Given that Apple has continually made its laptops incredibly difficult to repair, it’s nice to see that the tech giant’s desktop alternatives are headed in the opposite direction.
The site iFixit is renowned for its in-depth teardowns of brand new tech and the resulting instructions it provides (covering thousands of products) are a fantastic resource.
iFixit's become particularly famous for doling out 'ease of repair' scores on hot new tech, and with Apple’s 2019 Mac Pro, the result is a perhaps surprising one, with the new desktop scoring an impressive 9/10 and being heralded as “a masterclass in repairability”.
That high praise is largely due to the computer's deliberately modular design, with iFixit noting that Apple even offers “some step numbers and diagrams right on the device, and publishes free repair manuals for some repairs”.
Also garnishing praise from the teardown experts is the Mac Pro’s ability to be repaired using “standard tools, or even no tools at all” as well as its adoption of “industry-standard sockets and interfaces” for its major components.
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iFixit has noted a couple of drawbacks, though one of those is perhaps forgivable; the SSDs used by Apple are custom-made and tied to the device’s T2 security chip for the sake of encryption, and as such, replacing these does require an Apple technician.
Users may also find it difficult (or expensive) to locate any replacement parts that aren’t on Apple’s “limited list of approved repairs,'' according to iFixit – although many are more niche parts, so it remains to be seen how likely you’ll need to be making these kinds of tweaks.
During the teardown, iFixit also put to bed any rumors that may suggest the Mac Pro would, in fact, make for an excellent cheese grater. It doesn’t, sadly.
[via iFixit]
