MacBooks are notoriously difficult to repair. Rather, all Apple products are tightly locked down, which prevents customers and third-party repair services from accessing and swapping out the internals.
But the tide is shifting as easily-replaceable parts become a desired feature for users, and help repair services replace or upgrade faulty components. The MacBook Air 2020 is the latest laptop to improve in this area.
- MacBook Air 2020 review
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An iFixit teardown revealed a new internal design for the new MacBook Air that makes the laptop a bit easier to repair. Let's not get too excited yet; The MacBook Air scored a 4 out of 10 for repairability -- a small improvement over the 3/10 scored by the previous model and below where the Surface Laptop 3 landed.
Compared to last year's version, the trackpad cable has been removed from under the logic board and freed up to be disconnected. As a result, the battery that sits under those cables is easier to remove because you can now leave the logic board in place.
Apple still doesn't want you to fiddle around with its laptops. Upgrading the SSD or RAM will void your warranty, so forget about how easily-accessible these MacBooks are: they aren't user-replaceable. If your MacBook needs repairs, like, say, a new keyboard, you'll need to speak to the folks in Blue or find an Apple Authorized Service Provider.
Let's just hope the scissor keyboard on the new MacBook Air is more reliable, so you don't ever need to peek inside the machine.
