This week Apple delivered the highly anticipated MacBook Pro with Retina Display — and the tech world is buzzing. Kyle Wiens runs iFixit a team responsible for high-resolution teardowns of new products and DIY repair guides. iFixit disassembles and analyzes new electronic gizmos so you don’t have to — kind of like an internet version of Consumer Reports. [url=http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2012/06/opinion-apple-retina-displa/]Kyle took one apart yesterday and reports[/url]:
The Retina MacBook is the least repairable laptop we’ve ever taken apart: Unlike the previous model the display is fused to the glass which means replacing the LCD requires buying an expensive display assembly. The RAM is now soldered to the logic board — making future memory upgrades impossible. And the battery is glued to the case requiring customers to mail their laptop to Apple every so often for a $200 replacement. The design may well be comprised of “highly recyclable aluminum and glass” — but my friends in the electronics recycling industry tell me they have no way of recycling aluminum that has glass glued to it like Apple did with both this machine and the recent iPad.