MacBook Pro M5 Teardown: Still only moderately repairable

The repair specialist iFixit has now taken Apple's new MacBook Pro M5 for its usual disassembly. There is good and bad news, with ultimately seemingly little having changed: The Repairability Score, i.e., the metric that the teardown specialists determine for repairability, remains at (only) 4 out of a maximum of 10 points, and thus the same as with its predecessor, the MacBook Pro M4.

Pentalobes and typical battery nerve

Visually, little has changed with the MacBook Pro M5, as is well known. Internally, a faster M5 SoC now plays the leading role, along with accelerated read-write performance of the SSD (up to doubled). In addition, the machine can now be equipped with a maximum of four TBytes; previously it was up to two TBytes, with Apple charging high prices here as before (up to 1500 Euro surcharge).

As usual, Apple uses special screws for the housing, the infamous pentalobes, for which appropriate screwdrivers are needed. It has been made easier to separate the battery from the rest of the system, which makes repair safer. However, the power storage remains difficult to replace. At least Apple now provides that you can access the battery without complex removal of the trackpad.

Battery not available separately

Interesting: The battery grew minimally from 72.4 to 72.6 Wh, although Apple lists the old value. However, the manufacturer still does not offer the battery individually in its official Self-Service Repair Store, but only as part of the (expensive) top case, for which Apple wants a whopping 600 Euros (price for the M4 model, called “Top case with battery and keyboard” by Apple).

iFixit hopes that Apple will make the battery easier to replace in the future—and cheaper without the top case. Anyone who wants to access the fan, speakers, ports, and other important components that tend to break will have to remove the main board as before, which is also a complex process. The situation is better for the Touch ID sensor and the trackpad itself. Commendable: Apple is using more and more modular components, making replacement easier—but you first have to reach them. A repair manual with tech specs is already available for the MacBook Pro M5 here. Apple is now always considering this part.

Empfohlener redaktioneller Inhalt

Mit Ihrer Zustimmung wird hier ein externer Preisvergleich (heise Preisvergleich) geladen.

Preisvergleiche immer laden Preisvergleich jetzt laden

Ich bin damit einverstanden, dass mir externe Inhalte angezeigt werden. Damit können personenbezogene Daten an Drittplattformen (heise Preisvergleich) übermittelt werden. Mehr dazu in unserer Datenschutzerklärung.

(bsc)