Skip to main content

M2 MacBook Pro teardown shows it’s eerily familiar — with one catch

In a roughly five-minute-long video, the repair firm iFixit finds that Apple’s latest flagship 13-inch laptop with M2 Chip might be eerily close to the previous version, but with one small catch.

Overall, the teardown showcases that the new M2 MacBook Pro design isn’t all too different from the original MacBook Pro with an M1 chip. The chassis, touch bar, and display are all identical, along with the internal components like cables and grounding pins that connect them together. Only the logic board, and heat sync, are visually different, with heat sync having rounded corners on the M1 and the M2 having square corners.

The m2 Macbook Pro on top of the m1 Macbook pro.
iFixit

iFixit also tried to swap out the logic board from an M2 MacBook and put it in an M1 MacBook Pro. The fit was perfect, and the machine with the M1 chassis and newly placed M2 chip did boot but it did not read the trackpad or the keyboard and Touch ID sensor. This suggests that Apple has some kind of software block to prevent swapping components, despite size considerations not being an issue.

Recommended Videos

“We find the decision to disable the trackpad and keyboard baffling, if intentional. The parts are clearly cross-compatible, and we’re again faced with what seems like an attempt to block repairs and replacements with software locks,” said iFixit during the teardown.

As for the documented read/write speed and performance issue with the solid-state drive onboard the new M2 MacBook Pro, iFixit confirmed what many suggested might cause the issue. The teardown confirms the choice of Apple only using one NAND chip on the M2 Macbook Pro’s solid-state drive, versus the two on the original M1 MacBook Pro. IFixit said that this makes perfect sense, and suggested this could be to the supply chain issue set forth by the global pandemic.

Overall, iFixit believes that the M2 MacBook Pro is a missed opportunity for Apple to have introduced an upgradeable device. This is not too surprising though, as Apple has been known to use software locks on components on its products. That’s why it launched the self-repair program, which lets users buy official parts and tools to repair their own products at home.

Arif Bacchus
Arif Bacchus is a native New Yorker and a fan of all things technology. Arif works as a freelance writer at Digital Trends…
Apple silicon has made the MacBook Pro a consumer favorite
Someone using a MacBook Pro at a desk.

Apple’s computer lineup has greatly benefitted from its update to the M4 chip in 2024. The brand introduced the M4 MacBook Pro and iMac lines in the last year– and research has further indicated that Apple’s decision to shift from Intel processors to proprietary silicon was a solid move. It has made consumers favor Apple laptops more. 

According to statistics from Consumer Intelligence Research Partners (CIRP), MacBook form factors, in either MacBook Pro or MacBook Air made up 86% of Apple’s PC market share in 2024. Consumers especially favored the M4 MacBook Pro at a rate of 53%, while 33% of MacBook Air models shipped during the year, and 14% of iMac models. These figures vary only slightly from the year prior; however, CIRP noted that Apple appears to have weathered any fluctuations that may have occurred due to the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Read more
Here’s how Apple’s first foldable MacBook might win me over
The Zenbook Fold 17 open on a table.

Rumors have persisted for years now that Apple is working on a touchscreen MacBook, but I’ve never been truly convinced. For one thing, I don’t see how a touchscreen could improve my MacBook experience enough to justify the inevitable price rise. This is Apple we’re talking about, after all, and there’s just no way that a touchscreen MacBook will possibly come cheap.

As well as that, I’ve long agreed with Steve Jobs’ belief that adding a touchscreen to a regular MacBook is an ergonomic nightmare. Constantly reaching up to the display is a quick way to exhaust your arms, and paining its users isn’t really part of Apple’s playbook. The Mac operating system isn’t designed for touch either, and in any case, adding a touchscreen would result in all manner of greasy fingerprints on your monitor. It’s never seemed like a good idea to me.

Read more
The M4 MacBook Air is displaying some odd behavior we don’t understand yet
Apple MacBook Air 15 M4 front angled view showing display and keyboard.

People are getting their hands on the new M4 MacBook Air this week, which means they're posting lots of discoveries about its performance (and the blueness of the new Sky Blue color). While editing photos in Lightroom Classic, YouTuber Vadim Yuryev noticed that the CPU workload was being handled almost completely by the laptop's six efficiency cores.

https://x.com/VadimYuryev/status/1899986842998784243

Read more