iFixit has gotten its hands on the 2019 13-inch MacBook Pro that was released this week, giving a detailed look at the changes under the hood. The base 13-inch Pro has a marginally larger battery, modular ports, but now has a soldered-down SSD. The teardown also checks out the notebook’s keyboard and more.
Apple has been keeping iFixit busy lately. After the company’s teardown of the new AirPods found two quality improvements, and little in the way of surprises in the iPad mini 5, iFixit decided it was time for the new iPad Air teardown.
The x-ray and teardown confirm the good news for iPad Air buyers …
A new Apple product is out, and it of course hasn’t taken iFixit long to do its usual teardown – as well as x-rays (above). As you’d expect from the largely unchanged exterior, the iFixit teardown of new AirPods finds very few changes from the first generation, but does see two apparent improvements to the build quality …
iFixit has launched a new campaign today called “I’m a Genius” to encourage anyone and everyone to repair their own devices. The initiative calls out how companies use marketing and other strategies to make repair seem out of reach for most people, despite it being doable for anyone. iFixit is also giving away $1,000 worth of tools as part of the campaign.
If you can remember what happened a year ago, the BatteryGate furore led Apple to reduce the cost of iPhone battery replacements from $79 to $29. Apple ended the discount at the end of 2018. iFixit today announced that they are not ending their price match and will continue selling their iPhone battery replacement kits for $29.99 through 2019.
Some MacBook Pro owners have complained of a ‘stage light’ effect, where they see uneven backlighting at the bottom of the display. For some, the symptom is only the first stage, with the backlight failing altogether.
iFixit says that it has identified the cause – and the way in which Apple changed the design of the Touch Bar generation for the MacBook Pro turns what would otherwise be a $6 fix into a $600 nightmare …
One thing you can be sure of with any new Apple device: it won’t be long before iFixit takes it apart to show us what’s inside, and assess how repairable it is. The company has today published its 11-inch iPad Pro teardown.
The new iPad Pro 11” sports narrower bezels, curvy LCD corners, and cutting edge silicon. This is apparently the iPad Apple dreamed about building from the very beginning, but what we dream about is a device that is easy to repair. Will this iPad fulfill both dreams, or will ours be left in the pipe? There’s only one way to tell—with a teardown …
iFixit is out with its Retina MacBook Air teardown. While there are some notable repairability improvements, Apple’s latest notebook got its lowest marks for non-serviceable, non-replaceable RAM and storage. However, overall, it scored higher than the 2018 MacBook Pro and the 2017 MacBook.
Along with the announcement of upgraded IP68 dust and water protection on the iPhone XS and XS Max, Phil Schiller described a variety of other liquids that Apple tested the device in during the keynote. Now, iFixit is having some fun with those claims with some iPhone beer testing!
We’ve already seen one iPhone XS teardown from a Dutch company who managed to get their hands on one early, but now iFixit is here with its usual detailed breakdown of what it has found inside.
The company reports that while much is unchanged from the iPhone X, there are a few differences, not all of them yet mentioned by Apple …
iFixit has now posted its teardown of the HomePod, shining light on exactly what is beneath the seamless fabric mesh. The company says that the HomePod is built like a tank, so whilst it only scores 1/10 on the repairability scale it is made to last. It was apparently one of the hardest ever projects, with iFixit even resorting to a hacksaw at one stage.
The teardown reveals how the Siri waveform is formed on the top of the speaker; an LED matrix sits just below the surface with the light blurred by a diffuser. You also get to see Apple’s custom tweeters, including a special mechanism of powering them; the gold screw posts conduct electricity through the unit.
After Apple reduced its iPhone battery-swap price to just $29 as part of an apology for its handling of the performance-throttling controversy, iFixit has done the same for its DIY kits for older devices …
iFixit has launched a new range of Fix Kits for the iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus for affordable do-it-yourself repairs at home. Specialized kits include parts and tools for screen swaps, batteries replacements, and more so you can avoid expensive repair costs.
Recent MacBooks aren’t exactly noted for their repairability, a change that started in 2012 with the 15-inch MacBook Pro with Retina display. Among the many changes introduced was a battery very firmly glued to the chassis, making it next to impossible to replace.
But iFixit likes a challenge, and has now come up with a DIY battery replacement kit which it reckons allows the job to be tackled by mere mortals …
iFixit has completed its teardown of the new 10.5-inch iPad, and reports that the internal design is that of a scaled-down 12.9-inch model rather than a scaled-up version of the 9.7-inch version.
The internal layout of the 9.7″ Pro was strikingly similar to the standard iPad—while the 12.9″ Pro had a completely new internal layout […] But it looks like Apple has moved from iPad Pro experimentation to standardization. An open-faced 10.5″ iPad Pro is essentially a scaled-down, streamlined version of its 12.9″ predecessor …
When Apple announced the new low-cost 9.7-inch iPad, both looks and spec seemed to suggest that it was essentially an original iPad Air with minor updates, and that’s exactly what iFixit found beneath the hood when it did its usual teardown.
So remember how we said this was similar to the first Air? We were serious—take a look inside the Air 1 and iPad 5 respectively. Not much has changed.
The company did find a few changes – but also cast some doubt on Apple’s claim that this model offers a brighter display …
For this week’s 9to5Rewards, we’re giving away some iFixit swag, straight from the website that’s best known for their teardowns of iPhones, Android phones and other gadgets. This week we’re giving away about a few repair kits to three lucky 9to5Google readers…
The folks over at iFixit have once again teamed up with Creative Electron’s Bill Cardoso to bring us X-ray images of the latest hot Apple tech. This time around the subject of the X-ray images is Apple’s hard-to-get AirPods. But unlike previous images of the iPhone 7 Taptic Engine and Apple Watch S1 chip, Creative Electron has served up a unique 3D image that provides us with a remarkably-detailed look inside the shell of the AirPods.
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It’s been a year and a half since iFixit tore into the flagship 9.7-inch tablet from Apple, and now it’s finally time to look inside the smaller iPad Pro and see what it’s really made of. What you’ll find is your typical mix of components from Samsung, Bosch Sensortec, NXP Semiconductors, and others, plus a whole lot of battery. Cutting to the chase, iFixit rates the smaller iPad Pro’s repairability at a low 2 out of 10, which is the same as the iPad Air 2 it replaces but one point below what it rated the 12.9-inch iPad Pro last year. Here’s what’s inside the 9.7-inch iPad Pro and why iFixit says it’s not so repairable…
The iPad Pro accessories, Apple Pencil and Smart Keyboard, may be in short supply worldwide but that doesn’t stop iFixit from tearing them down. The Apple Pencil teardown demonstrated some clever internal component miniaturization and the Smart Keyboard has similar tricks. Most notably, the teardown shows Apple’s “conductive fabric material” that runs down the length of the accessory. Rather than trailing wire or a ribbon cable inside the keyboard, Apple is using special fabric that can send power and data in both directions. iFixit believes this has durability benefits too, claiming it should be less likely to break than normal wiring would over the course of the product’s lifetime.
In fact, in general, the Smart Keyboard is praised for its durability here. The entire product is encased in a rich fabric for water and stain resistance leaving no visible holes; iFixit literally had to cut their way inside the keyboard. Inside, there are a lot of protective layers to keep the components in place. The less good news is that iFixit scored the Smart Keyboard a 0/10 for repairability as any attempt to get to the internals involves damaging the device permanently.
No new Apple tech survives long without being taken apart by iFixit, and the Apple Pencil is no exception. Apple didn’t make it easy, however, with iFixit having to resort to a small circular saw to open up the device and needing to break a flex cable along the way.
Inside, it found that the plastic outer casing reveals a metal inner one. The tip contains two separate emitters, used to determine both the angle and orientation of the Pencil in order to adjust the width of the pen stroke. With such little space to play with, Apple had to get creative with the logic board …
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It’s no surprise that the people over at repair guide portal iFixit have already started their ritual teardown of Apple’s new iPad Pro. The new device features a larger 12.9-inch display, the 3rd generation 64-bit A9X chip, and other upgraded internals, but are there any other new surprises inside the iPad Pro?
Apple debuted new versions of its Mac peripherals on Tuesday with the Magic Mouse 2, Magic Keyboard, and Magic Trackpad 2, replacing the aging AA battery-powered predecessors with versions that use Lightning cables to recharge built-in batteries. We’ve already seen hands-on unboxings for anyone interested but not curious enough to dish out the $330 total for all the new Magic gear, and now iFixit has followed up with the usual teardown and repairability analysis for each new Apple accessory.
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