, and with the price to boot, it's not a consumer
laptop.

Maybe the specs don't quite match certain specific professional users
requirements. Maybe certain features are broken. Maybe there are flaws in the
product.

Those issues can be addressed on their own.

You don't have to tie it to some misguided idea that Apple is making it with
the intent of content consumption.

That people have to attach their critique to some far-fetched speculation
about Apples motivations signals that they may not think the critique can
stand on its own. Which is a shame, because often it can.

