iFixit writes:
“The Air owes a lot to the repairable MacBooks of yesteryear, but unfortunately seems to be learning some of the iPad’s bad habits. While we love design choices like a serviceable battery, and a very clever speaker system, we’re less excited about soldered memory and storage, and a rather puzzling heat management system.”
On their journey they find the soldered-down octa-core M2 + unified memory package, with integrated GPU; a single soldered 256 GB NAND flash memory chip (instead of two 128’s); a seemingly Apple-made Thunderbolt 3 driver (rather than Intel chips) and an accelerometer.
But no heatsink or active cooling system, apparently…
You can watch a video of the teardown below:
The conclusion? That the Mac has been heading in a more positive direction recently – “more and better ports, a better keyboard, and a return to some more repairable ideas”.
That’s a comparatively good result for Apple. I remember – not so long ago – they were getting low marks. For example, the Apple HomePod smart speaker got a repairability score of just 1. (Yes, the lowest possible score.)
See the full MacBook Air M2 teardown.
Images: iFixit
See also: CES 2022: Brickbat-shaped awards for Worst in Show
