* Posts by Arthur Reader

1 publicly visible post • joined 7 May 2015

Apple MacBook 2015: Twelve inches of slim and shiny fanboi joy

Arthur Reader

It's a MacBook appliance designed to die

What Apple have done is create a laptop as an appliance like an iPad only much worse. It's got designed obsolescence built in.

If you check out ifixit.com's teardown at https://www.ifixit.com/Teardown/Retina+Macbook+2015+Teardown/39841 you'll discover that this thing has been carefully engineered to be practically impossible to upgrade or repair in any significant way.

*Proprietary screws to hold some components together.

*The batteries are glued down into the case - so when the batteries die, end of laptop. Buy another

*The Retina display is a fused unit - no way to change anything in it.

*The processor, RAM and flash memory have been SOLDERED to the motherboard - problems with any of those things and you're screwed.

*The motherboard is glued to the case.

*Everything connects through one USB-c connector, power and peripherals, the lot - when that wears out you buy another laptop.

This thing is designed to have a limited lifespan. It's the ultimate throw-away laptop appliance for rich people, because the first component to fail causes the laptop to be useless. It's designed for landfill only.

ifixit.com gave it 1/10 (its lowest score) for maintainability.

If Apple had put a clock showing how long you've got left before it's garbage, it could not have done more to be an expensive throw-away.