iFixit tears down the 13" Retina MacBook Pro (with kittens!)

What's better than an iFixit tear-down of a new Mac? A teardown complete with a "21-Day-Old Kitten Late 2012"! The iFixit team did their usual thorough job of gently disassembling and inspecting each part of a brand new 13" Retina MacBook Pro, but it's extra-special this time because there are kitten pictures! It's like they knew I'd be reading it...

Among the findings reported to TUAW by Miroslav Djuric of iFixit, other than the fact that kittens are sooooo cute, were:

• "The most striking layout change in the 13" version is the rearranged battery cells. Their placement allowed Apple's designers to cleverly tuck the SSD away underneath the trackpad assembly.

• This time we're excited to find two of the six battery cells held in with screws and no adhesive. Battery removal took us roughly 15 minutes to complete, and we didn't have to use a heat gun. All we needed was a Torx screwdriver and three spudgers.

• At first we thought we found some kitten fuzz inside a couple of screw holes, but it turns out that Apple glued in a small piece of steel-wool-like metal on top of two of the speaker screws.

• Just five screws keep the trackpad in place. You can actually replace it if it breaks, which is pretty much impossible on the 15" model (since the trackpad is covered by the battery)."

Other important information: when you first pop the case open, the integrated parts look like a grumpy face. Why that 13" Retina MacBook Pro has a grumpy face when it's being nuzzled by a sweet little kitten is beyond me, but it does. Enjoy the teardown and that sweet little boo-boo.