New Mac Mini and Macbook Air are Surprisingly Repairable

AlphaAtlas

AlphaAtlas

[H]ard|Gawd
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Apple's devices have been getting more difficult to repair every year, and they've even taken legal action against unauthorized repairs. However, 2 recent teardowns on iFixit suggest that Apple might be backing down a little. While the new Macbook Air still has soldered RAM and flash, iFixit was "pleasantly surprised by the Air’s relative repairability". Meanwhile, removable RAM has returned in the new Mac Mini, and it's not as hard to pry open anymore. That may not sound particularly positive, but it's still a significant improvement over Apple's other recent laptops and Minis.

Removable RAM, oodles of ports, and a serious fan make us wonder why this mini didn’t earn a "Pro" moniker. Back in the good old days, a Pro Mac was a Mac you could configure, upgrade, and connect to your heart's content. The dismal Pro notebook line has strayed from the light in recent years, but these late 2018 devices are starting to make us feel a little hopeful again.
 
I can see them making easier cause I am sure even their "Genius" bar tech have problems doing warranty repairs.
 
vegeta535 said:
I can see them making easier cause I am sure even their "Genius" bar tech have problems doing warranty repairs.
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I assume this has more to do with warranty costs than employee skill. Apple's current "integrate everything into the mobo" scheme is pretty easy for techs. They just send you a new base and have you swap the customer's display onto it. I bet essentially giving customers new computers under warranty because a $50 ram chip failed just isn't as profitable as they predicted.
 
Kardonxt said:
I assume this has more to do with warranty costs than employee skill. Apple's current "integrate everything into the mobo" scheme is pretty easy for techs. They just send you a new base and have you swap the customer's display onto it. I bet essentially giving customers new computers under warranty because a $50 ram chip failed just isn't as profitable as they predicted.
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But now the storage is soldered to the board. And I've seen many Apple laptops with defective SSDs. Well see how it goes.
 
Glock24 said:
But now the storage is soldered to the board. And I've seen many Apple laptops with defective SSDs. Well see how it goes.
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Yep, thatls exactly my point. Repairs are extremely easy for apple store employees because they practically replace the entire computer for any normal repairs. However they have gotten very expensive too. This change may be a reflection of that.
 
The new Mac Mini is pretty good for repairability, but it could be better. Namely, CPU not being soldered and the cables being more easily reachable and not requiring absolutely ridiculous screws.

It's a step in the right direction, but it's not quite enough to say it's repairable, in the same way you can say a Dell laptop is repairable.
 
I was somewhat interested in the latest Mac Mini release. Nice that ram can be upgraded - Apple charges a ridiculous price to do this. It's a shame storage can't be user upgraded. I guess you buy base storage, then get external storage to supplement it.
I'm wondering when the new Mac Pro is coming out. The garbage can version is quite old and was a piss poor design. The old Mac Pro's were decent systems. Apple really doesn't have anything like it now.
 
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