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MacBook Pro 16" 2019 Teardown

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Re: MacBook Pro 16" 2019 Teardown

#131

Post by Macha »

gnicholas wrote: post #45
bpye wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But it's riveted to the chassis - you cannot replace the keyboard still.

But you can remove and replace the individual keys though, which means if issues arise presumably you wouldn’t need to replace the keyboard wholesale.

I had a Dell keyboard with a similar design years ago. These individual scissor keys were painful to clip replacements (or just popped off keys) on. Dell themselves just replaced entire keyboards.

Assuming given the extra decade, Apple's keys are hopefully more durable, but it's still no pain free job either.

Re: MacBook Pro 16" 2019 Teardown

#132

Post by InitialLastName »

thinkloop wrote: post #91

Why doesn't apple make the touchbar out of keys? The keys could be flat on top and seamlessly adjacent to one another to make a "bar", for sliders and such. But pressable like regular keys to make great buttons (most common use-case). I feel like that is inventable.

There are pretty much two ways to do this, neither one works well:

1) Overlay multiple transparent keys on a single display. This works OK in concept, but is hard to do mechanically gracefully. You would also end up with parallax issues with the touch functionality, if you could even get multi-point touch functionality working on key-faces like that.

2) Keys with small displays and captouch sensors in them: The display tech isn't quite there yet for this, AFAICT. I've seen demos of small, single-color OLEDS embedded in buttons, but none with touch overlays and nothing with a higher end display in them. Additionally, due to the bezel and gaps between the keys, it would be very difficult to get a consistent image across multiple keys/displays.

Re: MacBook Pro 16" 2019 Teardown

#134

Post by mendelmaleh »

Rebelgecko wrote: post #117
paulddraper wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Having the lowest repairability possible should not be acceptable for such a high-end machine. Just wait until you see cell phones.

At least my cell phone has expandable storage. Edit: I thought this was implied, but to clarify I meant "expandable without increasing the footprint of the device".

Any computer with usb ports has 'expandable storage'.

Re: MacBook Pro 16" 2019 Teardown

#135

Post by _ph_ »

bpye wrote: post #5
JohnTHaller wrote: post #2

Most important point: Apple fixed the keyboard by ditching the flawed keyboard used for the past 3 years and returning to the Magic Keyboard scissor switch design. Comparing the 'new' keyboard to the Magic Keyboard: "side by side, we're hard pressed to spot any differences. Scissor switches, keycaps... There's slightly less space surrounding these new keys, and pundits will celebrate those reconfigured arrow keys—but…

But it's riveted to the chassis - you cannot replace the keyboard still.

This is something I don't get. It would have been reasonable to design the keybord that it can be exchanged, even if it some effort. While I like the improvents of this iteration, it shouldn't be that unrepairable. A MB Pro is an expensive device, but that is ok, if you get the appropriate quality. Making the machine a write off, if there is a problem after the mandatory Apple-care runs out, does mean it is much less value than if it were reasonably repairable.

Re: MacBook Pro 16" 2019 Teardown

#136

Post by dddddaviddddd »

Mobius01 wrote: post #9

I just replaced the keyboard on a ThinkPad T440p, and it didn’t seem to add a significant bulk to the machine’s profile. It took me 2 minutes flat.

I'm a bit disappointed by the plastic tabs in newer ThinkPads -- managed to break a couple replacing the RAM in my T480.

Re: MacBook Pro 16" 2019 Teardown

#137

Post by InitialLastName »

outworlder wrote: post #104
blacksmith_tb wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the distinction being made is that something for casual use (like a Chromebook, or an iPad) doesn't really carry with it the expectation that you will be repairing or upgrading components - if something fails, you replace the whole (relatively cheap) device. For a machine that has a pricetag in the thousands, not hundreds, of dollars/euro, that isn't a very appealing approach...

Hopefully you'll have Apple care, which will allow you to replace the whole machine without paying for an entirely new one. If you need it for a living, it's a no brainer. Is it malfunctioning? Take it to an Apple store, grab a brand new device, restore it from Time Machine and resume where you left off. You could be back up and running in a couple of hours as if nothing had happened. You could potentially waste a lo…

That's also a reason to make it less repairable. If you can replace parts with aftermarket parts, the gray area of applecare support is much bigger.

People who are using these computers "professionally" mostly don't want to fiddle with modifying them. They want a computer that will be reliable, and whose failure will cost them the smallest work interruption.

Re: MacBook Pro 16" 2019 Teardown

#138

Post by benologist »

thinkloop wrote: post #91

Why doesn't apple make the touchbar out of keys? The keys could be flat on top and seamlessly adjacent to one another to make a "bar", for sliders and such. But pressable like regular keys to make great buttons (most common use-case). I feel like that is inventable.

Why don't they just do a BTO without it and please both sides?

Re: MacBook Pro 16" 2019 Teardown

#139

Post by [deleted] »

saagarjha wrote: post #128
henryfjordan wrote: post #120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not sure, I've never tried installing Linux on a Macbook Pro. I know that it is/was possible for certain hardware but also that it was never easy or straight forward. Apple doesn't help but they aren't making their laptops reject unsigned code or anything like they do for the phones. Given that OSX and Linux are so similar under the hood and that standing up a VM is so easy, I've never really seen the point of in…

> Given that OSX and Linux are so similar under the hood and that standing up a VM is so easy Similar in what way?

[deleted]

Re: MacBook Pro 16" 2019 Teardown

#140

Post by henryfjordan »

saagarjha wrote: post #128
henryfjordan wrote: post #120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not sure, I've never tried installing Linux on a Macbook Pro. I know that it is/was possible for certain hardware but also that it was never easy or straight forward. Apple doesn't help but they aren't making their laptops reject unsigned code or anything like they do for the phones. Given that OSX and Linux are so similar under the hood and that standing up a VM is so easy, I've never really seen the point of in…

> Given that OSX and Linux are so similar under the hood and that standing up a VM is so easy Similar in what way?

They both share their roots in Unix. Linux is an open port of Unix whereas OSX is a fork of BSD which is itself also derived from Unix

`ls`, `mv`, `cp` and other command line utility functions work relatively similarly across OSX and Linux. OSX has a package manager (brew) that works similarly to Package Managers found on Linux, etc...

If you learn to use Linux, switching to OSX is relatively painless compared to Windows (although WSL might have changed that)

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