KEY FINDINGS
• On initial inspection, the 15-inch MBP looks like a scaled-up version of the 13-inch model. We do notice a difference in the battery layout, but overall it’s like looking at twins. And look what we ran into! A connector to nowhere. Apple may have included this to access the soldered-in SSD for data recovery. We’d rather see a removable/upgradeable SSD, particularly in a machine targeted at pros—but this way, if your logic board bites the dust, there might at least be a chance of recovering your data with Apple’s help. • Anxious to get a peek at Apple’s re-engineered thermal architecture, we free the fans from the four T3 screws securing them to the rear case. And they come out hassle-free. No glue on this puppy! On the outside, that is. Opening up the fan takes some seriously aggressive prying against clips and adhesive. • This 15-inch MacBook Pro has a similar speaker grille to its smaller 13-inch counterpart. Most of the grille doesn’t include full through-holes, prompting us to question, why the dimples, Apple? Survey says: weight-savers, so it goes faster when you put wheels on it. • After accidentally separating the digitizer from the OLED panel, we turn our tools to the LED display. Two teardown engineers, an opening pick, X-Acto knife, isopropyl alcohol, a heat gun, and an iOpener all came to this OLED teardown party, but Apple’s adhesive was still too much for our glue separation squad. Thwarted by the monstrous amount of adhesive holding the OLED panel in place, we resign ourselves to flecking away shards of glass. • Repairability Score: 1 out of 10 (10 is easiest to repair). The trackpad is easy to access and straightforward to replace. Use of proprietary pentalobe screws makes servicing and repair unnecessarily difficult. The entire battery assembly is strongly glued into the case, complicating replacement. The processor, RAM, and flash memory are soldered to the logic board. The Touch Bar adds a second, difficult-to-replace screen to damage. The Touch ID sensor doubles as the power switch, and is paired with the T1 chip on the logic board. Fixing a broken power switch may require help from Apple, or a new logic board.