iFixit teardown reveals 13-inch Macbook Pro with Touch Bar difficult to repair

By tech2 News Staff /  17 Nov 2016 , 12:45

iFixit has got its hands on the 13-inch Macbook Pro with Touch Bar, and did what it does the best, rip it apart to know what it holds within. Comparing it with the 13-inch Macbook Pro without the Touch Bar, there are some significant differences.

To begin with, both MacBook Pros come with same dimensions, but the one with Touch Bar is 20 grams lighter due to the smaller battery. It gets a very poor score of 1/10, highlighting how the device is not easily repairable. Though the trackpad can be removed without first removing the battery, there are just too many sore points. The internal elements have been redesigned in such a way that there is room for the Touch Bar. The flex cable that connected the Touch Bar to the mainboard is wrapped under it and that made removing it all the more difficult.

The iFixit report also pointed out that fixing a faulty power switch will need replacing the entire logic board. “The Touch ID sensor doubles as the power switch, and is paired with the T1 chip on the logic board. Fixing a broken power switch may require help from Apple, or a new logic board, iFixit explains.

Moving to the battery, the report adds that the battery assembly is entirely, and very solidly, glued into the case, thus complicating replacement. Moreover, proprietary pentalobe screws continue to make working on the device unnecessarily difficult. You can read the complete report here.

Apple issues a major refresh to its MacBook Pro lineup with Touch Bar and Touch ID in keyboard

  28 Oct 2016 , 11:16

Apple’s high-end Mac laptops are getting a touch control strip above the keyboard, part of a long-awaited update aimed at reviving interest in a product often overshadowed by newer gadgets like the iPad and iPhone.

The new Touch Bar, which is both a narrow display and a control panel, replaces the old physical function keys on a traditional laptop. It will offer a variety of controls that change according to the app or website that’s open. It also has functions that will be familiar to many iPhone users – showing word suggestions as you type, for example, or letting you scroll through a library of emojis.

New features, higher price

The company unveiled the laptops at its headquarters in Cupertino, California, where executives showed how the Touch Bar works with a variety of apps and software – providing playback and editing controls for videos or music, for example, and search functions for Apple’s maps and photos apps. Apple is also opening the Touch Bar to work with outside software, including Adobe’s Photoshop editing program and Microsoft’s Word, PowerPoint and Skype.

Along with faster processors and brighter screens, two of Apple’s new laptops will also get a fingerprint sensor, similar to the one on iPhones. The sensor can unlock the device, authorize software installations or recognize a different user and quickly switch to that person’s settings. It works with Apple Pay, so users can authorize an