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MacBook Pro 16" 2019 Teardown

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Re: MacBook Pro 16" 2019 Teardown

#471

Post by newfangle »

mscasts wrote: post #329
epanchin wrote: post #325

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Please stop with the apologetic fanboy rhethoric. It's not helping. I have thrown away several macbooks and I know several people that has too. I used to have Macbooks, I upgraded them with new disks and memory. Today that would not have been possible which is one big reason I would never buy a macbook to begin with. This behavior is bad for all consumers of their products and should not be defended with anecdotal st…

>I have thrown away several macbooks and I know several people that has too

This seems like its explicitly your problem given that apple will take and recycle your old macbooks for free if they are worthless and if they arent they will take them for a credit.

Re: MacBook Pro 16" 2019 Teardown

#472

Post by dkonofalski »

mscasts wrote: post #293

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.

>the most unfixable pieces of hardware possible

Except the huge part that you're missing is that, when they do a swap or a replacement at an Apple store, they don't just throw away the hardware. They send it back to be disassembled, tested, and remanufactured. They re-use a vast amount of these components and all of their warranty devices are remanufactured from good, tested components that were pieced out of larger components. Just because they don't do individual component repairs at the stores doesn't mean it's unfixable hardware.

Re: MacBook Pro 16" 2019 Teardown

#473

Post by slantyyz »

epanchin wrote: post #325
mscasts wrote: post #293

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.

>> I’ve never known anyone to throw away a Mac.

Many people with the overheating 2011 MBPs did.

Even within my very small social circle, I knew of three 2011 15" MBPs (including my own). Of those 3, all of them had to get the recall service, and since then, 2 of those MBPs have become bricks/e-waste.

I've gone through a lot of laptops (PC and Mac, my first was a Powerbook 170), and the only one to ever crap out on me was that 2011 MBP.

When it was working, it was one of the best laptops I ever had. When it had issues, I felt like Apple couldn't care less about the issue. It's pretty well documented that Apple pretended the problem didn't exist for quite some time.

The first logic board replacement (during AppleCare) had the exact same defect as the original board. It displayed the same symptoms within a couple of months, and then it totally crapped out right after AppleCare ended, and there was no way I was going to pay $500+ CAD to replace the logic board with yet another defective board.

I was lucky that the recall was announced before I recycled it (I ended up having to buy a new laptop in the meantime). The recall board has since died as well. The saddest thing is that computer (quad core i7 with 16gb ram) would still be more than usable today if it still worked.

I was completely locked into the Apple ecosystem prior to my 2011 MBP experience. And while I realize that the 2011 MBP is an outlier in terms of Apple product quality, the experience pretty much guaranteed that I'll never buy an Apple product again. There were so many ways they could have made me whole, but instead, they just kept providing a fix to a design defect with another defective part.

Re: MacBook Pro 16" 2019 Teardown

#474

Post by dkonofalski »

jotm wrote: post #36
mumblemumble wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What's interesting about this perception is that PC vendors who do the same things don't catch flak. Presumably because there are still options for PC that are at least theoretically repairable and built to last. I wonder what would happen in a hypothetical world where there were pro and non-Pro Apple laptops, but the only real difference between them were that the Pro laptops had replaceable parts, and were however…

That's because Apple is the only hardware provider for Mac OS X. If you just want Windows or Linux, you have a lot of choices. If you want OS X, there's no choice but to put up with whatever hardware Apple gives you.

That's not entirely true with Hackintoshes being a thing now.

Re: MacBook Pro 16" 2019 Teardown

#475

Post by slantyyz »

simonh wrote: post #310
mscasts wrote: post #293

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.…

>> If making the device upgradable and accessible adds the same percentage in materials then it's pretty much a wash.

In the case of Apple products, it can save you a pile of money.

The last Mac I bought was the early 2011 MBP (yeah, -that- lemon), and Apple's prices for RAM and storage were ridiculously above market prices.

I was able to max out the specs of my MBP more cheaply by buying my own parts, and upgrading to larger faster storage at my own timeline. Heck, you could even get a cage to replace the optical drive on those MBPs and put in another 2.5" drive (which I did, and it was a very bad decision, especially for battery life).

Re: MacBook Pro 16" 2019 Teardown

#476

Post by freehunter »

guptaneil wrote: post #68
alberth wrote: post #50

Call me crazy but I must be the only person who enjoys typing on the old butterfly keyboard. Yes I was one of those people who originally thought the travel was too small but after using it for a couple hours I found the low travel was a huge relief to Carpal Tunnel and I also typed much faster. Maybe I have the only keyboard that “works” but I love me some butterfly keyboards.

I felt the same way until my butterfly keyboard gradually stopped working and I went back to my old 2014 MBP keyboard, and realized I had developed Stockholm Syndrome. If you haven't already, try switching back to the old (or new) scissor keys and see if you still feel the same.

I have a 2017 for work and a 2015 personal so I use both every day. The 2015 feels mushy compared to the 2017’s clicky.

Re: MacBook Pro 16" 2019 Teardown

#477

Post by atombender »

grecy wrote: post #188
tolmasky wrote: post #165

I went with my gf to take a look at these last night at the Apple store. Her command key has completely stopped working on her 2018 MacBook that otherwise works perfectly fine. It feels clumsily large, especially since we’re coming from MacBook 13s. She kept asking me if I’d heard any rumors about when new 13s would come out. She went in pretty determined to get a new machine but decided to wait. The struggle continu…

I recently bought a used 2015 13inch MPB. Extremely happy.

The 2015 models are great, but their graphics card (which these days is an integrated Intel Iris chip, not a discrete GPU) is severely underpowered. An external 4K screen at "retina"-type resolution will result in noticeable visual lag.

Re: MacBook Pro 16" 2019 Teardown

#478

Post by jacobolus »

kps wrote: post #466
jacobolus wrote: post #191

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Those were great, but having slightly sculpted keytops and longer travel takes an extra 2–3 millimeters of vertical space, which isn’t going to cut it if the #1 goal is for the folded up machine to be as thin as possible. Personally I wish sommeone went back to the keyboards used on IBM 5140 or IBM P70. Probably not too likely though. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_PC_Convertible https://deskthority.net/wiki/IBM_P…

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macintosh_Portable — the last good Apple laptop keyboard.

I should have included that one too. I like the Mac Portable keyboard even better than the IBM 5140 (orange vs. brown Alps SKCM switches were not quite as stiff).

I got a couple of NOS Mac Portable replacement keyboards on ebay a few years ago, but never got around to putting them into a working case.

Re: MacBook Pro 16" 2019 Teardown

#479

Post by sbuk »

mscasts wrote: post #398
sbuk wrote: post #365

Earlier quoted context omitted.

“Fanboy rhetoric”? How does this add to the conversation? Anecdotally (which is all your point boils down to) I know that businesses rarely upgrade machines. Home users rarely do either. Gamers and enthusiasts are the people that tend repair or upgrade. These people are a vanishingly small number. I have no problem with Apple, or anyone else, replacing broken or damaged items with new/refurbished ones, so long as the…

The only reason I added an anecdote was because the entirety of your argument was anecdotal. How you can't see the irony here is beyond me. > I’ve never known anyone to throw away a Mac I'm just telling you that there are people who do that. What are your sources for that business don't upgrade machines? In my experience, business are often the kind of places that actually do upgrade their machines but of course not…

Not the OP...

Re: MacBook Pro 16" 2019 Teardown

#480

Post by _ph_ »

dkonofalski wrote: post #468
_ph_ wrote: post #263

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A modular, easy to repair system would be great, but I would settle for a repairable system. That is, that a trained technician can perform the repairs in a reasonable timeframe without throwing components away, which are not defective. As long as the products are not repairable, we should call Apple out for not being as environment friendly, as they try to present themselves.

They are repairable, just not at their stores. They do swaps at the stores and send out the old parts to be disassembled and remanufactured into warranty exchange parts. They are just as environmentally friendly as they present themselves.

Well, as I wrote, a technician should be able to repair it and that does not mean sending the device around for weeks. Availability of a device is an important thing if you use it for your work. Also, many "repairs" Apple offers are priced such, that quite often the device is totalled. A broken keyboard should cost $100, not >$600. A broken screen cable shouldn't cost > $800. A dead SSD should cost what an SSD does cost.

If you throw away a machine, that for any other brand could have been quickly repaired because it is totalled, this is not environmental friendly, even if Apple recycles the aluminum afterwards.

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