Today we're going to be taking apart the brand-new 2023 Apple MacBook Pro so we can see that
legendary M2 chip on the inside.
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Now there's been quite a lot of chatter about Apple's M2 chip.
I think we should see if we can find it.
Let's get started.
[Intro]
Every now and then we find some fun Easter eggs inside of technology like the master
chief inside of the Xbox, or the binary on dbrand's Dark Plates.
And it looks like Apple might just have done something similar here in the new M2 MacBook
Pros.
From the outside, however, we can see that the screen is not a touch screen and the keys
have 0.9 millimeters of travel.
As we work our way around the exterior we find a Magsafe 3 port, pretty awesome, two
Thunderbolt 4 USB-C ports, and a headphone jack.
Solid so far.
And then on the opposite side we have the SD card slot, Thunderbolt, and HDMI.
Nice to see the HDMI and SD card slots making a comeback.
Kind of a whoopsie daisy for anyone who bought a MacBook Pro in the 2016 era.
And, of course, internally we're working with the M2 Pro chip with 16 gigabytes of integrated
RAM and 500 gigs of internal storage.
We aren't here just to read about the insides though, we're here to see the insides.
To access the internals, we got to remove the metal plate on the bottom which has MacBook
Pro neatly debossed on the surface.
And in classic Apple fashion, not only are the 8 screws proprietary pentalobes, but they're
also different sizes.
The top row has the larger screws and the bottom row has the shorter screws.
The whole plate can shift down and slide up and away from the MacBook and the internals
are pretty interesting.
At first glance we have our two fans, similar to the Yoga Pro 9i.
But instead of one battery, this MacBook Pro has 6.
Along with some very, very cool looking copper haptic feedback motors on the bottom for when
you're clicking or dragging things around using the trackpad.
It looks pretty cool, not going to lie.
I'll show you how to get the insides on the outsides later.
The battery connection point is also pretty interesting.
But first we gotta switch screwdriver bits, because of course, with two screws and a metal
plate removed we can unplug the trackpad ribbon.
And then we gotta switch screwdriver bits, because of course, this sombrero screw is
what's applying pressure to the battery contact ribbon.
And yes, it's just a flat ribbon.
There is no plug for this battery.
I'll show you more in a second, but first we have to switch screwdriver bits because
of course, in order to remove the battery we first have to remove the trackpad, which
actually isn't too bad.
There are 12 screws holding this thing in place, but once those are gone the track pad
just kind of falls out onto the screen.
No glue or nothin'.
I'm shook.
The trackpad is a legit looking piece of tech.
The little metal washer shim things can't get lost though since that's what keeps it
level with the surface of the MacBook.
With how cool this thing looks, it's a real shame it's all hidden on the inside.
The reason we took the trackpad out is because the two center battery modules have magic
pull tabs that can only be accessed from the keyboard side of the machine.
These are, unfortunately, silent.
As a matter of fact, each and every battery, all 6 of them, have two of these pull tabs.
Thumbs up for that.
Basically these are like command strips that lose their adhesion when stretched and allow
the battery to be removed safely...[stretching sounds]...unless they break.
I do really love these things though.
[Stretching sounds]
I did have some pull tabs break though, so I'll dibble in some isopropyl alcohol to neutralize
the rest of the adhesive.
All the batteries come out like some 6-legged spider.
Instead of an octopus it's a hectopus...and we're not going to call it that anymore.
It's like Tim Cook had a bunch of old iPhone batteries lying around and was like, 'yeah,
string a bunch of those bad boys together and ship it in our Pro laptop.'
I'm mostly kidding of course.
Electronics use multiple cell batteries all the time.
This one just looks weirder than most.
It is a beast though at 69 watt hours of battery, it gives us a total of 18 hours of movie watching,
or 12 hours of Facebook scrolling.
Apple definitely knows their demographic.
The battery connection is actually just two bare gold squares, a positive and negative,
meeting up with the positive and negative bare contact pads leading to the motherboard.
Not sure how long Apple's been doing this, since this is my first MacBook teardown.
But as long as that one singular screw never wiggles out I guess, it might work just fine.
Funny that they use 14 incredibly strong fail-proof adhesive strips to hold the battery in place,
but then when it comes to keeping the laptop functional, they use the world's tiniest screw.
Also, I didn't see the extra 4 pull tabs under the track pad until now.
I make mistakes so you don't have to.
In order for us to get access to that M2 chip and remove the logic board, the rest of this
process is an absolute nightmare.
The good news is that nothing in here is repairable or upgradeable, so nobody will ever be in
here anyway.
But the bad news is that nothing in here is repairable or upgradable, so nobody will ever
be here anyway.
The three antenna wires and their 18 screws can be removed and set off to the side.
Nothing super special with this unit – it kind of just fills up space and allows the
screen ribbons to flex.
Next up we have 17 more screws and 8 metal plates that hold down the Lego-style ribbons
for all the side ports.
Nice to see that at least these are modular.
With 10 more board level screws and every ribbon released, we can finally take out the
logic board, leaving the fans behind.
It's much simpler looking inside than Lenovo's laptop, mostly because of this M2 chip.
Apple's been able to combine the CPU GPU and RAM all into a single, very thermally efficient
chip.
Now normally I'd have some jokes to throw around about proprietary stuff being expensive
and monopolistic, but in reality this thing is actually very impressive.
By taking smartphone hardware size and design and scaling it up into the laptop and desktop
worlds, this one tiny square can outperform most other laptops while hardly needing any
cooling.
The heat pipe system is maybe using 1/30th of the copper we saw in the Lenovo laptop,
and we probably even saw more copper inside of Tesla's wireless charger.
And, of course, it wouldn't be Apple if they didn't plop their logo right on top.
Of course, just because the laptop is good doesn't mean you need to spend 10 grand on
the entire ecosystem.
Personally, I'll just be appreciating this chip from a distance.
It's interesting to see the copper heatsink has a tiered step in it.
I wonder if all the important circuitry bits are in the center.
Now, for the reassembly.
Fingers crossed that everything still works.
It was during this reassembly that I saw Apple's secret message.
The M2 heatsink was screwed back into place with its spring eclipse, and the motherboard
was snuggled down in between all of its ribbon connectors, which is actually kind of difficult
to be honest.
I did lift up the little black flaps so you can get a sneak peek of all the other hardware
that isn't here.
The M2 chip is really the laptop.
Got the antenna bracket back in place, and then it was when I was installing the trackpad
back into the frame that I noticed the message written inside the MacBook Pro.
Tiny Braille-looking dots below each of the trackpad windows that would normally be hidden
underneath the battery.
Braille text is normally three rows of raised dots, so that it can be felt with fingertips
by people with vision impairments.
These dots on the MacBook are debossed instead of embossed, meaning they're recessed, so
they're slightly different.
And my Braille translating app doesn't seem to work.
So I'm going to need your help on this one.
Is this Braille from a different language?
Maybe Apple's own proprietary language?
Wouldn't put it past them.
If someone figures it out though, let's split the treasure 50/50.
With the hectapus battery back in place we can snuggle the two bare battery contacts
up with the two bare battery contacts on the motherboard and screw them together.
It's definitely a cool looking laptop on the inside.
It's a real shame to cover up all this hardware with just a boring metal plate.
With only two color options, basically every MacBook Pro on the planet looks the exact
same.
With mine plugged in though, she powers on and is surprisingly still functioning.
If you're the type of person who appreciates the inner beauty over external sameness, might
I recommend one of my Teardown Skins, with the legendary M2 chip front and center.
And not only is the illustrious copper accented trackpad on the exterior, but I also made
a Skin for the trackpad itself.
For the price you paid for this laptop, it's definitely a good idea to keep it protected,
and there's no better way than with one of my Teardown Skins.
Apple made it look good, Jerry Rig shows it off.
Link is down in the description.
And thanks a ton for watching.
I'll see you around.