17-inch unibody MacBook Pro gets disassembled, examined
By Donald Melanson 
posted February 17th 2009 6:58PM
posted February 17th 2009 6:58PM
The battery on the now-shipping 17-inch unibody MacBook Pro may not be removable for average, warranty-abiding users, but that didn't stop the folks at iFixit from removing it and just about everything else that isn't soldered on. As you might expect, however, apart from that over-sized battery, the internals aren't too different from the 15-inch unibody MacBook Pro, although the 17-incher unsurprisingly has a pair of noticeably larger fans to keep everything cool, and iFixit describes the component density as "amazing." Hit up the link below for the complete teardown, and try your best not to imagine a matte black MacBook Pro after catching sight of that battery.
[Via Mac Rumors]
[Via Mac Rumors]
If you think all they did was open it up, you didn't read the article.
All I said was that it's odd that they make something like the inside pretty and someone decides that I don't know where I get my info.
But they're not supposed to take it apart. It's against the rules. Not only does all of the iMagic dust get contaminated, it also doesn't look near so pretty.
(And they are very pretty, you can't deny that)
I heart Mac.
I am Mac.
LIAR! It's even MORE pretty. I think the whole thing should be transparent so you can see the insides!
You're stupid, Sean.
Hehe, I love your avatar.
Wow :D I often forget how much effort is put into the design of a Mac :) Perfect!
About the same as it takes to design any other laptop. I would take a pretty good guess that the dual screened lenovo was harder than this.
I'm a PC and that is absolutely beautiful!
how do you disassemble a unibody? it must not be one piece then. hrrmph
No, it's one piece. They use lasers to carve out a single block of aluminum, then little elves assemble the computer by passing components through the DVD slot.
Wow, those insides look as nice as the outside...
If it were so easy to construct one of these ... in 15 or 17 inch, how come nobody's constructing a less than inch thick, light-weight laptop like these?
Because the other manufacturers are too busy putting in useful things like battery doors.
I agree. I'm no Mac fan but I'm pretty neutral. You can't deny that the people at Apple really know what they're doing
@telepheedian
Given a choice between a user replaceable battery or a physically smaller and lighter machine, I have to be honest and say that the dimensions are more important to me. I don't expect this is the same for everyone but for those that it is not then, as you imply, there are other manufacturers to choose from. Put another way, you can't keep everyone happy.
I agree with crescentdavid*
i didn't think of the black macbook until you mentioned it at the end ha ha.
If this gets popular, I swear this whole Mac niche has gone too far...
PC kicks Mac ass...and again because I forgot it earlier.
That's where a lot of people get it wrong and Apple people don't want to admit:
A Mac is a type of PC.
Looks nice, but I don't understand the battery I can't change without using a screwdriver.
I don't see what the big deal is about user replaceable batteries. I have had (in the past, I'm admittedly a Mac guy now) 2 Dells, a Compaq, and a Gateway Tablet. I NEVER changed out a battery. And I travel for a living, flying 3-4 times a month. I've had a MacBook Pro for a little over 2 years, and the battery latch has never been flipped. The way I see it, most people never swap batteries, and most don't carry second batteries. If they did, then Apple (in all their marketing genius) would see spare batteries as a much bigger sales opportunity than replacing a built-in battery every couple of years. People use their laptops, then plug them in. Some laptops never leave a desk.
Some of the complaining about the non-replaceable batteries do need them, but I'd guess they are in the vast minority. But people using multiple batteries and uber-travelers probably aren't going to lug around a 17" laptop, no matter how thin it is.
And (a little off topic, but harkening back to the marketing dominance of Apple over MS...) What's the deal with this "Life Without Walls" campaign? It sucks. If I don't have any walls, I have no use for Windows...
You're correct Jimmy.
1) I have a laptop and work in an environment where many people go out on business trips and I don't know of any one pissing their pants over a lack of a 2nd battery. In fact, I've never heard any one bring up the issue. In all fairness however the only time I saw people do the 2nd battery thing was 10 years ago, in the 90s. It's 2009 now, this is a non-issue.
2) This new Apple battery lasts for 5 years. FIVE years, that's half a decade folks. Who keeps their laptops for that long? By the time this battery needs replacement, the WHOLE laptop will be so outdated as to warrant buying a new one.
3) The charge lasts 8 hours. What kind of extreme/rare circumstances would one need to be to not be able to find a socket and use his/her charger?
Yep. Exactly.
Facts have never stopped the trolls from trolling though.
I'm in the same boat. I have had 2 Apple laptops with the option of replacing the batteries myself but have never done so (mostly due to the additional cost and weight) so a laptop where the battery lasts twice as long will be great and I won't have any issues with not being able to replace it myself. If the battery only lasted 3-hours or less then I can see why people would have a problem but, for me, this is all good and a fuss over nothing.
Wheres the eSATA? (although the FW800 is better than most..)
I consider the lack of memory card slots to be a more pressing issue for this type of computer than eSATA but for both issues you can use the ExpressCard slot. A dedicated port would be nice but it's not a major issue. I'm more concerned that we've lost a FireWire port since I use both on my current MBP and daisy-chaining is not an option.
For all you 'tards that bitch about this battery, watch this video and learn a little:
http://www.apple.com/macbookpro/17inch-battery/
1. Apple custom-engineered this battery: advanced chemical elements, extremely dense
2. Lasts 3 TIMES the lifespan of the average battery:
a. Up to 1000 charges vs 300 charges
b. 5 years life vs 3 years life
3. Lasts 8 hrs on a single charge (like very few others)
Not a run of the mill generic battery purchased from a 3rd party manufacturer, unlike most other laptops.
Exactly.
But this is a NERD site.
All those ranting nerds get proven wrong EVERY single time by THE CUSTOMERS.
Yes. Because Apple is a non-profit, non-biased source when it comes to Apple Macintosh products.
@ Harrison:
Since there's nothing else you can say you resort to sarcasm. Is that really the best you can do? Tsk tsk.
If you're saying the Apple video is a lie, then show proof. You're guilty of trolling otherwise.
BTW, the statements about the battery are also listed in the MBP's tech specs page, so it's not just marketing chatter.
http://www.apple.com/macbookpro/specs.html
Any details on the matte screen yet? My copy of MacWorld UK seemed to imply that the screen was simply the display from the previous model and therefore probably did not have the same increase in the displayed colour gamut as the new glossy one. Anyone able to confirm that?
with all the bad mouthing I hear about Mac, I say, why the fuck do they have 30 billion in the bank. I mean, am I missing something? The auto industry in America is going back o Washington to beg for just that amount. Pathetic.
Apple is one of the best American companies we have. We should take pride that we have the Mercedes benz of the computer world and I will support Apple for as long as I can.
Ohh 30 billion now instead of 24 Billion, its simple really it's called a 40% markup and people who are willing to pay it, and iPods of course.
Yes what an engineering marvel, what density, and who brought it to you ? NVIDIA OF COURSE.
Exactly the same chipset that features in other laptops but with a EFI chip instead of BIOS.
Why when are iTards going to wake up to the fact that Apple's hardware partners (Motorola, IBM, Intel and now Nvidia) design the motherboards (yes i said it) that go into all their computers, have a look at the last generation intel insides, all reference design chipsets, Apple design the shiny exteriors so yes well done Apple.
Since when is Nvidia in the laptop battery industry?
1) Did you see Apple's website and/or video? You did not. If you had, you would've learned that it is actually Apple who engineers their own batteries for their laptops. Increasing battery density was one of their achievements, hence part of the reason why this battery lasts longer.
2) Apple's hardware partners design the chipsets that go into Apple's own engineered motherboards. They do NOT make the motherboards for Apple. I hope you're capable of making the distinction.
3) Apple designs many of its own chipsets. It has done so since its inception. (PA Semi was Apple's latest move in the hardware/chipset arena.) That gives Apple the ability to add specialized hardware of its own design to its Mac products and fully exploit that potential with tight software integration. Thus, specialized processors and chipsets allow Apple to differentiate its product line from the run-of-the mill PCs.
I just proved you wrong and that makes you the iTard.
I would sell my dead mother for one of these but then if i actually had to pay for it I'd think
Macbook Pro 17" 2.5 C2D Nvidia 9600GT/9400 4GB Ram 320GB HDD DVD-RW = £1949
Acer Aspire Gemstone 18.6" 2.4 C2D Nvida 9700GT 4GB Ram 320GB HDD DVD-RW/BD-ROM= £1078
I could buy 2 extra batteries for the Acer and still have £850 in my pocket.
A laptop with a bigger screen, a blu-ray drive and better gaming graphics, that will still dual boot Windows & OS X
So yes I do think Apple machines are very attractive but rather overpriced
I don't find the design to be extraordinary. The continual shrinking of ICs and hard drives (from magnetic platters to SSDD) explains the compact construction of this 17 inch MacBook rather than any design innovation.
Couple things: if the claim is that you can get 7-8 hours on this laptop, under what load? Surfing the web? Playing a game? Tracking some music? Or just leaving it sitting there (as I suspect)
The Battery could have been easily designed to be user replaceable, they didn't explicitly because they profit from battery replacements. Don't be fooled.
As Dell does successfully, they could ship a battery (or have you pick it up at the Apple store) to the end user to have him/her replace it. I'm assuming here that an average MAC users possess the electronics IQ to replace a battery.
I do remember buying an extra battery for my powerbook G3. I used it once. The original still works, but I have had 4 (apple) laptops since all of which are still in service with one of my staff.
The PC laptops I have bought (about the same number) I would prefer to forget as they are so horrible.
I still have a mark 1 ipod and have not had to change its battery, so I am not bovvered by the latest developments.
(From my iPHONE 3G)
Cheers
The Captain