Apple's MacBook Neo makes repairs easier and cheaper than other MacBooks

0xDEFACED

i sure hope so if apple intends to sell these things to school divisions. the levels of abuse i witnessed students dishing out to their chromebooks when i was a teacher was shocking to say the least

entropicdrifter

I feel like "most repairable macbook" is a bit like saying "most edible dirt". While it's good that there's progress, it's pretty telling that they need to only compare it within the same company's products.

Someone1234

I just want to link this teardown; it is a suitable companion to this article: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5k7Lv7f-5CQ On a rational level it isn't surprising that the "compute" part is so small, given its origins, but for some reason it still caught me by surprised seeing something barely larger than a Raspberry Pi. But, yeah, this thing is crazy modular. I particularly want to call out how trivial it is to replace the ports, given how common of a failure point they are. With the keyboard/monitor being more involved, but absolutely still approachable. I believe he finds just a single piece of light adhesive keeping a cable in place, everything else (inc. the battery) is screws only.

drooopy

This is probably going to be my new laptop next year if it gets the A19 Pro with 12 GB of RAM.

oybng

Just 20 steps and 18 screws to replace a battery, easy!

newsclues

I'm not sure if it's possible, but an aftermarket battery with closer to the MB Airs KW/h specs would be a very interesting modification. The repairability seems to be interesting especially if it leads to framework style upgradability (logic boards, not the ports).

needSomeCoffee

Wow. Beautiful engineering. Please, please Apple use this ethos for all future major laptop re-designs e.g. MBA & MBP.

cwoolfe

Repairability and cost are key for the education market. Apple sold iPads into this space for awhile but there's been pushback and talk of going to chromebooks. Seems like they are positioning Neo for this segment as well.

euroderf

Is the Neo in a price range where it could be attached to a robot chassis as its processsor and UI ? Connectivity, video, audio, status display, even a Max Headroom. USB-C plug-n-go.

edhelas

So basically they are trying to reach what Lenovo and others are doing for years. Nice Apple. That's good :)

ajay-b

This is really good to read. I hung on to my 2012 MBP for the replaceable battery, hard drive, and memory far longer than I wanted to. It's great having a thinner machine, but repairability - really extending its longevity - will always be a huge selling point for me. I have bitterly disliked the idea of "disposable technology."

vablings

Would I be a little crazy to buy one of these and make an SBC adaptor board. Also getting IOS to run on these devices might not be astronomically difficult considering we have seen quite a few M series iPad running MacOS

wvenable

The teardown is impressive. The next question is whether anyone other than Apple will be able to get parts.

anhner

Thanks, EU! A lot more gadgets will come out this year with improved repairability because of an EU requirement starting next year: https://repair.eu/news/making-batteries-removable-and-replac...

prmoustache

Apple care has always seemed like an extortion scheme to me yet Apple owners seemed to feel it was a good deal, not realizing that you shouldn't even have to replace stuff before the 7 to 10 years mark appart maybe for the battery. Judging by the sorry state of most second hand Macbook it really feel that they have made their hardware disposable (despite using relatively premium hardware like aluminum compared to plastic stuff on some brands) to force people to subscribe to it. Not that they are the only one to make shitty unreliable stuff (looking at you Asus, Acer and most brand's "family" lines).

tsunamifury

this is a re-arranged iPhone inside a larger case with a bigger battery no?

brudgers

The bar set by “Cheaper to repair than other Apple laptops” is wheelchair accessible.

Brajeshwar

Wishful thinking: Apple releases Veronica Veronica is an ultra-light MacBook based on Neo, lighter than the MacBook Air. It becomes way more powerful once you connect your iPhone directly. Reference: Veronica is the Iron Man Armor that snaps onto Iron Man to handle Hulk.

wolvoleo

The one thing I'd really miss here is the backlit keyboard. Too bad they cut it. And made it not even an option. Including that omission it's very reminiscent of the surface laptop go. I'm surprised other reviews haven't made that connection. Similar price, features, the works. Even missing the fingerprint on the base model, just like the surface laptop go. The funky colours. People are acting like apple invented this class of midrange laptop but they didn't.