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MacBook Pro 15" Unibody Teardown

Teardown

Teardowns provide a look inside a device and should not be used as disassembly instructions.

We picked up our new MacBook Pro at the local Apple Store this morning. We practically mugged the Fedex delivery guy on the way in to the building, and we got the first box off the pallet.

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Edit Step 1 — MacBook Pro 15" Unibody Teardown ¶

The new, 37 percent friendlier-to-squirrels and tree-frogs MacBook Pro box. Yay for pallet density! Oh, and it's heavier than it looks.
Follow our updates on twitter.

Edit Step 2 ¶

Old on the left, new on the right.
The keyboard is now more similar to the old MacBook than the previous MacBook Pro. While the unibody case is very cool, this is going to make keyboard repair difficult.
That screen isn't just glossy, it's a mirror!

Edit Step 3 ¶

New, rounded bottom. And a much darker plastic wireless window.
In the box:
In an insane move, there is no video adapter included. I don't care if DisplayPort is an industry standard or not, I just paid $2161.92 for a computer that won't plug into any monitor Apple has shipped to date! But Apple is happy to sell you one for $29.00!

Edit Step 4 ¶

The holes in the speaker grill are significantly smaller, making the upper case surface feel smoother.
Oh, that's right. Thanks for reminding us.

Edit Step 5 ¶

Ports, left to right:
- MagSafe Power Port
- Gigabit Ethernet Port
- Firewire 800 Port (FW 400 with optional cable)
- USB Port X2
- Mini DisplayPort
- Audio Line-in , Audio Line-out
- ExpressCard/34 Slot

Edit Step 6 ¶

Removing the battery cover.
Aww, look at the cute little Apple logo.

Edit Step 7 ¶

Remove one Phillips screw to release the hard drive bracket. The screw is held captive to the bracket.
Remove the four T6 screws securing the hard drive.
Replacing the hard drive is significantly easier on this machine than the previous MacBook Pro.
This machine uses the same, industry standard SATA notebook drives as previous MacBook Pro and MacBook models.
Shameless plug: Of course, you can upgrade the hard drive in any Apple laptop. We have free guides for every model that makes hard drive replacement easy.
Kudos to Apple for making this easy. Keeping repair costs down is probably the most environmentally friendly thing Apple has done with this machine.

Edit Step 8 ¶

The first step to opening this machine is removing the bottom plate.
Remove the following 8 screws:
Let's see what's creating all that torsional rigidity that Jony Ive keeps talking about.