Apple MacBook Air has been torn down by iFixit.com and the website came up with some interesting facts about the device. iFixit took apart the 11.6inch version. The new MacBook Air models are thinner and lighter than its predecessors and come with more I/O ports. However, Apple made huge trade offs to achieve this slim size. MacBook Air has limited processing power, lower storage capacity, no optical drive, lower memory, no Firewire, and the worst you can not upgrade the hardware.
The MacBook Air is like an impenetrable fortress and all its components are fixed with Apple’s proprietary Torx screws and even if you manage to look inside there is no hope because all the components of the device are fixed with the logic board. They can not be replaced. Most of the parts are customized and you would not get them in any regular store.
The bottom part is fixed with 5-point security Torx screws. Inside Apple used normal 6-point T5 and T8 Torx screws.
Changes:
The new MacBook Air models comes with two USB 2.0 ports. There is an extra USB on the right edge of the machine. Apple scrapped the flip-open door, IR sensor and sleep LED. Apple also shed off the 45gram HDD that can be found in earlier MacBook Airs and used SSDs weighing only 10grams. Due to the flash drive, the machine takes less time to start up.
Battery:
The battery takes up majority of the space inside the machine. Upon opening up the bottom case, the first thing you would see is six separate lithium-polymer cells which makes up the 35 Watt hour battery. These cells are held by five T5 Torx screws. Crunchgear.com says:
As you can see, by far the largest component is the battery cells, which have been split and spread out for maximum balance and heat dispersal. This thing is going to get warm, especially when charging. Remember to use a pillow or lap desk if you’re going to do some couch computing, or else be at risk for toasted skin syndrome.
The batteries themselves total 35 watt-hours; a little calculation puts the 11.6″ MacBook Air’s power consumption at a rather low 7W when active, and 50 milliwatts when sleeping. You can thank LED backlighting, a low-voltage processor, and solid-state storage for that.
Chips, memory and SSD:
The MacBook Air contains Broadcom BCM943224 Wi-Fi/Bluetooth chip that can also be found in MacBook Pro series notebooks. The chips used in Air come in a different form factor.
The BCM5976 chip powers the multi-touch trackpad.
iFixit suggests that people should go for the 4GB RAM instead of 2GB because it is irreplaceable. It soldered to the logic board which means whatever you choose you have to live with it for the rest of your life.
The 64GB SSD can store two songs and one movie. It comprises of four 16GB flash chips from Toshiba. There is also a Toshiba T6UG1XBG SSD controller and Micron DDR DRAM cache chip. Like all other parts, the SSD is screwed to the logic board with T5 Torx screws but you can remove them easily. The SSD uses a mini-SATA connector which means hackers can increase their machine’s storage capacity but there is a catch, it would have to fit into the frame of the machine.
Display:
The MacBook Air has a LED-backlit display with an improved resolution of 1366 x 768 pixels that is almost equal to the 13inch MacBook and MacBook pros. The screen is also the most expensive component of the device costing Apple $180.
Speaker:
The MacBook Air speakers are quite powerful. According to iFixit, they are probably one or two watts.
Score:
In terms of repairability, iFixit gives the new MacBook Air a score of 4 out of 10. It is very difficult to open the machine and customized components inside.
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