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Apple's New 15-Inch MacBook Pros Have Storage Soldered To the Logic Board (macrumors.com)
yoink! writes: The integration loop is complete. Apple's, admittedly very fast, PCIe storage modules are now built right into the main boards of their 15-inch, Touch Bar-equipped, Retina-screened, Thunderbolt 3-ported, MacBook Pros. A few forum posts over at MacRumors reveal the skinny on the quiet removal of the last user-upgradable component of their professional-series laptops. From the report: "MacRumors reader Jesse D. unscrewed the bottom lid on his new 15-inch MacBook Pro with a Touch Bar and discovered, unlike the 13-inch model sans Touch Bar, there is no cutout in the logic board for removable flash storage. Another reader said the 13-inch model with a Touch Bar also has a non-removable SSD. Given the SSD appears to be permanently soldered to the logic board, users will be unable to upgrade the Touch Bar MacBook Pro's flash storage beyond Apple's 512GB to 2TB built-to-order options on its website at the time of purchase. In other words, the amount of flash storage you choose will be permanent for the life of the notebook."
Buy or don't buy. There is no upgrade.
When I bought my last laptop a few years ago, I made sure to get one with plenty of upgrade potential -- extra drive bay, memory slot, etc. Since then, I've upgraded it exactly zero times, and still see no need to upgrade it.
I used to feel the same about buying a phone without a replaceable battery or SD card slot.... then I bought my first Nexus with neither.... I've been very happy with my choice and haven't missed the upgradability.
I'd imagine that a lot of people are like me -- they like the idea of having the option to upgrade, but don't actually *need* to upgrade so a non-upgradable laptop isn't all that unattractive.