Earlier today, the folks at iFixit shared their teardown of the new iMac, noting a surprising amount of user repairability. Now, the site has given the 2017 MacBook and MacBook Pro models the same treatment, noting virtually no internal changes or improvement in repairability…
One interesting tidbit is that the 2017 12-inch MacBook has seen an upgrade to the more responsive second-generation butterfly keyboard design. This change comes following a growing number of complaints from MacBook users concerning the original keyboard. The second-generation butterfly keyboard originally debuted with the 2016 MacBook Pro, which has also had its fair share of keyboard complaints.
iFixit notes that the keyboard trigger for both models looks “like a more classic switch” this year, though it doesn’t notice any immediate changes in travel or keystroke. This change, however, could lend itself to improved reinforcement for repeated use.
There continues to be no way to remove the Touch Bar safely with the 2017 MacBook Pro revision, something that shouldn’t really come as a big surprise. All in all, iFixit gives both machines a 1 out of 10 in terms of repairability, with 10 being the easiest to repair.
While not really a mechanical change, the control and option keys got some new ink. They now mark keyboard shortcuts rather than translating for PC users.
Somewhat surprisingly, iFixit found Apple’s new 21.5-inch iMac to be slightly conducive to user repair, thanks to both removable RAM and a modular CPU. Nevertheless, the overall process is still a hassle:
You can read more on that here and view iFixit’s full 2017 MacBook teardown here.
