So, now that the MacBook Neo is starting to get into peoples hands and they are starting to tear into the thing there are a coupe of interesting things about this device that are starting to make me think that it might be something that I would be interested in putting my hands on.
The biggest surprise to me was the repairability scores it was given by iFixit during their teardown, notably;
- The battery is screwed in and can be replaced.
- The keyboard is screwed in and can be replaced without replacing the entire top cover.
- The ports are all on separate daughterboards that can be replaced if a port goes bad.
Granted the use of a Phone CPU and the limitation on the amount of system memory that the device can address is still a concern but having a device that doesn’t require major rework on the motherboard when a port on the side of the device breaks is definitely a win.
Reparability is one of the reasons that I’ve been a fan of Thinkpads for as long as I have. Parts for those are relatively easy to get hold of and unless you have really mangled the device they are generally worth repair. Apple’s stuff has been a little more difficult because they have generally glued batteries in and in many devices the keyboard can’t be repaired without replacing the entire top shell of the laptop because the keyboard is riveted into the case.
I’m sure that some of this is coming up because of regulations in the EU that are going to require user replaceable batteries in devices by a specific date, just like the move to using USB C charging over all the bespoke connectors was driven by legislation in that market. Hopefully this is a sign of things to come as Apple refreshes their devices in the coming years, since I really don’t want to have to pry old batteries out of a device if the only thing that I gain is a 1mm reduction in the size of the device.