Apple’s wildly popular new MacBook Pro has been praised to the skies on review sites, but there’s another reason to love it: it’s the most repairable MacBook in a long time.
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The M1 MacBook Pro gets a 3/10 repairability score from iFixit, but believe it or not, that’s a pretty good score for a Mac notebook. For comparison, the 2019 Intel 16-inch MacBook Pro scored a ridiculous 1/10. That two-point gain, or 200% improvement despite the still low score, also marks a pretty radical change of direction for Apple.
"It's all about the battery," iFixit's Olivia Webb told Lifewire via email. "Previous MacBook batteries (from 2016 onwards) required removing the entire logic board to access the battery, and then using heavy-duty solvents, fiddly maneuvers, and a lot of patience to pry it out. This battery is easy to get to and has a stretchable adhesive with pull tabs instead of hard glue."
Repairability isn’t just about taking your pentalobe screwdriver to your computer’s chassis. When a computer is designed to be easier to repair, that’s good news for third-party repair shops and Apple itself. If you’re taking your iPhone to the Apple Store to have a cracked screen replaced, repairability can mean the difference between a quick, while-you-wait fix and an overnight teardown.
