The new MacBook Pro? For all intents and purposes, cannot be serviced.

[thewayne]

Basically it's so thin, and packs in so big a battery etc., that everything had to be glued in to make it fit in as thin a package as Apple wanted. They went to the extreme of manufacturing the Retina display directly in the lid, which means the least problem and it's replacement time, which is VERY expensive.

iFixit, a well-known repair depot for Apple gear who publishes DIY repair manuals, tears apart every Apple product as soon as they get their hands on it. The previous model MacBook Pro's scored 7 of 10 for being repairable, apparently a very good score. The current model? 1/10.

The sad thing about it is that laptop will set you back $2,000. I'm used to paying more for Apple laptops because I think they deliver good value and longer life. But a product that cannot be serviced? If I could get a four-year warranty on it, that would be one thing.

This is going to make my next laptop purchase very difficult. My first Mac, a MacBook Pro, was bought around five years ago and it was retired last December, replaced with an Air. Though there are no user-servicable components, to the best of my knowledge it is serviceable. I got a good four and a half years out of my first, and I think that is an acceptable lifespan for a laptop, especially as much as mine travels. A $6-700 laptop, obviously not an Apple, that lasts three years and can't be serviced? Wouldn't sting as much.

http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2012/06/macbook-pro-unfixable/

Comments

[silveradept]

We can stomach it some when Apple gives us gadgets with no user-replacable batteries when they don't cost us much, although the landfill and the poisons....


...but a full computer that's this way, with no user-serviceable parts? I think that's a step or five too far, especially because there's going to be something that breaks easily and then forces people into the decision of having o decide whether they're going to live with it or by an entirely new computer. We're not to that point yet.

[thewayne.livejournal.com]

One thing that I did not realize when I posted this was that they're talking specifically about the MacBook Pros with the Retina display. The standard MacBook Pro is totally serviceable and rated 7/10 from iFixIt.

[silveradept]

That's good, but that still means anyone who wants the newest shiniest toy is going to have to set aside money to buy their replacement and be religious about backups to external storage.