iFixit teardown affords an in depth look contained in the Mac Studio and Studio Display

iFixit has gotten its grubby mitts on Apple’s new Mac Studio laptop and Studio Display, and has taken each aside to be taught extra about them — together with how simply they are often repaired and even upgraded. The Mac Studio specifically has generated some controversy as a result of its SSDs don’t seem like user-upgradable, regardless of being pretty straightforward to entry and take away.

There’s one piece of fine information from iFixit’s teardown, which is that it does seem like attainable to swap out the SSD in a Mac Studio for one of many identical measurement in case the drive fails. But regardless of there being a second SSD slot accessible, it doesn’t seem like attainable to easily insert a further second drive to simply improve the Studio’s storage your self. As for whether or not it might ever be attainable for an end-user to improve a Mac Studio’s storage? “The jury’s still out,” says iFixit.

These difficulties have prompted hypothesis that Apple is implementing some type of software program block to forestall end-user SSD upgrades. But as ArsTechnica explains, it most likely has extra to do with the elemental design of the storage in Apple Silicon Macs. While PC SSDs sometimes embrace each NAND flash chips and an SSD controller on the identical (detachable) module, Apple’s latest Macs have separated them. The NAND stays on the SSD module itself, however the SSD controller is constructed into Apple’s chips.

Regardless of the reasoning, it’s nonetheless irritating not with the ability to simply improve your individual laptop’s storage. Instead, you’ll must pay Apple’s (typically exorbitant) costs for its increased storage configurations as a safeguard.

Elsewhere, there’s each good and unhealthy information for the Mac Studio’s repairability. The excellent news is that almost all parts are held along with screws, and that the pc’s ports are modular and needs to be comparatively straightforward to interchange in the event that they break. But really stepping into the pc requires peeling off a sticky rubber foot ring, its RAM is soldered on, and its cooling mechanism — whereas beefy — seems prefer it’ll be a nightmare to mud when the time comes. Overall, iFixit provides the Mac Studio a 6/10 rating for repairability, identical because the previous Mac Mini.

Finally, iFixit additionally took the chance to take aside the brand new Studio Display, which it says “opens like an iMac, and inside looks… a lot like an iMac.” Although the corporate teases that it’ll have extra to say concerning the show at a later date, it confirms that the Studio Display’s webcam seems to make use of the identical digicam sensor as what was discovered within the iPhone 11. Which makes it much more complicated that the monitor’s webcam affords such stunning high quality. Here’s hoping Apple’s promised software program replace improves issues.