- The MacBook Neo was taken apart on YouTube
- The content creator found the laptop incredibly easy to take apart
- This should make repairing much easier than most Apple laptops
Apple laptops have a reputation for being particularly difficult to use once opened, with components often stuck or buried under masses of intricately routed and incredibly delicate cables. So it’s surprising that the all-new MacBook Neo is, in the words of one reviewer, “absolutely incredible” in this regard.
This comes from a teardown video posted by Tech Re-Nu on YouTube. There, the content creator felt that Apple’s latest laptop was exceptionally accommodating for people wanting to open it and access its internals.
For example, Tech Re-Nu pointed out that there were no sticky tabs to hold the MacBook Neo’s speakers in place, while the headphone jack was fully modular, which Tech Re-Nu described as “very good work by Apple.” This follows similar findings from a takedown by YouTuber Dave2D.
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Indeed, Tech Re-Nu was surprisingly enthusiastic in its praise of the MacBook Neo and its teardown process, stating: “I can’t say we’ve ever had a Mac as repairable and as modular as this. No tape, no tricky adhesives, modular parts, minimal parts as well, no hinge covers or anything like that. It’s just a very simple, elegant design.”
Why did Apple do this?
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Apple has often found itself in the crosshairs of right-to-repair activists, who say its tendency to make its laptops difficult to take apart makes them much harder to repair, which can contribute to high levels of e-waste. Additionally, this type of device can become more expensive for users who have to buy a new device when – in theory – they could have repaired it if it were easier.
It’s likely that Apple operates this way out of a long-standing desire to make its products as compact and simple (on the outside) as possible. Steve Jobs and former Apple chief designer Jony Ive believed that Apple products should be free of unnecessary extras, and this often extended to empty space – one apocryphal story has it that Jobs dropped a prototype iPod into an aquarium and pointed to the emerging bubbles as evidence that there was too much unused space inside the device.
As a result, Apple tries to pack the interior of its devices as tightly as possible, ensuring that it manages to include advanced components while keeping the product dimensions as thin as possible. One result of this is the incredible density of internal components that are a nightmare to demolish for all but the most expert DIYers.
But obviously the MacBook Neo is different. Because it removes a lot of the more advanced components commonly found in other Macs, it’s much easier to manage inside. The motherboard, for example, is tiny, while the battery simply lifts out once its screws are removed, without the need for adhesives or built-in tabs.
Another reason Apple simplified assembly could be pressure from right-to-repair activists. The movement has had significant victories in recent years, and Apple has felt compelled to provide users with repair tools and guides, something it has never allowed in the past. As regulators increasingly target big tech companies, Apple may have decided to preempt any potential scrutiny by changing the way it assembles the MacBook Neo. This conclusion, however, will depend on how easy the MacBook Air M5 and MacBook Pro M5 Pro are to disassemble as well – which, for now, remains unknown.
What we saw in Tech Re-Nu’s video was a laptop that was neatly put together without being too tedious to repair. And that’s good news for anyone who might want to dig into their MacBook Neo if something goes wrong.
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