The gang at iFixIt, which tears part tech items and looks at their innards so you don’t have to, has taken a look at the 2018 MacBook Air.
They say that the upgraded laptop rocks modular ports, and not one but ten pull-to-remove adhesive tabs securing its battery and speakers. After years of declining repairability, “this is a refreshing change for Apple notebooks,” iFixIt declares.
However, “these design improvements have more to do with rework than repairability. The Air still uses external pentalobes to keep you out, requires lots of component removal for common fixes, and both RAM and storage are soldered to the logic board.
“All together, that means Apple has an easy time with their knowledge and tools, but the average DIYer is left out to dry when it comes to upgrades,” iFixIt says. “We’re not ones to complain (okay, yes we are), but we hope this is just the beginning of an upswing in repairable design.”
You can read all about the MacBook Air 13” Retina 2018 Teardown here.