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Video Overview

This teardown is not a repair guide. To repair your MacBook Air 13” Retina Display Late 2018, use our service manual.

  1. MacBook Air 13" Retina 2018 Teardown, MacBook Air 13" Retina 2018 Teardown: step 1, image 1 of 2 MacBook Air 13" Retina 2018 Teardown, MacBook Air 13" Retina 2018 Teardown: step 1, image 2 of 2
    • Let's clear the Air about some of these specs:

    • 13.3" LED-backlit IPS Retina display; 2560 x 1600 resolution (227 ppi)

    • 1.6 GHz dual-core Intel Core i5 (Turbo Boost up to 3.6 GHz) with integrated Intel UHD Graphics 617

    • Apple T2 custom security chip / coprocessor

    • 8 GB of 2133 MHz LPDDR3 SDRAM

    • 128 GB PCIe-based SSD

    • 802.11ac Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 4.2

    • Two Thunderbolt 3 (USB-C) ports supporting charging, DisplayPort, Thunderbolt, and USB 3.1 Gen 2

  2. MacBook Air 13" Retina 2018 Teardown: step 2, image 1 of 3 MacBook Air 13" Retina 2018 Teardown: step 2, image 2 of 3 MacBook Air 13" Retina 2018 Teardown: step 2, image 3 of 3
    • Before venturing inside, we take a quick survey of some of the the new Air's external features.

    • On its underbelly we find some fine print, and some color-matched pentalobe screws.

    • Looks like we've got some new numbers! Model A1932 and EMC 3184.

    • Opening it up, we're greeted with a familiar 3rd-gen butterfly keyboard, and we immediately have MacBook Pro flashbacks.

    • The Air bears a remarkable resemblance to the Touch Bar-less 13" MacBook Pro—apart from thickness and Touch ID, they are nigh indistinguishable.

    • ...and despite the "Air" nomenclature, this makes the 12" MacBook look like a lightweight by comparison.

  3. MacBook Air 13" Retina 2018 Teardown: step 3, image 1 of 3 MacBook Air 13" Retina 2018 Teardown: step 3, image 2 of 3 MacBook Air 13" Retina 2018 Teardown: step 3, image 3 of 3
    • Of course, no external survey would be complete without a little X-ray reconnaissance.

    • With the help of our friends at Creative Electron, we get a peek at what's to come.

  4. MacBook Air 13" Retina 2018 Teardown: step 4, image 1 of 3 MacBook Air 13" Retina 2018 Teardown: step 4, image 2 of 3 MacBook Air 13" Retina 2018 Teardown: step 4, image 3 of 3
    Tool used on this step:
    P5 Pentalobe Screwdriver Retina MacBook Pro and Air
    $5.99
    Buy
    • One last detour before we head inside: we can't resist popping off our favorite command key for a peek at the noise dampening ingress-resisting membrane.

    • Love it or hate it, it looks like butterfly is here to stay.

    • After a few twists of our pentalobe driver, one good tug pops the lower case free of its two clips, and we're in.

    • This simple procedure brings a smile to our face in comparison to some of the booby-trapped lids we've found on MacBooks and MacBook Pros lately.

    • Inside, we spy: a small logic board, one lonely fan, a pair of large elongated speakers, and an interesting radiator-esque heat sink.

    Looks like you took a bite out of the ribbon cable over the fan!

    malhal - Reply

    Louis Rossmann expresses concern that the fan on the redesigned MacBook Air would not be particularly effective at cooling. Looking at the photos in this teardown, I would concur. Can anyone explain how the fan actually cools the computer, and how effective is it? Rossmann posted a video of this on YouTube in response to a dead CPU caused by overheating.

    Anthony Williams - Reply

    Hi Anthony,

    The first string of comments at the bottom of this teardown goes into the cooling setup in more detail.

    Arthur Shi -

  5. MacBook Air 13" Retina 2018 Teardown: step 5, image 1 of 3 MacBook Air 13" Retina 2018 Teardown: step 5, image 2 of 3 MacBook Air 13" Retina 2018 Teardown: step 5, image 3 of 3
    Tool used on this step:
    Marlin Screwdriver Set - 5 Torx Precision Screwdrivers
    $19.99
    Buy
    • Just six Torx screws and a few cable connectors stand between us and logic board removal—not bad! Certainly nothing our Marlin Screwdriver Set can't handle.

    • Out it comes! The Air's logic board is not mustachioed like the Pro's, nor is it quite so minuscule as the MacBook's.

    • So far this is easy, but we'd prefer to see upgradeable components or straightforward battery access—AKA device-life extenders—over board access at this point.

    • Next we snag the daughterboard, which hosts a (highly endangered) headphone jack and some connectors for the speaker and Touch ID sensor.

    • Also residing on this board: a Cirrus Logic CS42L83A audio codec.

  6. MacBook Air 13" Retina 2018 Teardown: step 6, image 1 of 2 MacBook Air 13" Retina 2018 Teardown: step 6, image 2 of 2
    • This board may be small, but it's still packing some decent processing power:

    • Intel SREKQ Core i5-8210Y processor

    • Apple APL1027 339S00535 T2 coprocessor

    • SanDisk SDSGFBF12 043G flash storage +1 on the back (43 GB each/128 GB total)

    • Intel JHL7540 Thunderbolt 3 controller

    • 338S00267-A0 (likely an Apple PMIC)

    • Macronix W25Q80DVUXIE 8 Mb serial NOR flash memory

    • Vishay SIC532 and Texas Instruments CSD58873Q3D power stages

    The Apple T2 Chip is already almost as large as the Intel i5 Chip. Imagine what will happen in a few years when ARM is replacing x86-64 on MacBook.

    Yang Jackie - Reply

    Who knows? Apple may announce for macOS 10.16 an ARM version of the OS that can run on existing T2 devices.

    Haha

    Dean Lubaki -

    where can I buy this board, I want to upgrade my ram and also my storage. Actually I have 8gb of Ram and 128gb of storage

    juan carlos - Reply

    It would be really nice and Informative if you add some explanation of components like Apple APL1027 339S00535 T2 Koprozessor.

    What does it for for example.

    Thank you!

    Adam - Reply

  7. MacBook Air 13" Retina 2018 Teardown: step 7, image 1 of 2 MacBook Air 13" Retina 2018 Teardown: step 7, image 2 of 2
    • We flip the board to find even more silicon:

    • 2x SK Hynix H9CCNNNCPTALBR-NUD LPDDR3 RAM (8 GB total)

    • Apple/Murata 339S00446 (likely a Wi-Fi module)

    • Intersil ISL95828AHRTZ PWM controller

    • NXP Semiconductor PN80V secure NFC module

    • Macronix MX25U3235F serial multi I/O flash memory

    • Texas Instruments CD3215C00 USB type-C power controller

    • Texas Instruments TPS51980A synchronous buck converter

    I believe that TI’s CD3215C00 is a USB 3.1 redriver.

    https://forum.hddguru.com/viewtopic.php?...

    Franc Zabkar - Reply

  8. MacBook Air 13" Retina 2018 Teardown: step 8, image 1 of 2 MacBook Air 13" Retina 2018 Teardown: step 8, image 2 of 2
    • IC Identification, pt. 2:

    • Diodes Incorporated PI3USB32 480 Mbps USB 2.0 SPST analog switch

    • Renesas (formerly Intersil) ISL9240 battery charger

    • Texas Instruments TAS5770 audio amplifier

    • Texas Instruments TPS51916 memory power controller

    • Texas Instruments TPS62130B 3 A step down converter

    • Texas Instruments TMP461 remote/local temperature sensor

    • Serial Memory (likely)

  9. MacBook Air 13" Retina 2018 Teardown: step 9, image 1 of 2 MacBook Air 13" Retina 2018 Teardown: step 9, image 2 of 2
    • Opposite the headphone jack, we spy some super modular Thunderbolt ports!

    • This MacBook is off to a good start as far as we're concerned—all the ports sit on their own boards and are easily replaceable.

    • Finally we meet the part responsible for blowing the air in this ... Air.

    • The upgraded 7-watt processors must produce a bit of extra heat—Apple's prior Lightweight champs went completely fanless.

    • The fan's flex cable is likely home to a Texas Instruments fan controller.

    Can I just point out how much like a Lightning connector the “guts” of a Type-C connector is? Have we found a double-sided Lightning connector in the wild yet, maybe in the iPad Pro USB 3 Camera adapter?

    Scott - Reply

    How does this fan cool the CPU? They seem separate.

    Michał Chrząstowski - Reply

    I think the fan creates a slight vacuum/negative space in the chassis, pulling fresh air from vents across the board and expelling it out the back.

    Arthur Shi -

    I heard you can’t swap out the SSD in the 2018’s?? I wanted to put a 256GB in, can I do it? I was told no.

    shauk100 - Reply

    You heard correctly! The flash storage is integrated into the logic board and and paired to the T2 chip so it cannot be swapped out, unfortunately. You can see it in step 6.

    Taylor Dixon -

    if you will put a fan, at least put in the cpu, not as a chasis fan, that’s stupid.

    Luis Molina - Reply

    I want to replace the Ports for my MacBook Pro (13-inch, 2018, Four Thunderbolt 3 Ports). Can you tell me the tools and the parts I need, and how much they will cost?

    Bouna

    barrometre1 - Reply

  10. MacBook Air 13" Retina 2018 Teardown: step 10, image 1 of 3 MacBook Air 13" Retina 2018 Teardown: step 10, image 2 of 3 MacBook Air 13" Retina 2018 Teardown: step 10, image 3 of 3
    • Continuing the repair-friendly (or at least friendlier) trend, we find stretchy adhesive pull tabs under these elongated speakers!

    • We don't love adhesive—reusable screws are nearly always better—but hey, pulling out this iPhone-esque stretch-release stuff is loads better than gooey solvents and blind prying.

    • Plus, the mere presence of stretch-release adhesive generally means that someone at least thought about possible repair and disassembly situations.

    • Are you there, Apple? It's us, iFixit. Have you heard our pleas?

    • Three (likely Goertek) MEMS microphones can be seen peeking out from underneath the battery tray.

  11. MacBook Air 13" Retina 2018 Teardown: step 11, image 1 of 3 MacBook Air 13" Retina 2018 Teardown: step 11, image 2 of 3 MacBook Air 13" Retina 2018 Teardown: step 11, image 3 of 3
    • Moving on, we direct our attention to the trackpad.

    • Unlike the newer MacBooks Pro, which have first-step replaceable trackpads, this trackpad shares a cable with the keyboard, which is pinned under the logic board.

    • Looks like any trackpad repairs will have to go through logic board removal first.

    • As the trackpad comes out, we can't help but think of a certain TIE fighter...

    • Some Star Wars tech on this 'pad:

    • The trackpad contains a Broadcom BCM5976C1 touch controller, a STMicroelectronics STM32F103B6 32-bit ARM Cortex-M3 microcontroller, a Macronix MX25L2006EZUI-12G 2 Mb serial flash memory, a Monolithic Power Systems MP6519 H-bridge current regulator, and a Maxim Integrated MAX11390A 10-bit analog to digital converter (likely).

    • A Texas Instruments TMP421 remote/local temperature sensor and a Bosch Sensortec BMA282 accelerometer are the only two sensors found on the frontside of the PCB.

    Are you certain that the split in that trackpad cable over the center battery wouldn’t allow a bit of “service loop”, just enough to disengage the cable connector from the socket on the trackpad with a spudger without needing to remove the logic board? Seems a rather conspicuous cable design to not provide some benefit. If anything, I’d bet that flexing that cable split does yield some length, yet also leaves permanent (no warranty for you!) evidence it was done.

    Scott - Reply

    No guarantees, but it didn’t look like it could be done safely. The end of the cable is also pretty firmly glued to the trackpad near its socket, so getting it off would be tricky, and there’s not really any slack to speak of. The photograph that has been circulating from Apple’s internal service manual for replacing the battery also appears to show the logic board removed.

    Jeff Suovanen -

    Wow, ugh. Thanks for the reply. Once again, Apple’s “master” Designers do (seemingly) really stupid things.

    Scott - Reply

    These are so much shittier to work on than the older macbook airs

    Toastslave - Reply

  12. MacBook Air 13" Retina 2018 Teardown: step 12, image 1 of 3 MacBook Air 13" Retina 2018 Teardown: step 12, image 2 of 3 MacBook Air 13" Retina 2018 Teardown: step 12, image 3 of 3
    • Thanks to our friends at MacRumors, we had a hunch that removing this battery might be less nightmarish than in some Retinas we know.

    • Sure enough, we find four screws and six friendly pull-to-remove adhesive strips securing this AirPower Air's power pack.

    • A sturdy frame, vaguely like those in Airs of old, supports the gaggle of battery cells and makes removal a snap.

    • Here it is: the 49.9 Wh power plant. In case you're keeping track, that's slightly smaller than Dell's new XPS 13 (52 Wh), but larger than Microsoft's Surface Laptop 2 (45.2 Wh) and HP's upcoming Spectre x360 (43.7 Wh).

    • All of these devices boast 10+ hour battery life, but the Air's competition manages to do so while also running faster, more power-intensive Intel U-series processors.

    • Two Toshiba TPCA8087 N-channel MOSFETs are found on the battery pack PCB.

    Are the battery cells terraced / wedge shaped or the same Z-height throughout? I can’t quite make that out from the photos…

    repoman27 - Reply

    The batteries are not terraced and reside in the same plane. All three cells are laid flat on top of the metal tray.

    Arthur Shi -

  13. MacBook Air 13" Retina 2018 Teardown: step 13, image 1 of 3 MacBook Air 13" Retina 2018 Teardown: step 13, image 2 of 3 MacBook Air 13" Retina 2018 Teardown: step 13, image 3 of 3
    • Things are starting to look Air-y inside this golden chassis—we can almost see the finish line!

    • Still lingering above the battery cavern are the metal antenna bracket and the new (modular!) Touch ID sensor, each secured by Torx screws.

    • FYI, the Touch ID sensor can come out directly after the smaller audio board is removed—we just chose to let it linger.

    • A few more Torx screws later, the display is free! This new Retina panel is almost the same as the one found on the MacBook Pro line, differing mainly in peak brightness (a mere 300 nits vs. the Pro's 500) and P3 color gamut support.

    How do you get the heat sync bar off?

    Taylor Struna - Reply

    same as above, its the vents as well as the wifi antenna i think.

    it seems to be solid in the center part. like the metal is pressed im place and not meant to be removed.

    stuart - Reply

    update to mine and Taylors question.

    you just have to apply a little more force and be very very careful not to bend the super thin metal frame.

    stuart - Reply

    I have run into an issue, I’m replacing the display and managed to get one screw from the three metal plates covering the connectors, they look to be all the same size, but I can’t get the others. Those are all I need to remove and then I can pop the new one on…..any idea which torx screwdriver is used here? I thought it was T3.

    Rachel Kelley - Reply

  14. MacBook Air 13" Retina 2018 Teardown: step 14, image 1 of 1
    • We'll just let this MacBook Air out a little so you can admire its particles!

    • Featuring modular ports and pull-to-release adhesive, the new MacBook Air stands out against a trend of declining repairability in Apple's laptops.

    • Unfortunately, you'll still have to work around pentalobes, and neither storage nor RAM is upgradable. Though this update seems to favor experienced technicians more than the average DIYer, we're hoping it's the first step back toward repairable MacBooks.

  15. Final Thoughts
    • Many components are modular and straightforward to access—including the ports, fan, and speakers.
    • Apart from the pesky pentalobe screws, this laptop opens about as easily as any.
    • The battery is secured with a combination of screws and repair-friendly stretch-release adhesive—but you'll have to remove the logic board and speakers for access.
    • The keyboard is integrated into the top case, requiring a full teardown for service.
    • Soldered, non-serviceable, non-upgradeable storage and RAM is a serious bummer on a $1,200+ laptop.
    Repairability Score
    3
    Repairability 3 out of 10
    (10 is easiest to repair)

Taylor Dixon

Member since: 06/26/18

66,782 Reputation

94 Guides authored

61 Comments

Am I losing my eyesight, or is that fan not directly connected to any type of heat dissipating hardware? Looks like it’s either just providing a general low-pressure-air-flow throughout the internals - OR - it pushes air back through that antenna/heatsink-bracket-type-thing and coming out the other end of it?

Could you confirm or explain this in more detail?

alexander.lagergren - Reply

I think it is just an exhaust fan, that removes hot air from a laptop case outside (from the right side of the case, under the screen) and creates a negative pressure inside, which helps a laptop to “suck“ some cool air from the outside through the intake on the left side of case, under the screen. The shape of the radiator ribs also suggests some airflow from left/right side of the case to the opposite side.

Serge B. -

The only thing that fan is doing is moving a (tiny) bit of air indirectly across the logic board and the heatsink. Or at least that is what I think it does. As there is no direct heat conduction from logic board to case, the fan isn’t there to cool the case, that’s for sure.

Federico Barutto -

Yeah it is just a case ventilation fan, it doesn’t blow any heatsinks directly. Although with the very low TDP of the processor, a case fan with radiator type heat sink should do the job.

Tom Chai -

Yes, as the 12” Macbook with a ~5W TDP chip manages without a fan, I’m sure a slower general airflow together with that heatsink works well for the 7W chip in the 2018 MBA.

And when looking closer - the vents on either side of the antenna bracket, that the fan exhausts through on one side - air is drawn in on the other side and then guided by the vanes in the ventilation holes, allowing it to flow easily from right to left (when viewing bottom/inside of the MBA) over the heatsink cooling fins. There doesn’t appear to be any other openings in the chassi, so Apple has probably designed the airflow pretty efficiently in this fashion.

Pretty cool! Only Mac laptop I’ve seen with a fan but without heat-pipes/sinks by the fan.

alexander.lagergren -

This thermal design reminds me of the old Titanium Powerbooks, especially the heatsink. That had two fans I believe, one pulling in from the side and one blowing out the back. I think this pulls air from one side of the monitor hinge vents and exhausts out the other.

Ian Holland -

Why don’t they use the aluminum body directly as a huge heatsink?

Haley Pearse -

You’ll notice that they’ve sealed the mid-area under the display bezel, with only an opening on the side furthest from the fan, nothing above the CPU, and an outlet the fan blows air out of.

I’m guessing they did this to cool both the low power, yet still warm T2, as well as draw air over the CPU.

It’s not blowing directly on a heatsink connected via heatpipe to the CPU, no, but I’m guessing they weighed up the pro’s and con’s of heatpipes, and decided that sucking air through a tightly controlled path is preferable to the bulk added by heatpipes.

It’s no different than the trashcan mac pro, is it? That just sucks air up over the heatsinks if I remember correctly.

What matters is that airflow is limited to a strict path, that’s in the left side of the laptop, over the T2 and SSD’s heatspreader, over the CPU’s radiator, through the fan, and out the right side.

Ryan Michell -

It’s really bad to know that neither storage nor RAM is upgradable. If I go for 128 GB SSD and 8 GB RAM then I can never upgrade them, disappointed :(

Amit Gupta - Reply

That is the main reason why you should avoid those Apple new laptops. The other one is that each of the Apple laptops has design flaws (and this has happened for many years) : check Louis Rossmann videos on youtube, this is eye opening.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AUaJ8pDl...

Oli Wek -

When will the new iPad pro teardown be revealed plz. Deadly waiting for it

MotorBottle - Reply

They’re still heating up the glue.

timothytay -

Interesting, confirms what I thought in their render that showed the insides, that the fan was too close to the back for their usual spacing for a heatsink there. Looks like the fan just ambiently cools the chassis and moves internal air, rather than directly passes over a heatsink.

tipoo - Reply

These MacBook logic boards are gonna end up in iPhones soon if they continue shrinking

grahammcclure - Reply

lol that was a nice one :)

leartzajmi -

Not being able to upgrade RAM, fine, not the end of the world but if they had made the SSD upgradeable then this could have been a truly great machine.

Jon Lewin - Reply

The wifi module is interesting. Not Intel or Broadcom. Scouting around the internet, it looks like maybe it’s shared with the new iPad Pro??????

jridder - Reply

@grahammcclure

“These MacBook logic boards are gonna end up in iPhones soon if they continue shrinking”

I think you have that backwards.

fastasleep - Reply

I’m still confused about how the display data cables interact with the hinge. In the 2016 MBP teardown, I thought iFixit said they get rolled up or something. While the pictures in this teardown helped shed some light on this mechanism, I’d really like to see some detailed shots of how exactly that all works. Maybe in classic iFixit style where the position of just a few things within the frame changes seemingly magically between two pics. Thoughts/comments?

iEvan - Reply

Hey iEvan! This is a teardown, which is an entertaining (and abbreviated) peek inside the device, not a step-by-step disassembly guide, hence the “magical” changes. If you want to see how MacBook Air display cables and hinges interact, check out our MacBook Air display replacement guide, in concept the process hasn’t changed.

Sam Goldheart -

If I am reading this correctly, there is absolutely nothing about Battery being better positioned to be easily replaceable. Merely that Apple guidelines now allow Battery to be replaced without changing the top case.

That is Apple stopping all those who had Apple Care to get a new top case with their battery replacement or people getting ( used to ) getting around their Keyboard problem with battery replacement.

K Sec - Reply

Thanks for a great review. I’m really enjoyed your works. Thumbs up..

akmaljohar - Reply

I think this review just swayed me from Surface Laptop 2 to the new Air. I can live with two cores vs having to throw away the laptop at the first hurdle. Plus the resale value of all surface devices is, well, pretty much non-exitent. And for a good reason.

Marko Nesovic - Reply

What influence will the T2-processor have on repairing / replacing parts?

thekryz - Reply

Where is the hardware microphone disconnect?

Ben Leggiero - Reply

Why there is a NFC chip on board? Does MacBook Air even support NFC?

Yang Jackie - Reply

Or it’s some kind of secure enclave?

Yang Jackie -

Secure Enclave would be on the Apple T2; good question about that NFC if that’s its sole function

VaughnSC -

NFC chips tend to pop up on devices without NFC from time to time, the Droid Razr had one, I’ve seen them from time to time on other phones, and now this.

I’m half guessing they’re added on in production, and nearing the end NFC gets cut from the hardware for whatever reason and it gets left there.

I’m sure some schematics, or in time, Louis rossmann will work it out (when it dying ends up killing boards)

I’d say secure enclave, but that’s the T2’s job. Maybe the T2 (coughA10cough) depended on the NFC chip it expected on iPhones, so they through it on just to keep the thing happy? I wonder if the iMac Pro has one…

Still, I’d expect NFC to be a more Macbook thing, maybe a reader under the trackpad for pairing that got scrapped?

Ryan Michell -

Exactly what i thought: why not use case as heatsink?

Andru Nl - Reply

What about the hinges? Did you guys take a good look at them? Are they the same as the MBP, or did Apple use a different design? Wondering what their durability is going to be over the long term.

Lambert John - Reply

can this retina display be installed on old macbook air models? like early 2015 model

macklemore - Reply

comes with mojave oder high sierra? Dragon Dictate discontinued :-(

Michael Kraker - Reply

It comes with MacOS Mojave installed.

Arthur Shi -

So is there absolutely no way to replace the SSD in this machine?

planshet50082 - Reply

There is no way to replace the flash storage in any current Mac (MacBook Pro, mini, iMac, iMac Pro, and the Air) with a T2 chip acting as the storage controller/encryptor.

jbgurman -

Thank you for doing this guys.

Enrique Sandoval - Reply

Thank you very much for doing this. I had been turning away business on this MBA 2018.

Ted Horodynsky - Reply

So, is anyone going to buy it? I’m gonna change my ‘14 MBP 13’’ one day, but can make up my mind — base Air, Pro and 12” cost same.

Yoba Boba - Reply

Could I add external micro SSD to USB c I mean is there any space inside the laptop to put external SSD and connect it to USB c by mini USB hub? Will be a maybe good idea to add more storage

lovely.3raq - Reply

Aren’t there three identical SanDisk chips on the logic board? The two labeled ones on one side, and one unlabeled one on the other… doesn’t this mean that this MBA contains 192 GB of NAND?

GetalMearDolis - Reply

@getalmeardolis The “043G” on the package indicates a 43 GB chip. Three chips x 43 GB = 129 GB. (There’s probably some rounding to account for the extra GB.) But yeah, three identical chips!

Jeff Suovanen -

Complimenti ad Albertob per l’ottima traduzione!

nikanz - Reply

Does it uses the same flex cables that were used in MacBook Pro 2016 onwards?

and is there a chance that MacBook Air(2018) will suffer the notorious flex gate problem?

shaw.shishank - Reply

The display cable arrangement is a bit different from the MacBook Pro, but it uses similar thin (and non-replaceable) ribbon cables. If I had to guess, I’d say it will develop similar problems over time—but that is emphatically just a guess and it’s too early to say anything for sure.

Jeff Suovanen -

I have currently my new MacBook air 13” retina being repaired by the Apple store Parly II (France), they have to replace the logic board and the touch id. The problem was that it didn’t restart after one night in power safe mode (no display but still heating). After replacing the logic board they called me to inform that the touch id they ordered to replace is not recognized by the logic board, so they have to order once again a new one.

I noticed that it frequently (weekly) had display bugs (white screen with vertical lines and square pixels when moving mouse cursor)  while waking up from safe mode, and sometime for no reason while browsing the web in safari.

The technical guy from Genius bar told me that it’s the first time they have to repair a MacBook Air retina 2018, so I’m very unlucky … I guess

components prices :

(661-09714) Logic Board i5, 1.6GHz, 16GB, 256GB : 342€

(661-11677) Touch ID board : 18€

(S1490LL/A) Hardware repair Labor : 79€

Total : 439€ (under guarantee)

(probably not including VAT)

mikijoe1 - Reply

I went to the Apple store Parly 2 to get my MacBook back (repaired) but I refused it at the genius bar because during repair they have damaged the alloy top case, there are now 2 dents (near the touch id and another one near Esc key) that have probably caused by a screwing too hard, the dents are vertically localized just above 2 of the screws which maintain the amovible lower case.

They ordered a new “Top Case with Keyboard, Space Grey, FRA” (price 225€ under warranty + 79€ repair labor).

So now I will have a MacBook Air 13 with almost all part replaced (except battery and screen) !!!

I asked them to replace the whole MacBook but they refused because their policy doesn’t allow it for Mac products (laptops/desktops).

In my opinion, the recycled alloy used in the MacBook air 13 retina manufacturing is not as much resistant as the previous models.

The repair process didn’t take into account the tenderness of this alloy,  a  dynamometric screwdrivers but they should be used for this models to prevent damages.

mikijoe1 - Reply

Apple CEO’S: Let’s build and design a fanless laptop!

Apple Manafacturers: Okay!

*Slips fan into main design*

Jessica Parnelli Fawkes - Reply

Wish the guide was a bit more detailed with the nuances of removing the ZIF connectors, etc with the flip up tabs. Didn’t realize until it was too late and may have damaged something.

Brian Tan - Reply

Hi Brian,

I’m sorry to hear that! As stated in the warning op top, this teardown is an educational first look at the device, and is not meant to be used as a guide. Our repair guides will show up here, and contain accurate details (such as tools needed, how to unlock ZIF connectors, etc.) as well as step by step instructions on how to complete the repair.

Arthur Shi -

Hello,

I teared down the laptop to clean mousepad and after assembly the laptop again it will not turn on anymore even there is no signal of power while I’m 100% taht nothing is broken or there is a missing unplugged cable any ideas please?

Yehia - Reply

Hi,

I spilled hot chocolate on my macbook air and I want to change the keyboard and the trackpad. There is no way to only change the keyboard without demantling everything?

minichat - Reply

That is correct. The keyboard is part of the top case and is not easily replaceable. The trackpad, on the other hand, can be removed pretty easily.

Arthur Shi -

it’s a good technique . sucking air from outside on one side, then the air passes over the heatsink cooling fins and the processor . so yeah cool design, guess it’s better then heat pipes.

Cosmin - Reply

Hi, thanks for all the tips in this breakdown. Question for you, I have a sticky down arrow key on my keyboard, can I somehow pop it off and clean underneath it ?? I see in step for you use a tool to pop off the apple key, so wondering/hoping this can be done on the down arrow key !

Matthew Soul - Reply

While cleaning my then-new MBA Model A1932, some specks of something came between the screen and the machine, making tiny punctures that killed the screen. I now am able to buy a screen replacement assembly for about $300 (it was over $500 before). I understand this isn’t the easiest machine to take apart, but if it’s only replacing the screen assembly, is it manageable? My dealer wanted $1000 for a total replacement, which is about the same price as buying a new one. Am I pulling a job I can do, as a seasoned Macbook Pro upgrader, or is this just too exotic?

Bob Jacobson - Reply

Hi Bob,

It depends on the screen you’re buying. If it is a complete top assembly, I think it is pretty doable. Take a look at our guide and see how comfortable you would be with the procedure.

Arthur Shi -

What about MBP having pull tabs?

Barry Mullinax - Reply

ma la scheda grafica come si sostituisce???!

Fedo Mora - Reply

Ciao Fedo! Purtroppo è integrata alla scheda madre quindi non è possibile sostituirla. Bisogna cambiare l'intera scheda madre.

Claire Miesch -

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