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Among my many hats, I do some official Apple work. What you are talking about is not allowed for work done under Apple. The top case is one part which cannot

Among my many hats, I do some official Apple work. What you are talking about is not allowed for work done under Apple. The top case is one part which cannot be disassembled so far as they are concerned. It contains the main part of the shell, the keyboard, the trackpad, and the battery. A failure in any part of it is to be serviced by a complete replacement of the top case. It is not an exceptionally expensive component, but it is a significant amount of labor. The top case is pretty much the "base" that all other components are attached to. Which means you take everything else out (logic board, display, fans, vent, etc) and move it to the new one. Also, the touch ID bit is a bitch to move.

fyfy18 8y ago
Maybe something like this will finally force Apple to start making their laptops more serviceable. After being an Apple user since 2006, I’ve just switched to a Thinkpad for my home machine. Compared to a MacBook Air, the X series is only 1mm thicker, but smaller in all other dimensions, including weight. Yet I can upgrade the storage and memory, and replace parts myself that fail (the battery can be swapped while it’s running). It also has a full array of ports including USB type A & C, HDMI, headphone jack, SD card slot (the latest version has replaced the Ethernet port with a dongle). Admitidely they don’t look as nice, but I’m not really a design sensitive person.
- jablan 8y ago
  > Maybe something like this will finally force Apple to start making their laptops more serviceable. I am afraid they will just increase the already huge margins, to account for similar cases in the future.
  - Bud 8y ago
    They won't. So you can stop having that fear. There's no evidence whatsoever that they'd even consider that.
  - tonyedgecombe 8y ago
    I'm pretty sure they charge based on what the market will bear rather than what it costs them to manufacture and service. If they have been effective at this it means there is no room for increases. In other words if customers would accept higher prices then Apple would have already increased the prices.
- spiznnx 8y ago
  Off-topic, but what is the point of having a mini ethernet port if you still need a dongle anyway? USB ethernet adapters are cheap. They could just kill the port and save some pennies.
  - pimeys 8y ago
    To have a fixed MAC address for the enterprise where it matters.
    - angelsl 8y ago
      Spoof the adapter's MAC?
- eksemplar 8y ago
  How is the trackpad? I intentionally bought a MacBook Pro late 2015 version just before they went out of stock because I actually like all those “old” ports, the old keyboard and so on. I’d prefer to stay on os/x because Linux is still tedious in the way that you have to configure it to make it tolerable and windows had gone from great (7) to something that annoys me on a daily basis (10). But I’m mainly scared of the mouse. The MacBook trackpad is damn near magical and I’m not sure I could ever use a laptop with a trackpad that didn’t come close to it. The price point and the design choices on the MacBook line as well as it’s price point (price can be mitigated by buying older versions like I did) have made me consider other options, thinkpads being the main competitor. But how is the trackpad?
  - pjmlp 8y ago
    Being an real mouse person, the trackpad is usually good enough (using Thinkpads since 2006), however when I don't have it around, I happen to be more heavy stick mouse user than the trackpad. I really miss its ergonomics when using other brands.
  - aequitas 8y ago
    I'm in the same boat. Got a second hand 2015 model like new because of screen and topcase repair program. At work I'm forced to use a Dell with Linux. I like that I can configure everything about Linux to reduce the difference to my Mac workflow (key shortcuts etc). But I hatr that I must configure almost everything to get to a basic workable environment. As for trackpads on the Dell, I avoid using it as it makes me cry compared to my macbook's also the keyboard just sucks, backspace and other keys not registering reliably.
    - Lio 8y ago
      That’s interesting to hear. I’m using a cheap HP running Ubuntu supplied by my current job. I was considering switching to an XPS13 for my personal machine. What’s currently keeping me on my late 2013 MBP for the moment is poor default behaviour of desktop Linux. Like the Bluetooth forgetting the state it was left in on every reboot. Or something, I don’t know what, constantly reversing horizontal trackpad scroll direction (but leaving vertical alone). Or blanking the screen after 20s of inactivity regardless of the screen/power settings in Gnome. I know that I’ll eventually get that stuff under control but it’s weird it doesn’t work out of the box without a trip to Stack Overflow.
- setquk 8y ago
  Yep I’ve got a 2013 MBP I’m too scared to upgrade at the moment. I’ve been weening myself off it and into a Windows 10 desktop recently this solving both problems. Plus the desktop is second hand enterprise stuff and cost virtually nothing which was a pleasant surprise.
tinus_hn 8y ago
Apple can also just swap out the complete part and then ship the broken one to China to be disassembled and repaired cheaply.
- aequitas 8y ago
  Afaik this is what they do. Apple service centers need to return broken parts to Apple after 'repair'. Apple can then recycle/refurbish these parts of they seem fit. But they probably won't discount the customer for the benefit they receive from this approach.

fyfy18 8y ago

Maybe something like this will finally force Apple to start making their laptops more serviceable. After being an Apple user since 2006, I’ve just switched to a Thinkpad for my home machine. Compared to a MacBook Air, the X series is only 1mm thicker, but smaller in all other dimensions, including weight. Yet I can upgrade the storage and memory, and replace parts myself that fail (the battery can be swapped while it’s running). It also has a full array of ports including USB type A & C, HDMI, headphone jack, SD card slot (the latest version has replaced the Ethernet port with a dongle). Admitidely they don’t look as nice, but I’m not really a design sensitive person.

jablan 8y ago
> Maybe something like this will finally force Apple to start making their laptops more serviceable. I am afraid they will just increase the already huge margins, to account for similar cases in the future.
- Bud 8y ago
  They won't. So you can stop having that fear. There's no evidence whatsoever that they'd even consider that.
- tonyedgecombe 8y ago
  I'm pretty sure they charge based on what the market will bear rather than what it costs them to manufacture and service. If they have been effective at this it means there is no room for increases. In other words if customers would accept higher prices then Apple would have already increased the prices.
spiznnx 8y ago
Off-topic, but what is the point of having a mini ethernet port if you still need a dongle anyway? USB ethernet adapters are cheap. They could just kill the port and save some pennies.
- pimeys 8y ago
  To have a fixed MAC address for the enterprise where it matters.
  - angelsl 8y ago
    Spoof the adapter's MAC?
eksemplar 8y ago
How is the trackpad? I intentionally bought a MacBook Pro late 2015 version just before they went out of stock because I actually like all those “old” ports, the old keyboard and so on. I’d prefer to stay on os/x because Linux is still tedious in the way that you have to configure it to make it tolerable and windows had gone from great (7) to something that annoys me on a daily basis (10). But I’m mainly scared of the mouse. The MacBook trackpad is damn near magical and I’m not sure I could ever use a laptop with a trackpad that didn’t come close to it. The price point and the design choices on the MacBook line as well as it’s price point (price can be mitigated by buying older versions like I did) have made me consider other options, thinkpads being the main competitor. But how is the trackpad?
- pjmlp 8y ago
  Being an real mouse person, the trackpad is usually good enough (using Thinkpads since 2006), however when I don't have it around, I happen to be more heavy stick mouse user than the trackpad. I really miss its ergonomics when using other brands.
- aequitas 8y ago
  I'm in the same boat. Got a second hand 2015 model like new because of screen and topcase repair program. At work I'm forced to use a Dell with Linux. I like that I can configure everything about Linux to reduce the difference to my Mac workflow (key shortcuts etc). But I hatr that I must configure almost everything to get to a basic workable environment. As for trackpads on the Dell, I avoid using it as it makes me cry compared to my macbook's also the keyboard just sucks, backspace and other keys not registering reliably.
  - Lio 8y ago
    That’s interesting to hear. I’m using a cheap HP running Ubuntu supplied by my current job. I was considering switching to an XPS13 for my personal machine. What’s currently keeping me on my late 2013 MBP for the moment is poor default behaviour of desktop Linux. Like the Bluetooth forgetting the state it was left in on every reboot. Or something, I don’t know what, constantly reversing horizontal trackpad scroll direction (but leaving vertical alone). Or blanking the screen after 20s of inactivity regardless of the screen/power settings in Gnome. I know that I’ll eventually get that stuff under control but it’s weird it doesn’t work out of the box without a trip to Stack Overflow.
setquk 8y ago
Yep I’ve got a 2013 MBP I’m too scared to upgrade at the moment. I’ve been weening myself off it and into a Windows 10 desktop recently this solving both problems. Plus the desktop is second hand enterprise stuff and cost virtually nothing which was a pleasant surprise.

tinus_hn 8y ago

Apple can also just swap out the complete part and then ship the broken one to China to be disassembled and repaired cheaply.

aequitas 8y ago
Afaik this is what they do. Apple service centers need to return broken parts to Apple after 'repair'. Apple can then recycle/refurbish these parts of they seem fit. But they probably won't discount the customer for the benefit they receive from this approach.