Ah, shit. The Air technically belongs to Apple, so we're not supposed to open it up. For the time being, we're pulling the photos, but nothing is gonna stop us from running em later. We'll repost when we get our own units. UPDATE: Now that Macbooks are shipping, we've posted the second set of innards. Full details below.
Jan 24, 2008 06:37 PM
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Ah, shit. The Air technically belongs to Apple, so we're not supposed to open it up. For the time being, we're pulling the photos, but nothing is gonna stop us from running em later. We'll repost when we get our own units. UPDATE: Now that Macbooks are shipping, we've posted the second set of innards. Full details below.
As soon as we got our MacBook Air, we couldn't help but want to tear it down to its innards. We wanted to see what made up this beautiful machine, so we grabbed our #00 phillips screwdriver and had at it. Want to know what we found? The sexiest and simplest notebook has the sexiest and simplest construction (you'll be surprised at how easy the battery comes out). Not only was this thin thing amazingly easy to disassemble, it was even gorgeous on the inside. Here are the details and, more importantly, pictures.
The bottom casing has 10 screws, all #00 Phillips, but there are 3 different screw lengths, so remembering where each screw belongs is crucial. Once all the screws were out, we expected to hassle with Apple's typical tabbed locking system, like the iPod and iBook. But to our surprise there were no tricky tabs to unhook, just lift up the back of the casing and it's off. There were very small metal tabs at the front of the casing, but they were easily and unknowingly undone by just raising the back first and pulling up.
Once the casing was off, we set our sights on the battery. Since the battery takes up almost 3/4 of the inside, it was hard to miss. Nine screws hold the battery in, which are again #00 phillips. Once the battery screws were out, we disconnected the battery cable, which again was surprisingly easy, just using our fingers.
So, getting inside the MacBook Air and taking out the battery was very easy. Easy enough to allow most users to do a battery replacement on their own. We must state that replacing the Macbook Air's battery is far more complicated than say a MacBook or MacBook Pro. But considering that the MacBook Air's battery is actually enclosed in the machine and Apple charges for the replacement service, it is nice to know if needed to, it can be replaced by the user.
Other Thoughts
•The screws that hold the bottom casing, go in at a slight angle. Since the sides of the MacBook Air are curved, the screws have to go in a certain angle to sit level in the holes. This could be a pain when screwing back in, since the little screws have to be at an exact angle.
•On the inside of the bottom casing, there is a convenient two image reassembling instructions.
•Hard drive appears to be easy to replace.
•Ram appears to be soldered on, not so easy to replace.
•The inside construction seems very solid.
•As with all Apple books, taking out screws and opening up the casing voids warranty, so we would imagine the same goes for the Macbook Air.
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