By Evan Noronha • Difficulty: Moderate
A year after release, Apple just announced its first update to the 12" MacBook with Retina Display. It's sort of a baby update, so we decided to match it with a baby teardown. Besides a faster processor and zippier flash memory, what changed? There's only one way to know: crack it open and spill its secrets. Join us for a mini-teardown of the Retina MacBook 2016.
For a no-holds-barred disassembly of the initial Retina MacBook release, check out our Retina MacBook 2015 teardown.
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- With the MacBook jumping on the Rose Gold bandwagon, who knows what's lurking inside? Here's the lowdown so far:
- 12-inch 2304 × 1440 (226 ppi) IPS Retina Display
- 1.1 GHz dual-core Intel Core m3 processor (configurable up to 1.3 GHz dual-core Intel Core m7)
- 8 GB of 1866 MHz LPDDR3 RAM
- 256 or 512 GB PCIe-based flash storage
- Intel HD Graphics 515
- 802.11a/b/g/n/ac Wi-Fi wireless networking and Bluetooth 4.0
- Single USB-C port and 3.5 mm headphone jack
- If it weren't for the rose gold finish, we'd be hard-pressed to distinguish between this year's Retina MacBook, and the one of yesteryear.
- The exteriors look identical, from the Pentalobe screws in the lower case all the way down to the model number—A1534.
- Popping the hood on this MacBook gives us an indication that the rose gold beauty is much more than skin deep.
- Before delving any deeper into this beauty, we take a quick look at the chips powering the trackpad:
- Broadcom BCM5976 touchscreen controller
- STMicroelectronics STM32F103 32-bit ARM Cortex-M3 microcontroller
- Monolithic Power Systems MP24830HL White LED driver and International Rectifier IRFH3702 power MOSFET
- Maxim Integrated MAX11290 analog-to-digital converter (likely)
- Macronix MX25L2006EZUI-12G 2 Mb Serial NOR flash memory
- Maxim Integrated MAX9028 comparator
- Touchpad sensors:
- Bosch Sensortec BMA282 accelerometer
- Texas Instruments TMP421 temperature sensor
- What's that? The pesky tri-wing screw we saw last year grew another, um, wing—now it's a regular ol' repair-friendly Phillips.
- Thankfully, all the other internal screws remain standard Phillips and Torx screws.
- And at the other end of the MacBook, it seems the USB-C hardware has also changed. The cable is now perma-fixed to the USB board, condensing the two components into a single unit.
- ...Also, the silicon is new and moved from the cable itself to the USB board. Here's a comparison of the new USB-C hardware (top) with that of the 2015 Retina MacBook (bottom).
- Parade Technologies PS8741A (likely an iteration of the PS8740 USB-C redriving switch)
- Diodes Incorporated PI1EQX7502 USB 3.0 redriver (likely)
- NXP Semiconductor CBTL04043A1 4-Ch. bidirectional crossbar switch
- The battery's form factor seems 100% identical to the multi-lobed cell we found in the 2015 Macbook.
- And yet somehow, Apple managed to squeeze in a 4% capacity increase from the 7.55 V, 39.71 Wh battery in last year's model. Apple claims this new 7.56 V, 41.41 Wh Li-ion power source should provide up to 11 hours of iTunes movie playback.
- Unfortunately, they did not squeeze in any of those nifty adhesive pull tabs we've seen in Apple's iDevices.
- Logic Board! What chips is this MacBook serving up?
- Intel SR2EN Intel Core m3-6Y30 Processor (4M Cache, up to 2.20 GHz)
- Toshiba TH58TFT0DFKLAVF 128 GB MLC NAND Flash (+ 128 GB on the reverse side for a total of 256 GB)
- Micron MT41K256M16LY-107:N 512 Mb DDR3L SDRAM memory
- Universal Scientific Industrial 339S0250 Wi-Fi module
- Broadcom BCM15700A2 (as seen in several other MacBook models) webcam controller (likely)
- National Semiconductor 48B1-11 (LP8548B1) backlight driver
- Micron EDF4432ACPE-GD-F 4 GB LPDDR3 SDRAM Memory (with SSD controller presumably layered underneath)
- But wait, there's even more chips on the back:
- Toshiba TH58TFT0DFKLAVF 128 GB MLC NAND flash memory
- Samsung K3QF4F40BM-AGCF 4 GB LPDDR3 SDRAM (x2, for a total of 8 GB)
- Apple 338S00066 power management IC
- Texas Instruments/Stellaris LM4FS1EH SMC controller (replacement codename for TM4EA231)
- Microchip (formerly SMSC) EMC1704-2 temperature sensor
- Texas Instruments SN650839 step down DC-DC converter (likely), TPS51980A PMIC, and CD3215B01 USB-C controller
- Intersil ISL95828 Intel CPU PWM controller
- IC identification, continued:
- Renesas ISL95530 battery charger
- Vishay SiC535 power stage
- Maxim Integrated MAX98357B audio amplifier
- Texas Instruments TMP102 temperature sensor
- Microchip (formerly Atmel) AT93C66B 4 K serial EEPROM memory
- Macronix MX25L2006EZUI-12G 2 Mb flash memory
- Texas Instruments INA211 and INA214 current sense amplifier
- Retina Macbook 2016 Repairability Score: 1 out of 10 (10 is the easiest to repair)
- Those pesky tri-wing screws are gone, replaced with lovely standard Phillips screws—but tamper-evident hinge screws make you feel like a hoodlum for repairing your own machine.
- The processor, RAM, and flash memory are still soldered to the logic board.
- The battery assembly remains entirely, and very solidly, glued into the lower case.
- The Retina display is still a fused unit with no separate, protective glass. If the display needs replacing, it'll cost a pretty penny.