M5 MacBook Pro Teardown Shows Apple's $527 Battery Replacement Kit Is Bonkers
Apple continues to make strides towards making do-it-yourself (DIY) repairs less of a hassle, though there still remains plenty of room for improvement, as highlighted in iFixIt's teardown of the newly refreshed 14-inch MacBook Pro with a custom M5 chip inside. The gripe that stands above the rest is how unnecessarily expensive and convoluted it is to replace the MacBook Pro's battery.
On the surface, the M5 MacBook Pro looks pretty much the same as last year's model. However, once you crack it open, "you'll see Apple inching ever so slightly closer to a future where MacBooks might actually be repairable," iFixIt says. And key to that statement is how relatively easy it is to access and remove the laptop's battery pack.
Popping the bottom cover off involves removing several P5 screws and being mindful of the sections that are clipped into place. Once the cover is off, there is a battery management system cable that Apple advises removing to avoid any accidental short circuits. After that, it's a matter of removing a couple of screws to disconnect the battery connector tab, and you're off to the races.
Apple again chose to secure the battery pack in place with pull tabs. These become increasingly difficult to manage over time as the adhesive hardens, and may require using isopropyl rubbing alcohol if that happens. After that, however, the battery pack comes right out. And for the first time in a MacBook Pro, the M5 model doesn't require removing the trackpad to access the pull tabs on the central battery cells. This is a huge improvement.
Unfortunately, even though accessing and removing the battery is not all that difficult, Apple doesn't offer genuine battery replacements in standalone form. Instead, you have to buy the entire top case assembly, which comes with a battery and keyboard. Not only does this make for a much more convoluted repair process, it's also needlessly expensive if all you need is a just the battery—for the previous generation M4 MacBook Pro, the top case kit with battery and keyboard costs $527.12. You can get $88 back in the form of a credit if you send in your old part, but it's still expensive.
"Apple’s official replacement process requires swapping the entire top case, keyboard and all, just to replace this single consumable component. And it has for a long time. That’s a massive and unreasonable job, requiring complete disassembly and reassembly of the entire device. We’re talking screws, shields, logic board, display, Touch ID, trackpad, everything," iFixIt states in its M5 Macbook Pro teardown analysis.
There is a glimmer of hope, though. Apple doesn't yet offer any replacement parts of the M5 MacBook Pro, but according to the top case assembly listing for the M4 MacBook Pro, there's a note suggesting Apple plans to offer just the battery sometime in the future. As of now, however, that hasn't happened.
It's a curious decision for Apple to drag its feet on that singular part, given that the battery is one of the main reasons you might be inclined to crack open your laptop in the first place. Over time, laptop batteries degrade and hole less of a charge.
If we're being pessimistic, we can speculate that Apple intentionally makes it more difficult and expensive than it needs to be to swap the battery. Instead of spending over $500 on an entire assembly, some buyers may choose to apply those funds to a newer MacBook. However, Apple deserves credit for tweaking the design on the M5 MacBook Pro to make accessing and removing the battery easier than it's ever been in a MacBook Pro, so go figure.
Beyond the battery, the M5 MacBook Pro is a mix of good and bad, in terms of DIY repair. The folks at iFixIt applauded Apple for incremental refinements, including improved access to battery pull-tabs, day-one repair manuals, and software-assisted calibration. However, the site notes in its teardown analysis that Apple's fundamental design philosophy hasn't changed, with several core components still "buried under layers of gorgeous but unfriendly engineering," leading to a 4/10 repairability score.
Top and thumbnail image courtesy of iFixIt (via YouTube)
