MacBook Air splayed -- multi-touch trackpad controller chip same as iPhone

It's that time of the product cycle again, the teardown. This time, iFixit's applying the Xacto to Apple's MacBook Air. Notable discoveries are an easy to disassemble chassis just big enough for Samsung's 1.8-inch, 80GB disk but not the relatively chubby 160GB variety found in the iPod classic. They also found the new multi-touch trackpad using the same control chip as the iPod touch and iPhone -- the Broadcom BCM5974. That leaves Apple plenty of room to grow the gesture options via software updates. Want to remove the battery? Go ahead, 19 screw removals (in addition to Apple's non-removable feebie) will get the job done. Mmm, silicon and aluminum carnage, smells like... victory. Now hit up that read link IEEE types, where it's high-res all the time.

Gallery: MacBook Air splayed -- multi-touch trackpad controller chip same as iPhone

• 
• 
• 

[Oinquer @ Feb 1st 2008 6:08AM]

HaHAHA! 20 bucks for extra gestures!
anyway seems neat inside lol

[Joe_Templeman @ Feb 1st 2008 6:18AM]

I do prefer to see the MBA in this state. Its as useful as ever...

[SimonRichards @ Feb 1st 2008 6:19AM]

I love teardowns :D

[BobTurbo @ Feb 1st 2008 6:23AM]

Waiting for drop test and harpoon test.

[iceman @ Feb 1st 2008 6:26AM]

will it blend?

[DrXym @ Feb 1st 2008 6:29AM]

19 screws to remove a battery?

It's amazing how Apple are supposedly masters of design but they think it reasonable that someone has to undo 19 screws in their computer or send it off for a week just to swap the batteries.

It seems clear that they make the batteries difficult to replace so that people will toss an otherwise functional device and buy a new one rather than go through the hassle of replacement. I wish someone like the EU would use their recycling & electronics waste directives as the basis to pass a law on these sort of thing.

[Xavier Gill @ Feb 1st 2008 7:19AM]

"Ithey make the batteries difficult to replace so that people will toss an otherwise functional device and buy a new one rather than go through the hassle of replacement."

Well duh! :)

"Apple are supposedly masters of design"

Maybe in terms of appearence but if their designers had to incorparate normal laptop features like a removable battery, optical drive, I/O ports, card reader, etc then their products would look a lot different.

[purezerg @ Feb 1st 2008 7:21AM]

YUCK, D9HNZ rams. it's a 6-6-6-18 rams.

[raaaaaa @ Feb 1st 2008 7:22AM]

what people fail to realize is that the reason this lappy is so thin is because the spread the battery over the entire laptop, instead of keeping it to the reat like most manufactures. it is the only way, so dont complain about not having a removable battery.....
where is the inovation?

[purezerg @ Feb 1st 2008 7:37AM]

li-ion can only charge 150-300 times. and users of laptop charge it more often than ipod or iphone. I believe if you use it on a daily basis, be prepared to get the battery change every 6-9months.

on the average. everytime you plug in that AC, li-ion loses approx 0.5% of it's total maximium capacity.

[ReggieXuk @ Feb 1st 2008 7:43AM]

why does apple even use batteries that don't last? If its by choice then they shouldn't charge for replacements!

[Shawin @ Feb 1st 2008 7:54AM]

Now our hacking ninjas have to make something to help us use the iphone's touch screen as a trackpad for any mac.
I know there's always VNSea but it's kinda slow to refresh and stuff... I wan't a to use it as a trackpad replacement.

[Geir E @ Feb 1st 2008 8:20AM]

"why does apple even use batteries that don't last? If its by choice then they shouldn't charge for replacements!"

Please enlighten me on a manufacturer that uses something better than li-ion, and espesially one that let you swap batteries for

My 3 year old laptop still does 3 hours on a charge. probably because I only use the battery when traveling, and when not keep the battery off the laptop. Which I can't do with the air so it doesn't suit my way of using a laptop. 19 screws are loosen with a powertool in no time, but not something i would like to do every time i have used the laptop outside of the office and want to remove the battery.

[Evac @ Feb 1st 2008 8:22AM]

purezerg, good job it's a li-polymer battery, then.

[Matthew @ Feb 1st 2008 8:24AM]

These first gen Mac products have o many things wrong with them. The MBA is no exception, look at the possibilities now! I'm waiting.

[Rob @ Feb 1st 2008 8:43AM]

@ DrXym (I apparently had fail for breakfast and I can't make the reply system work to save my life right now).

I'm fairly certain that the designers don't consider it "reasonable," as you say, to remove 19 screws and/or send the laptop away for a week to replace the battery.

Anyone with a tiny bit of sense knows that the design process is a series of compromises. While they may not have compromised on the "great screen" or full-sized keyboard, the battery had to be made difficult to remove in order to keep the slim profile. There is no "when the battery dies, they'll just have to buy a new one" conspiracy, as you seem to claim. The MBA is the triumph (and victim) of the design process, just like any other computer, gadget, aircraft, car, or any number of things you use in your day-to-day life.

So I ask: what's your point? Do you really think your posting made you look smart? It doesn't. If the difficult-to-remove battery is a deal breaker for you, don't buy it. There are plenty of alternatives. Insulting a company by leaving flame bait doesn't help the situation...douche.

[ph @ Feb 1st 2008 10:32AM]

I'm impressed with the engineering on the MBA but will have to try mine when it arrives to see how it handles. The well-designed wifi antennas, li-polymer battery technology, solid-state disk, LED backlighting for screen, and backlit keyboard are all very attractive. I used to have a Sony X505 which died one day, and it was really nice but too small to type on. The MBA looks like the X505 grown up and done right.

[DrXym @ Feb 1st 2008 10:37AM]

@Rob, are you claiming that a machine that requires you to disassemble it and undo 19 screws to remove a battery is a good design or that it's reasonable "compromise"? Again, Apple is supposed to be about clever design yet they seem incapable of producing something which allows the battery to removed. It would not have compromised their design in any significant way to have a plate on the back that gave access to the battery. Or to innovate by allowing the battery to slide in from a slot on the side. Or to be housed under the keyboard which can be removed with a single screw. Or countless other innovative designs that Apple supposedly capable of coming up with. That they didn't shows a mercenary streak that no amount of apologetics by yourself or others can excuse.

As for calling me a douche... grow up.

[Mike @ Feb 1st 2008 10:58AM]

Since Apple went out on a limb and designed a thin, non-swappable battery to keep the case thin, I think they should have extended this concept to the mass storage as well. They should have just made the logic board bigger, to accommodate 80-100 GB of SSD Flash chips for storage. I bet soldering them to the logic board is less expensive than buying the finished and packaged product (with connectors) from Samsung, just to install it on the assembly line. With Apple making the SSD Flash chips standard on the MBA, they can drive down the cost of the chips. I'm sure that spreading those chips all over a stretched logic board would make the system thinner too, because now you no longer need to accommodate the height of the hard disk. And they have the flexibility to design a high speed bus to speed data transfer to/from the chips.

I know built-in SSD Flash chips would not allow you to upgrade internal storage, but WHO DOES THAT? Seriously, us IT people may do that to our personal machines for kicks, but most times, people buy a machine with as much RAM/HD as they can afford at the time, and grow into it. By the time you feel you need to upgrade RAM/HD, you're probably feeling the need for a new machine anyway. My end users on our office LAN use the same storage in their desktop workstations for 4-5 years, and then we replace the entire system.

[Birdadderley @ Feb 1st 2008 11:47AM]

Someone's gonna slap those parts on a canvas and call it modern art

[Blayne @ Feb 1st 2008 12:42PM]

Based on the pictures at the read link, it looks like apple still hasn't figured out how to properly apply thermal grease.

[John @ Feb 1st 2008 1:35PM]

You forgot to mention how thin it is.

[IndiaTech @ Feb 1st 2008 2:24PM]

Hey, I know MBA was sexy enough but naked MBA is sexier...

[Will @ Feb 1st 2008 6:38PM]

iSmoke...don't breathe this

[SteveMB @ Feb 2nd 2008 1:00AM]

I bet most Mac owners don't even know how to use a screwdriver. They're too busy drinking their Starbucks.

[OS11 @ Feb 2nd 2008 1:27AM]

Battery replacement on an MBA takes less than 5 minutes. Hardly a week, so get your facts straight. Any user with operating knowledge of a phillips screwdriver can do it without instruction. It's just a battery, don't forget.

So in 4-5 years when it starts to get down to 2-3 hours of uptime, everyone will be ready.