Skip to main content

MacBook Pro with Retina display dismantled by iFixit, revealing soldered RAM

MacBook Pro with Retina display dismantled by iFixit, revealing soldered RAM

/

A teardown of the MacBook Pro with Retina display by iFixit confirms many of the components we already knew and reveals several things that will make repair more difficult.

Share this story

The MacBook Pro with Retina display has barely been out two days, but we can now see what's inside it courtesy of iFixit. Post-teardown, it still looks like a great piece of hardware, but it's also apparent how similar it's becoming to the MacBook Air. As with the Air, the new Pro's RAM is soldered to its logic board, meaning that you'll be stuck with whatever amount you get at point of purchase. It's also using proprietary screws and Flash memory, a first for the MacBook Pro line, and the battery is affixed with glue rather than screws. That makes it much more difficult to replace, especially because it's apparently right above the fragile trackpad cable. The new one-piece screen, meanwhile, means you'll end up replacing the entire assembly if anything goes wrong.

Outside this, the teardown confirmed some things we'd heard about when the new Pro was announced. The fan indeed has asymmetric blade spacing, meant to reduce its noise, and the components are made by Samsung, as one might expect. It's got a 95Wh battery at 10.95V (compared to 77.5Wh previously) and a pair of Broadcom chips with 802.11n dual-band wireless support and Bluetooth 4.0. And that one-piece Retina screen is apparently quite the visual treat. You can find the entire teardown, with pictures, over here.