Apple’s new entry-level notebook, weighing in at 3.02 pounds, received the teardown treatment following the company’s “Hello Again” event on Thursday. OWC discovered some key details about the laptop that the company hadn’t previous revealed, including information about its Solid State Drive.
During the unboxing and teardown, it was discovered that the SSD is actually removable, which will let users replace or upgrade the storage space that comes with their MacBook, rather than paying for more space up front at a marked up cost.
As for the bottom of the device, OWC had more difficulty removing it than with previous generations of the MacBook, but it was still not glued, so it won’t be a messy exercise if you find yourself needing to remove it.
In addition to the ability to remove the bottom, the speaker modules need to be removed in order to pull back the Solid State Drive, which itself had very strong tape covering its interface port.
While Apple is notorious for its closed-system design allowing for very minimal customization or modularity for its devices, the new 13” MacBook’s flexibility with the norm is welcomed, although OWC hints that the teardown wasn’t the most simple process.
It was also noted that the laptop automatically turns on when the user opens the lid, regardless of whether you press the power button or not.
While it’s an encouraging find that the SSD in this model is not soldered to the logic board, it remains unknown whether the MacBook Pro models with the Touch Bar share the same build. It has been common practice for Apple to release its device variants with similar builds, so the possibility remains promising.
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