I love how Apple claim to care so much about the environment and then goes on to create basically the most unfixable pieces of hardware possible. Great job, really awesome for the environment Apple.
I’ve never known anyone to throw away a Mac. They get used until the temptation to upgrade becomes too big, then sold onto someone with different needs. I don’t have a Mac, and I think they should be more repairable, but I still think they’re ahead of most the rest.
iFixit, the site that did the teardown, measures the repairability of equipment according to objective criteria and rates it. Apple does not typically score well at all.
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.
It's not something manufacturer do since it can be time consuming, but if you have a spare afternoon it's fairly easy to do.
The only cases where I have personally seen that a whole keyboard replacement was needed were those caused by a liquid spill, but Apple is never going to cover those since they could easily damage the logic board and you wouldn't be "safe" even after months.
But yes, at the end of the day using screws instead of rivets would be better for everyone
Soldering it down doesn't provide any quantifiable performance improvements. It probably allows them to make it smaller / thinner, and less expensive to manufacture. However, now if any one component (memory, CPU, SSD drive) goes bad the entire set must be tossed! When this happens, it will be expensive for the unlucky customer. All so Apple could avoid including a bit more plastic for the component sockets. Also, SS…
I am one of those up to 100GB/day developers. Reason: handling huge codebases (Chromium, among others) and working with VMs, which also extensively increases the write volume. My top day saw multiple TB written on a single day.
But even I don't seriously fear my MacBook pro SSD will die because of write load. I've done the math, and I should be good for way longer than the projected use of the laptop.
My actual annoyance is the inability to upgrade. I would love to make use of the currently laughable prices for m.2 SSDs and upgrade the 1TB internal storage to 2TB or more. But I can't, thanks to soldered storage.
i don't get it. what does one thing have to do with the other? i assume no-one's going to throw their macbook in the trashcan anytime soon, so i don't see the connection between the ability to repair the device and how bad that device is for the environment.
After Apple care expires, many repairs are so expensive that you have to consider the MB totalled, that means, you are throwing away a device that should be repairable. A keyboard exchange should cost between $100 and $200, not in excess of $600.
so basically the problem is offering cheaper repairs? that should be relatively easy to solve, no?
I love how Apple claim to care so much about the environment and then goes on to create basically the most unfixable pieces of hardware possible. Great job, really awesome for the environment Apple.
Only a tiny percentage of laptops are ever upgraded. If making the device upgradable and accessible adds the same percentage in materials then it's pretty much a wash. Also Apple devices on average have much longer service lives than devices from most other manufacturers. On average they stay usable longer, and even when they are replaced they're more likely to be handed on and keep in use even without upgradability.…
I feel like much of these claims are only in the past. I used my 2009 Macbook for 5 or so years, and it only lasted that long because I was able to upgrade it. It came with a comical 2GB of ram, and that would have been a trash—as in worthless to me—if it couldn't be upgraded. I was able to sell it, only because they're desirable, and they used to be more reliable. The latter quality is not so evident any more. Many naive customers are duped into buying the bottom of the line MBP or Air, and then are dumbfounded when their thing runs out of resources. I blame apple for making less reliable products for higher margins and offering their customers less agency over their devices. Their marketing pitch is usually that you should have to know the details, but you do, because they're trying to screw you. The people with money to blow I'm not so concerned about, it's more the person who buys a 13" MBP for 2k that has 4GB of ram and 128gb ssd, and can't ever upgrade the thing.
Seriously, fuck off, Apple. Gluing and rivets - does this actually accomplish any kind of real measurable cost-saving or just introduce bullshit vendor lock-in? Same deal for soldered RAM. Pro-tip for everyone wanting to LEAVE Tim Cook's sinking hardware ship: Buy a Dell XPS 15, install Linux and enjoy being able to: 1. Upgrade your own RAM 2. Install a second 2.5" SSD 3. Being able to easily remove components from t…
I keep looking at the Dell XPS 15, but several colleagues at work have horror stories about Dell laptops with faults and bad service. I've seen similar stories online.
At least with Apple I can walk into the store and talk to somebody face-to-face.
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…
This is one of the reasons I didn't buy any new MBP after 2016 anymore.
I was so unsatisfied with many changes ranging from the keyboard disaster to the loss of ports that are still industry standard and used every day for some years to come.
Probably this is the start for Apple to find back to some quality and say goodbye to strange experiments. Users should feel good using a device and not pay a lot of $$$ to become Beta-Test Lab Rats.
For a while they built computers to be servicable. See the ibook or the original unibody macbooks. It changed recently at least only in 2012.
Or the Mac Pro. While it’s not a laptop, the original cheese grater Mac Pro is a delight to open up. It’s amazing to see what Apple can come up with when they make serviceability a central design goal. The new one looks nice too, though it seems significantly overpriced.
Yes, this! I haven't even booted my ancient (2006?) mac pro in a couple years, but have kept it bc it's so easy to imagine happily rebuilding something modern inside it.
I just bought one and have been using it for a couple of days. So far so good. I still hate the TouchBar because it's completely useless, but the Esc key and directional keys was enough for me. I also have a 2018 MBP from work and the keyboard is shit. Within 3 weeks it was doubletyping and putting random .'s everywhere. I was days away from buying the top end Vaio and then I heard the news about the new MBP and deci…
For those who can't upgrade yet, there is an open source utility, Unshaky ( https://unshaky.nestederror.com/ ), that can help with double presses. It's sad and gross that it is necessary but it works well on my aging MBP.
You should be able to get the keyboard replaced for free, I just haven't found the time yet to go to an Apple store, but you shouldn't need to pay money and upgrade to fix this issue.