4 ms·

But you can't do that with the latest MacBooks, which have their SSDs soldered directly onto the logic boards. And you can't do that with memory for any Apple n

But you can't do that with the latest MacBooks, which have their SSDs soldered directly onto the logic boards. And you can't do that with memory for any Apple notebook from the last several years for the same reason. My 7 year old MacBook Pro is running okay thanks to some memory and storage upgrades. I would not be able to get the same life extension with one of the new models, which makes me hesitate to get a new Mac.

aNoob7000 9y ago
To be fair, most new laptops like the Surface Pro or Dell's XPS 13 make it pretty darn hard to upgrade the memory or hard drive.
- JohnTHaller 9y ago
  XPS laptops use standard nvme m.2 SSDs. Source: have one that I've opened up
- huhtenberg 9y ago
  > most new laptops _some_ new laptops Most new laptops are still fully serviceable.
  - seanmcdirmid 9y ago
    Most is really ambiguous here. By units sold? Probably not (mass quantity low end laptops aren't upgradable). By dollar amount sold? Definitely not (Apple has an outsized share of the market based on revenue). By new models? Probably.
    - Someone 9y ago
      ”Apple has an outsized share of the market based on revenue” On profit, I can believe, but on revenue? Even at 10% market share, Macs would have to be five times the price of PCs to bring in equal revenue.
      - seanmcdirmid 9y ago
        Sure. It isn't just the macs that you need to count, but the PCs as well. Non upgrade-able ultra lights dominate the post $1000 market even for pcs.
      - valuearb 9y ago
        Apple has about 7% of pc market world-wide. It's average sales price is around $1,200 to $1,400 (haven't checked lately). Average PC maker ASP is $500-$600, so Apple likely has 15-20% of market by revenues, and more than 50% of market profits, given it's 15-20% margins vs. 2% PC maker margins. This is all PCs. In laptops it's likely that Apple's share is even higher.
- EthanHeilman 9y ago
  I upgraded my Dell XPS 13 recently. Only tricky part was buying the special screwdriver bits which cost me 10 dollars on amazon. It was probably the easiest laptop upgrade I've ever done in the last 17 years.
- ageofwant 9y ago
  I swapped out my XPS 13's broadcom flaming piece of shit radio for a intel chipset, AU$25. The disk is a swappable M.2 . They retail for ~AU$600 for a 500G. Dropped a mail to Dell Australia for a quote to upgrade the 8G MB to 16G, took them 5 working days to quote: 2 week job, AU$2300, I paid AU$2100 for the machine new. Fuck you Dell.
giancarlostoro 9y ago
I bought a Macbook Air recently and love it, almost want a Macbook Pro but I don't want a laptop where I can't replace the Hard Drive or RAM two things which sometimes just need a replacement. I guess I'm going for a Dell with Ubuntu next instead.
- blunte 9y ago
  In which case you'll find a small but annoying set of new problems. Dell can make some great stuff, and Ubuntu can be great. Dell+Ubuntu can be great, or fine, or ok, or a disaster. Unfortunately, and inexplicably, you can't ever really be sure which case you'll get until after you've plunged in. Ask me how I know this :).

aNoob7000 9y ago

To be fair, most new laptops like the Surface Pro or Dell's XPS 13 make it pretty darn hard to upgrade the memory or hard drive.

JohnTHaller 9y ago
XPS laptops use standard nvme m.2 SSDs. Source: have one that I've opened up
huhtenberg 9y ago
> most new laptops _some_ new laptops Most new laptops are still fully serviceable.
- seanmcdirmid 9y ago
  Most is really ambiguous here. By units sold? Probably not (mass quantity low end laptops aren't upgradable). By dollar amount sold? Definitely not (Apple has an outsized share of the market based on revenue). By new models? Probably.
  - Someone 9y ago
    ”Apple has an outsized share of the market based on revenue” On profit, I can believe, but on revenue? Even at 10% market share, Macs would have to be five times the price of PCs to bring in equal revenue.
    - seanmcdirmid 9y ago
      Sure. It isn't just the macs that you need to count, but the PCs as well. Non upgrade-able ultra lights dominate the post $1000 market even for pcs.
    - valuearb 9y ago
      Apple has about 7% of pc market world-wide. It's average sales price is around $1,200 to $1,400 (haven't checked lately). Average PC maker ASP is $500-$600, so Apple likely has 15-20% of market by revenues, and more than 50% of market profits, given it's 15-20% margins vs. 2% PC maker margins. This is all PCs. In laptops it's likely that Apple's share is even higher.
EthanHeilman 9y ago
I upgraded my Dell XPS 13 recently. Only tricky part was buying the special screwdriver bits which cost me 10 dollars on amazon. It was probably the easiest laptop upgrade I've ever done in the last 17 years.
ageofwant 9y ago
I swapped out my XPS 13's broadcom flaming piece of shit radio for a intel chipset, AU$25. The disk is a swappable M.2 . They retail for ~AU$600 for a 500G. Dropped a mail to Dell Australia for a quote to upgrade the 8G MB to 16G, took them 5 working days to quote: 2 week job, AU$2300, I paid AU$2100 for the machine new. Fuck you Dell.

giancarlostoro 9y ago

I bought a Macbook Air recently and love it, almost want a Macbook Pro but I don't want a laptop where I can't replace the Hard Drive or RAM two things which sometimes just need a replacement. I guess I'm going for a Dell with Ubuntu next instead.

blunte 9y ago
In which case you'll find a small but annoying set of new problems. Dell can make some great stuff, and Ubuntu can be great. Dell+Ubuntu can be great, or fine, or ok, or a disaster. Unfortunately, and inexplicably, you can't ever really be sure which case you'll get until after you've plunged in. Ask me how I know this :).