Teardown site iFixit has taken apart the latest Apple MacBook Air, revealing the guts of the ultra-thin laptop to the world. The result: most components are similar to the previous generation, and Apple clearly discourages prying the thing open and meddling.
Chief among the indicators that Apple wants do-it-yourselfers to keep away is the choice of screws. Although iFixit said the 13-inch Air was relatively easy to open (giving it four out of ten on its difficulty scale), only a very specific type of screwdriver, a five-point pentalobe model, could take them off. On top of that, all components are proprietary, even the RAM chip, so it would be difficult to integrate any off-the-shelf parts into the machine.
This is in contrast to the white plastic MacBook that Apple has discontinued in the wake of the new MacBook Airs. Where the Air is a sealed, difficult-to-upgrade machine, the white MacBook was more easily serviced with, say, more RAM or a new battery. In fact, iFixit lists 26 step-by-step guides for users interested in doing things like replacing the hard drive or removing the LCD on a white MacBook. The MacBook Air has only 14.
On the plus side, iFixit found the MacBook Air's solid-state drive isn't soldered to the logic board, so users will be able to upgrade the storage of the machine if they need to. The battery is the same as last year's model, which is rated for seven hours of use, or 30 hours standby. And even though the processor got an upgrade, its heat sink didn't, so there's a chance the new MacBook Air might run hotter than the previous generation.
There were big changes in the logic board, iFixit found. By switching to an Intel processor with integrated graphics, Apple freed up space for circuitry associated with the new high-capacity Thunderbolt connector.
Finally, iFixit confirmed that thickness was the reason the MacBook Air's iSight camera didn't get an upgrade. The camera is still the standard-def (640x480) FaceTime camera instead of the high-def (1,280x1,024) FaceTimeHD camera that's on the newer MacBook Pros.
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