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Apple's New 15-Inch MacBook Pros Have Storage Soldered To the Logic Board (macrumors.com)

Posted by BeauHD on from the revolutionary-design dept.

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."

39 of 478 comments (clear)

  1. Next step... by ls671 · · Score: 4, Funny

    The next step is soldering the human brain to the board.

    --
    Everything I write is lies, read between the lines.
    1. Re:Next step... by msauve · · Score: 5, Funny

      Buy or don't buy. There is no upgrade.

      --
      "National Security is the chief cause of national insecurity." - Celine's First Law
    2. Re:Next step... by JoeMerchant · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Upgrades are for frugal customers, Apple doesn't want any.

    3. Re:Next step... by dgatwood · · Score: 5, Informative

      Don't buy. "Pro", my ass.

      To audio pros, the single most important feature in a pro laptop is knowing that when the logic board s**ts itself, you can take the thing in for repair, and you'll get back a machine that still has all your software on it. Without that, you get to experience the joy of spending several weeks on the phone with a hundred different software vendors trying to convince them to give you another device activation because your old machine no longer exists and you can't deactivate the existing installation.

      The other design screw-ups in the new "Pro" were obnoxious, but survivable. This one, however, represents a level of epic fail that is simply beyond acceptable. When you've had a long string of GPU-related logic board failures like Apple has experienced lately, soldering the non-volatile storage to the main logic board is just too incompetent for words.

      This is a show-stopper. This is not a pro machine. It is a disposable toy.

      --

      Check out my sci-fi/humor trilogy at PatriotsBooks.

    4. Re:Next step... by chrism238 · · Score: 5, Informative

      The next step will be to solder your credit card directly to the ApplePay reader.

    5. Re:Next step... by catchblue22 · · Score: 5, Interesting

      I bought a Macbook Pro in 2007, and I'm using a Macbook Air right now. Apple's actions are really beginning to piss me off. The company is being run by a bean counter and it shows. Greedy greedy greedy. Gluing their batteries in. Soldering the SSD. I asked a student to save a document to Google Drive and then upload it from an iPad to my website. Apparently you can't upload files from Google Drive to a website on an iPad. Seriously. They just want you to use effing iCloud Drive. I get insult after insult from Apple when I want to do things my way. I want to set the battery warning percentage so that it is 20%, so that I don't kill my battery. Nope. No option to do that. So I end up running my battery down to 1% far too many times (which is exactly what they want). I want to change the colour profile on my wife's iPhone 5 to get some sort of a yellow coloured night mode. Nope. You can do it on an iPhone 6, but not on an iPhone 5. That is a bloody fake restriction, and it just pisses me off. I want control of my devices. I shouldn't have to jailbreak my device.

      I used to be an Apple fanboy. They made damn good laptops. They sold excellent software...FCP was bloody awesome. If I'm going to pay a 30% or more premium for my laptop, I expect the freedom to control and upgrade my device. I did exactly that with my Macbook Pro. New batteries, new HD, memory upgraded to the maximum. Even with my Macbook Air, I have gotten around their stupid storage restrictions with a 128GB low profile USB drive and a 200GB flush mount microSD adapter. Now there is no SD slot. Now they expect me to pay their premium and get a locked in device. Well fuck you Apple!

      --
      This and no other is the root from which a tyrant springs; when first he appears as a protector - Plato (423 to 327 BC)
    6. Re: Next step... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

      You're missing the point here. It's almost 2mm thinner than it's predecessor. Now if that ain't worth a couple of days on the phone ...

    7. Re:Next step... by tsa · · Score: 4, Insightful

      It's not only the pro's that are complaining. Even the fanbois are now lamenting the removal of the MagSafe and the SD slot. Apple has lost its way since Steve's ideas have dried up.

      --

      -- Cheers!

    8. Re:Next step... by tsa · · Score: 3, Interesting

      I feel the same way. The ways to work around Apple's arbitrary restrictions are all getting blocked now. I love OSX/MacOS but if Apple keeps going on like this my next computer will be a self-built running Linux again.

      --

      -- Cheers!

    9. Re:Next step... by nine-times · · Score: 3, Insightful

      I think the bigger problem isn't the loss of Steve Jobs's ideas, but the loss of his ability to look at something and say, "Nope. Not good enough." I worry about Apple becoming gimmicky. Jobs seemed to be careful not to release things or make changes until they fit cohesively into the whole user interaction, providing an overall good user experience. I don't think he would have let Apple remove the headphone jack, for example, until there were a satisfying alternative method for connecting headphones.

      Just a guess, obviously.

  2. blacklisted from secure environments by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    blacklisted from secure environments now

    1. Re:blacklisted from secure environments by aaarrrgggh · · Score: 3, Funny

      Why; doesn't that improve security? Just take a hammer to it when the program is over. It has budget...

  3. Apple has lost its Mojo by Calibax · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Steve Jobs always wanted Macs to be appliances that the user could not tinker with or modify. Now they have made it for him.

    Unfortunately, systems designed that way don't reflect my needs at all.

    1. Re:Apple has lost its Mojo by ShanghaiBill · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Steve Jobs always wanted Macs to be appliances that the user could not tinker with or modify.

      That's how my wife treats her MBP. Every few years she starts complaining about it running too slow or the disk is full. So I buy her a new one, which is okay with me because it is still cheaper than jewelry or a vacation in Paris.

      She just got a new 15", and she loves it, especially the new task bar (which has color!). Hopefully, Apple won't upgrade it again for a while.

    2. Re:Apple has lost its Mojo by 110010001000 · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Isn't a MacBook pro $2400-$2800???? You can do a Paris vacation on that. That is insane to spend that much money on a laptop in 2017.

    3. Re:Apple has lost its Mojo by drinkypoo · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Isn't a MacBook pro $2400-$2800???? You can do a Paris vacation on that. That is insane to spend that much money on a laptop in 2017.

      As a microcosm of the world, Slashdot is peopled by two kinds of people; those who are poor and/or getting poorer, and those who are rich and getting richer. If you haven't noticed that there's a fair few people on Slashdot with quite a bit of disposable income, you must be new here. Not coincidentally, there's quite a few Trump supporters. (Trump supporters' median income is more than $10k higher than Sanders or Clinton supporters'... Not just the average mind you, the median)

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
    4. Re:Apple has lost its Mojo by amiga3D · · Score: 3, Interesting

      I can understand why someone would detest Trump. Hating on people for voting for him is another matter. When you're faced with the choices in the 2016 election there were no good choices. People ended up voting on what they hoped would work best for them. I knew when the election cycle started that I wasn't voting for Hilliary so when it began looking like Trump was going to blow away the Republican field I started praying for Bernie to win the Democratic side. That didn't happen so all I had was Trump. I don't give a shit how butthurt all the liberals are over it. They nominated a person who had all the negatives of a Liberal with absolutely none of the positives. Hopefully they'll evaluate how they got where they are and think about changing.

    5. Re:Apple has lost its Mojo by drinkypoo · · Score: 3, Informative

      Dude, when I can fly from GERMANY to any destination in the USA back and forth for $350, then it is hard to believe that you pay $1000 from US to Paris.

      Actually, we in the USA are getting violated in pretty much every way it is possible to be violated when we fly. We go to the airport and get reamed on parking (if I'm not going to be gone long I'll just go ahead and use it) and then we get reamed for (and by) a cinnabon and then we get groped by the TSA and then we get bent over with our heads between our knees and get our asses pounded by some awful seats, and then if we're "lucky" we get our digestive tract boned by some lukewarm scientifically inoffensive and uninteresting airplane food and then we get fucked by their booze prices (since we can't carry booze onto the plane conveniently any more) and all the while we're getting fucked over ticket prices. And then I've heard but have not yet experienced because I have not been to Europe and doubly not been there recently that we then get our ears raped about what scum we are for even having Trump in the race, let alone electing him, even if we'd rather have cut off our testicles and mailed them in to the RNC than have had that come to pass.

      The only way we don't get absolutely pinned down and taken when traveling is when we do it by automobile, and that only if we're clever and/or lucky enough to avoid intense traffic times and areas. Fuel is usually very cheap here (it's reasonably inexpensive right now) and if you drive a very boring but respectable looking car then odds are sharply against you having any problems... hmm, unless you are brown. Forgot about that part.

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
  4. Re:Not very secure by Black.Shuck · · Score: 5, Informative

    How are you supposed to wipe the SSD before you sell it?

    Clear the FileVault encryption key.

  5. oh goody! by fyngyrz · · Score: 5, Funny

    ...the storage is set for the lifetime of the notebook... and the lifetime of the notebook is set by the longevity of the storage.

    Way to go, Apple.

    Buy now, while still DRUNK!

    --
    I've fallen off your lawn, and I can't get up.
    1. Re: oh goody! by Dr_Barnowl · · Score: 3, Informative

      So the MTBF of both components is the same now, whichever is lower.

      Motherboard fails? Which apparently in your experience happens more often... you can't pull the SSD, stick it in another machine and get the data out.

      Yes, you should backup. Yes, you should probably use some kind of cloud sync. It's no substitute for being able to yank the drive, shove it in another box, and keep on truckin'. I can do this on my Linux boxes with no problems. (Windows, of course, will throw a blue fit if you try this).

    2. Re:oh goody! by Black+Parrot · · Score: 4, Funny

      No problem... you can read their new $300 book while you wait for your programs to load.

      --
      Sheesh, evil *and* a jerk. -- Jade
    3. Re: oh goody! by scdeimos · · Score: 4, Informative

      Windows, of course, will throw a blue fit if you try this

      What makes you say that, exactly? I just used gparted Live last week to migrate my Windows 10 installation from an old Intel 180GB SSD to a new Kingston 480G SSD and had no problems whatsoever. I wouldn't expect moving drives between identical hardware to be any different, but systems with different motherboards, NICs, GPUs, can all be booted in Safe Mode to install the required drivers.

    4. Re:oh goody! by amiga3D · · Score: 4, Insightful

      They generally last a long time with some exceptions. They've made the occasional model that had something or other that died unexpectedly and often. Given the silly prices they charge I highly recommend an applecare purchase. The oldest mac I have in use at the moment is my wife's late 2008 macbook. I upgraded the hard drive to an SSD and the memory to 8GB. I just bought a perfect condition 2012 15" Macbook Pro to replace my 2011 13" Macbook Pro. I got a good deal on the 2012 as the 2011 works fine. Nice upgrade to i7 and Nvidia graphics it's really a great computer. Too bad they decided to quit making nice stuff. I'm not buying a computer I can't change the HD and Ram on. The funny thing is the computer I use for almost all online stuff is an old Dell E6500 with a core2duo 2.8ghz and 4GB of ram and Nvidia graphics that runs Peppermint Linux 7. I picked it up after a guy tried to install windows 8 on it and gave up and sold it to me for 50 bucks. It's got the best keyboard of any laptop I've ever owned.

    5. Re: oh goody! by topologicalanomaly47 · · Score: 3, Informative

      False. I moved my boot disks (raid 0, intel rst) from an i7 2600k to a dual xeon build without issues.

    6. Re: oh goody! by Bert64 · · Score: 4, Insightful

      SSDs/HDDs and batteries are the most frequent parts to fail on laptops, and in most laptops are also the easiest to replace.

      Being able to upgrade the ram and drive is also very useful, and a quick/cheap way to increase the longevity of a device as the price of memory and storage is constantly dropping.

      --
      http://spamdecoy.net - free throwaway anonymous email - avoid spam!
    7. Re:oh goody! by Bender+Unit+22 · · Score: 3, Informative

      I have the same issue. Even though I have been very happy with the Apple enviroment of OS X and their hardware. They are moving further and further away from something I want to spend my money on. Their recent MacBook Pro "upgrade" have made them useless for me and all too expensive.

      My late 2013 iMac still packs a punch with the Intel I7. I can have FCPX pro rendering in the background while websurfing and other stuff still runs smooth. It feels like a workstation, it has a cmd line I can use. it used to have a proper disk utility program etc etc.

      Of course that is because I am running external RAIDs on the USB3 ports for the rendering, etc.
      I need to accessorize a MacBook Pro with numerous dongles, and after a while, external storage because I cannot upgrade it. So it is becoming useless too fast and too expensive for my wallet.
      Like I switched from Windows in 2007 to OS X, I might need to do the reverse when the next upgrade comes around and see if I work with Windows again.

      It is really sad how they have dumbed every thing down.

  6. Never mind storage upgrades by jenningsthecat · · Score: 5, Insightful

    What about when the SSD craps out? Then it's back to Apple, (or at least to a third-party shop), for an undoubtedly expensive repair job. Great! More stuff that the user has no hope of repairing on his or her own, and more non-renewable materials prematurely tossed into landfill. Tell me again - why in hell would I want a new Apple laptop?

    --
    'The Economy' is a giant Ponzi scheme whose most pitiable suckers are the youngest among us and the yet-unborn.
  7. Re:Yawn! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Is this all Slashdork is anymore? Bitch about Apple, bitch about Trump, bitch about climate change. Booooring. No wonder this turd is dying.

    No, not all. There is also a good number of people who come here to bitch about /.

  8. SSD wear by manu0601 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    SSD wear may be a problem. Once it dies, you now change the laptop.

    1. Re:SSD wear by Fwipp · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Somehow, I doubt that they were disassembling all their old MacBooks to remove the SSD before going home every night.

  9. Re:Not very secure by Trogre · · Score: 3, Informative

    Live USB distro + 'dd' as always

    --
    "Nine times out of ten, starting a fire is not the best way to solve the problem." - my wife
  10. enough by supernova87a · · Score: 4, Interesting

    This change is more inexcusable than other modifications / removals of user-serviceability that they did in the name of thinness or performance. This mod signals to me their trying to fully capture / enforce price segmentation and making sure that products will expire and be retired more predictably.

    (and even if maybe not their outright explicit thinking, surely a benefit that they welcomed tacitly. And trading off user-friendliness and serviceability for profit. )

    I was already unhappy with the newer Macbooks having non-swappable RAM. I stuck with the old 2010-style Macbook Pros that you could remove everything pretty much and keep it up to date with larger, faster SSDs, etc.

    This on top of USB-C and the all-at-once crappifying of this model means I'm out.

  11. Re:Not very secure by JoeMerchant · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Or, you know, don't use FileVault on your home folder because that's the quickest way to nearly brick your MacBook Pro and have to reinstall everything from scratch. Been there, done that - decades of practice and they still get it wrong.

  12. Re:Not very secure by JoeMerchant · · Score: 4, Insightful

    No, you can't use File Vault safely - if your computer hangs during power down and doesn't power down "gracefully," File Vault can lock your home folder up tight and throw away the key. (Been there, talked with Carlos in advanced tech support, it's toast man, reinstall from original image.)

  13. Environmental cost of this? by grumpy-cowboy · · Score: 3, Informative

    So when your SSD (or any other soldered parts) broke off, you have to throw the laptop in the garbage?? (e-waste recycling is just an illusion... everything is sent to Hong-Kong and sent to the trash). And what about extending the life of your laptop by upgrading some parts of it? Apple is the biggest e-waste producer on the planet. It's a shame! And all those Hipster defending the planet with their iPhone in their pockets!

    --
    Will $CURRENT_YEAR be the year of the Linux Desktop?
  14. OP is an idiot by ahabswhale · · Score: 3, Insightful

    ALL 15" MBPs come with 16 GB of RAM. The device can only take LPDDR3, and Skylake only allows a max of 16 GB for LPDDR3, so you couldn't upgrade it even if Apple gave you a fucking button you could push to eject/insert the RAM out of the side of the machine.

    --
    Are agnostics skeptical of unicorns too?
  15. Get a frigging case by iamacat · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Something that snaps to the bottom of the laptops and adds extra battery, storage and a boatload of ports. Then when you need ultimate portability take the laptop out and live without movies or whatever you were storing on the extra hard drive for a little while. People are overthinking such things, solutions have been there forever for smartphones.

  16. Re:Not very secure by Eric+Green · · Score: 3, Informative

    Once upon a time, like ten years ago, File Vault encrypted home folders as a dmg file on a partition. That is no longer the case and has not been the case for years. File Vault doesn't work like that anymore, and it hasn't worked like that for years. Now it's whole disk encryption like Microsoft's Bitlocker, and utterly bulletproof. The only way to lose your disk is to overwrite the key blocks at the start of the disk.

    Technology moves on, man.

    --
    Send mail here if you want to reach me.