The MacBook Pro with Retina display still looks like a great piece of hardware, but it’s also apparent how similar it’s becoming to the MacBook Air. As with the Air, the new Pro’s RAM is soldered to its logic board, meaning that you’ll be stuck with whatever amount you get at point of purchase.
And by the way If you’re lucky enough to already be an owner of a new MacBook Pro with Retina display, you may have found yourself with a dysfunctional trackpad.
Fortunately, Apple was aware of the issue and Trackpad Update 1.0 is now available for download. The update contains no other significant changes other than a solution to “an issue where the trackpad may not respond consistently to user input,” but Apple recommends that even unaffected owners apply the patch.
Now back to the hardware, It’s also using proprietary screws and Flash memory, a first for the MacBook Pro line, and the battery is affixed with glue rather than screws. That makes it much more difficult to replace, especially because it’s apparently right above the fragile trackpad cable. The new one-piece screen, meanwhile, means you’ll end up replacing the entire assembly if anything goes wrong.
Outside this, the teardown confirmed some things we’d heard about when the new Pro was announced. The fan indeed has asymmetric blade spacing, meant to reduce its noise, and the components are made by Samsung, as one might expect. It’s got a 95Wh battery at 10.95V (compared to 77.5Wh previously) and a pair of Broadcom chips with 802.11n dual-band wireless support and Bluetooth 4.0. And that one-piece Retina screen is apparently quite the visual treat.
You can find the entire teardown, with pictures, over here.
