iFixit's Apple MacBook Pro teardown took a look at the notebook's Intel Thunderbolt technology, discovered perks to its wireless connectivity and questioned Apple's quality control.
iFixit's teardown team
got its hands on a new Apple MacBook Pro Feb. 24, the same day Apple
introduced two new 13-inch models, two 15-inch models and a 17-incher. With the
notebook's innards laid bare, particular points of interest included the
MacBook Pro's seemingly improved wireless connectivity, the overall quality of
its construction and of course its Thunderbolt port-a brand new connectivity
technology created by Apple and Intel.
The Thunderbolt port combines PCI Express and DisplayPort technology into a
single connector, to simplify connecting the notebook to peripherals. The
iFixit team found that the Thunderbolt port-which it wants to call the "Thunderport,"
an admittedly catchier name-has its own controller IC.
"The IC is quite prominent on the logic board, being the fourth-largest
chip after the CPU, GPU and logic board controller," Miroslav Djuric,
iFixit's director of technical communication, said in a press statement. While
iFixit is waiting for a company like Chipworks to study the Thunderbolt IC more
closely, Djuric adds, "We believe the chip's footprint is a testament to
the potential of this port."
Apple, introducing the notebooks, said users can daisy-chain up to six
Thunderbolt-supporting devices, which iFixit points out isn't a problem, as "we're
not even aware of six products that support Thunderbolt yet." Going
forward, however, this could be a bit of an issue, though perhaps one that
Intel and Apple will address, as Firewire, by comparison, supports 63 devices
and USB supports 127.
Two other points of interest the team came across as it dug in: The MacBook
Pro's battery is the same as in earlier models, though Apple now says it
achieves 7 hours of battery life instead of 8 to
9. Is Apple being more realistic, or is the quad-core Intel Core i7
processor-another first on an Apple laptop-a little hungrier than its
predecessor, the team wondered.
Also, there are no "evil" pentalobe screws on the MacBook Pro's
case, like Apple employs to keep owners out of the iPhone 4. The lower case is
instead secured with Phillips screws.
When introducing these new notebooks, Apple talked up their processor speeds
but made little mention of their wireless connectivity-which may also be
faster. Six steps into the teardown, iFixit discovered that "the wireless
card received a makeover and now includes four antennas instead of three."
Removing an EMI shield, the team found a Broadcom BCM4331
"wireless solution," seemingly some more good news.
"According to Broadcom," iFixit reports on its site, "this
chip provides three transmitting and three receiving streams of data in both
the 2.4Ghz and 5Ghz bands. Increased number of streams and antennas results in
faster speeds, longer range, fewer dropped connections, and better overall
wireless coverage.'"
Two steps later, though, the team uncovered what looks like toothpaste
blobs.
"Holy thermal paste! Time will tell if the gobs of thermal paste
applied to the CPU and GPU will cause overheating issues down the road,"
wrote iFixit, coming across the first issue to make it wonder whether Apple is
having some quality control issues with the MacBook Pro. A few steps later, the
team also discovered a stripped screw near the subwoofer enclosure and an "unlocked
ZIF socket for the IR sensor," two things, said iFixit, that should not be
found "inside a completely unmolested computer with an $1,800 base price."
All told, the repair team gave the new Apple MacBook Pro a "very
respectable" 7 out of 10 repairability score. The team liked that these
new models allow one to disconnect the battery without removing it from the
laptop. And that the main board lifts out with the heat sink still attached. Also,
that "the unibody design allows for easy access to most of the other
components, so it won't be terribly hard to replace things on the machine,"
wrote Djuric.
The team was less enthusiastic, however, about the LCD's glass display,
which it thought could easily shatter, should the LCD need to be replaced.
Still, compared with the 4 out of 10 that the refreshed Apple MacBook Air
was rated, the new MacBook Pros seem to be practically perfect tens.
Michelle Maisto has been covering the enterprise mobility space for a decade, beginning with Knowledge Management, Field Force Automation and eCRM, and most recently as the editor-in-chief of Mobile Enterprise magazine. She earned an MFA in nonfiction writing from Columbia University, and in her spare time obsesses about food. Her first book, The Gastronomy of Marriage, if forthcoming from Random House in September 2009.
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