Apple’s 15-Inch M2 MacBook Air Teardown Is ‘A Miserable Experience,’ Claims iFixit, Requiring Tons Of Screw Removals

Apple might have listened to its customer base by providing them with a larger 15-inch MacBook Air, but just like current-generation models, the company will make sure that you make all the efforts in the world to disassemble it. IFixit performed a teardown, and you will soon see that the chassis is locked down by several screws of different shapes and sizes to make things as difficult as they can be.

Battery of the 15-inch MacBook Air is 25 percent larger than the 13-inch model and ‘probably’ help in fast-charging

Getting inside the 15-inch MacBook Air requires the removal of a few pentalobe screws and some guitar picks to remove the bottom cover, after which begins iFixit’s excruciating journey of tearing down the portable Mac. According to the video host, the process is ‘a miserable experience’ as a ton of screws need to be removed, along with lots of clips that need to be detached from different parts of the machine.

Apple has not made removing the logic board any simpler, and it appears that the company wants to discourage cheaper third-party repairs by maintaining this practice for future models. There is an improved speaker system, but according to a previous disassembly done by the YouTube channel Max Tech, it was found that the 15-inch MacBook Air actually features a smaller M2 logic board than the 13-inch model, so Apple could accommodate those speaker upgrades.

The M2 logic board in all its glory, and while it might be appear to be the same unit as the one in the 13-inch model, it is actually shorter

Another component that Apple changed on the 15-inch MacBook Air is the battery, which is now a 66.5WHr unit, making it 25 percent larger than the capacity found in the 13-inch version. Interestingly, a bigger battery does not increase the runtime of the bigger notebook, as both models last between 15-18 hours on a single charge. However, the advantage here is that because Apple added more cells to the 15-inch model, iFixit believes that it helps with fast charging as the additional cells can simultaneously receive juice from the power brick.

Overall, iFixit gives the 15-inch MacBook Air a 3 out of 10 in its repairability score, but what we noticed was that the bigger brother of the 13-inch model actually got a disassembly rating, while the smaller one did not. However, when we checked the teardown of the more compact MacBook Air, the painful process of removing all the components was nearly the same. While Apple’s newest machine offers a sizable display size increase, third-party repair outlets will have a field day with this product.