Inleiding
It's that time of year again: the MacBook Air has come out of hibernation with some new specs for spring.
At Monday's "Spring Forward" event, Apple promised us next-gen Broadwell CPUs with updated graphics, Thunderbolt 2, and faster flash memory. Join us as we pop the hood to confirm, and see if anything has changed in these past eleven months.
The 11" MacBook Air got a refresh too, so we're on double teardown duty. Check out the 11" Air here.
Be the early bird and get the news by friending us on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook!
Wat je nodig hebt
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Can you smell it? There's fresh silicon in the Air. The MacBook Air 13" Early 2015 contains:
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5th generation, dual-core Intel Core i5 processor with Intel HD Graphics 6000
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128 GB flash storage (configurable to 512 GB)
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4 GB LPDDR3 RAM, configurable (but not upgradable) to 8 GB
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13.3" 1440x900 pixel display (~128 ppi)
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802.11ac Wi-Fi connectivity
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Thunderbolt 2
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Dual microphones
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Gereedschap gebruikt in deze stap:P5 Pentalobe Screwdriver Retina MacBook Pro and Air$11.99
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This newest 13" Air keeps its traditional model number, A1466. For identification purposes, you'll need your serial number, EMC (2925), or model year (2015).
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The right side is fitted with an SDXC card slot, USB 3.0 port, and (all new!) Thunderbolt 2 port. As before, the opposite end hosts the MagSafe 2 power port, audio jack, and another USB 3.0 port. Also included are dual microphones, designed to diminish background noise.
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Ahh, mine old nemesis Pentalobe.
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We see Apple hasn't changed its stripes—the classic pentalobe keeps this Air sealed up from the common fixer.
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Luckily, we have a handy driver for just these occasions. And... we're in!
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One of these is the updated, Early 2015 MacBook Air, and the other hails from mid-2013. Can you tell which is which?
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At first glance, neither can we. This MacBook plays its AirPort cards pretty close to the vest.
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If you guessed wrong, fret not: we're about to get down to the nitty gritty.
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Up next, our favorite Air feature: battery removal. Thanks to this tidy plastic frame, the battery is held in with five screws and no adhesive—easy for fixers, easy for recyclers.
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The battery specs carry over as well: the Air continues to sport a 7.6 V, 54 Wh, 7150 mAh battery. Thanks to the new Broadwell chips, we're supposed to get more life out of the same capacity: Now up to 12 hours of web browsing or video playback.
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For all you scorekeepers, that's 2 Wh and a theoretical 1 hour more than the new Dell XPS 13.
Did anyone ever try to put a battery from one of the newer MBA models into (for example) a 2012 model? If only the capacity has changed, it shouldn't be a problem to put it and get an extended battery time or am I missing something?
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The flash memory is still PCIe-based, and remains, thankfully, removable—at least for now. Popping it out for inspection, we find:
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Samsung S4LN058A01 PCIe 3.0 x4 AHCI flash controller
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Samsung K4E4E324ED 512 MB LPDDR3 DRAM
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8 x Samsung K9LDGY8S1D-XCK0 16 GB flash storage (128 GB total)
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Apple tells us this bad boy "...features faster flash storage that is up to two times faster than the previous generation."
Is this the same size as the mbp retina? looks like it is.
is the pci ssd slot same as of mba 2015. can i swap 2014 ssd with 2015 one. i am planning to buy a new ssd for my 2014 mba
It'd be good to know if the new PCIe SSD is compatible with last year's model so I can upgrade my MBA as well.
Huy Pham -
Hi, im wondering if Samsung SM961 M.2 2280 256 GB PCIe NVMe (MZVPW256HEGL-00000) will fix in to this macbook air 2016?
Same question. But it seems the slot is different. Now 2018.05, there is a Transcent serial meets.
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With the heavy bits removed, we catch the logic board before it floats away. Turning it over, we found the heart of the matter:
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1.6 GHz Intel Core i5 5250U processor, with integrated Intel HD Graphics 6000
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Intel DSL5520 Thunderbolt 2 controller
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GL3219 Genesys Logic SDXC controller
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LT3957 Linear Technologies inverting controller
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In contrast, the integrated Intel HD Graphics 6000 brings a legit graphics performance boost (roughly a 20-25% improvement over HD 5000).
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On the flip-side, the logic board packs:
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SK Hynix H9CCNNN8JTALAR LPDDR3 SDRAM 4 x 1 GB for 4 GB total
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Broadcom BCM15700A2, appears to be a multimedia controller
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SK Hynix H5TC4G63CFR 4 Gb low power synchronous DRAM
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Macronix MX25L6473E serial multi I/O 64 Mb flash memory
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Texas Instruments TPS51980A synchronous buck controller
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Texas Instruments/Stellaris LM4FS1EH SMC controller
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Intersil 958 26AHRZ N450MT and SMSC EMC1704-2 Current/DC Power Sensor with Temperature Monitoring
so the 4 GB model works actually with 8GB of RAM? 4 regular and 4 low power like the smartphones?
Review about nothing. The author did not indicate that there are models with an I7 processor and 8 Gb of memory. This is important because these models are relevant even now - they process all modern applications no worse than modern models. At a much lower cost. This is important - 8 GB of RAM because it is rsamayan and you cannot increase it, unlike an SSD drive, it can be replaced. I specifically buy motherboards with 8GB of memory on ebay to restore my clients' macbooks so that they do not pay extra money for a new macbook ....))
Sorry for my google-translate English, I’m from Ukraine ;)
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Continuing the trend of sameness, the I/O board is nearly identical to the one found in the MacBook Air 13" Mid 2013, even down to the audio codec IC:
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Cirrus Logic 4208-CRZ HD audio codec, likely similar to the 4207
Only rMBP received the touchpad update. It would make very little sense for Apple to update it on the Air as well given that the gap to rMBP is already so small.
so, should we all get BB's because they've always had excellent hardware?
...or should we stay the !&&* away because they're OS is so crappy, they're not even smartphones: they're just really expensive, high quality regular phones with kick-butt cameras (sorry I owned one, .. well two actually, and pretty much never was able to get on the internet. Now... well for get it: BlackBerries are great, don't get one; may they experience a tenth of the trouble they caused me and my business. Well that's being a little too harsh, A SIXTEENTH :( !
Howard -
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MacBook Air 13" Early 2015 Repairability Score: 4 out of 10 (10 is easiest to repair).
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Once you manage to take off the bottom cover, all the parts are pretty easily replaceable.
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Proprietary screws on the case require the right screwdriver.
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All the components—including RAM and SSD—are proprietary.
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As with the prior iterations, this MacBook Air's biggest detractor is the lack of upgradeability. The RAM is still soldered to the logic board, and SSDs are not compatible between generations.
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36 opmerkingen
Question. What does this line mean: "SSDs are not compatible between generations."
What I want to know is if the hard drive is upgradeable or not.
The ssd is the harddrive, which according to the guide is removable but it is proprietary and is not available aftermarket so effectively not upgradeable.
General question: outside the issue of this helpful guide, does this development seem to make the MacBook Pro/ MacBook Air distinction look forward to be coming soon to be irrelevant? with this sleekness, lightweighness enterprize...
Also, what's up with the lack of plugs? I don't really like or need to plug things in, ..er, ugh, EXCEPT ALWAYS! are we now going to be carrying a "Swiss Army Knife of adaptors and split adaptors (split between whatever plug and the regular need to 'charge' or run off a/c power so later we don't run out of charge.. such a development would certainly makes the cleanness effort superfluous. I mean they do still have their Pads or Tablets or whatever they are right?
Lets take a vote: How many people think the missing plugs are great:
Corollary question: which plug do you miss the most (all of them is an acceptable answer)
one additionally helpful feature here: I wind up learning more about the product itself here than from all the apple advert has,
thx
H
I have a late 2013 retina MacBook Pro 13" (Haswell, first Pro to have a PCIe SSD). I'm considering replacing my old Air with a new Air and these new blazing fast SSDs sound really awesome. Are the PCIe SSDs in the 2015 Airs compatible with the 2013 rMBP? I'd probably get the same capacity and swap SSDs to give the more powerful machine a faster SSD..
Hi there. I have a A1466 with no display. But it works perfectly with external monitor. It should not be the screen problem as I saw the screen works once. So I guess it may be the video cable or something. Any one know which part may go wrong? Regards.
Had the same problem. Check the display connector. The plastic tab that's attached to the plug gets hot touching the screen voltage pins and may melt onto the connector. Clean the plug & circuit board jack well but gently with 99% alcohol and Q-tip or light brush. My screen came back to life. Good luck.
davige -
MacBook AIR does have a fan? I never knew that!!
Yeah it has to have a fan it’s called the air, it has to take off somehow. xD
ahora mismo voy y lo desmonto, que ganas... y quito la ram soldada y sueldo otra mucho mas grande y rapida ala!!! a mi me la van a colar...menudo soy yo,,,, no podreis conmigo capitalistas de appleeeeeeeeee
Why does it has a Samsung chip inside?
Apple uses some Samsung parts. I believe the CPU in the iPhones are Samsung with Apple tweaking them.
My screen was hit on my early 2015 13 inch MacBook Air it is mostly multi color plaid. I️ need to replace the entire display. I️ need to know the exact part number to order. We have the tools from fixing my iPhone and my husband can replace the complete display. Please help with the exact part number needed.
Any idea what this screw is for. It was rattling around my MacBook Air, https://imgur.com/gallery/hkYIK
So there really is now way to take out the keyboard? I want to clean under the keys but I really don’t want to break the keys and attachments.
where can I buy the little small parts if I need them?
i just found this page and got question?
I have Mac Air 13-inch, early 2015, with 8GB DDR3.
Any chance to upgrade to 16 or more?
A question mark is probably a HardDisk error or the OS(operating system) is not proper installed.
Hence the quesrion mark (?) Ir simply means mac machine can't see a proper operating system or Hard disk.
Go from there! Good luck
RAM is not upgradable. They are soldered. Unless you're highly technical and have soldering skills.
Fuu Raa -
Hi Guys,
I need some help to repair my macbook Air early 2015, The macbook show folder with question mark, I try to recovery but failed, and then I tried to use USB bootable, and can access the disc utility, in the disc utilty I did not see the ssd. Please advise how to fix the problem. any way I am from Indonesia.
Thank you In adavance.
regards
dedy
It basically means that that your device is failing to boot. Its either a problem with the OS or your SSD. You may try to contact apple support to check if they have another way to test your SSD. Otherwise, you may try to use a different storage device. Someone from this thread mentioned they upgraded to 1TB which means its possible to reinstall Mac OS from a fresh drive.
Fuu Raa -
good morning, i have a model A1369 that the motherboard works and it works clear but the housing is already old crumpled, with ugly keyboard and marked screen. has a friend of mine who has this model A1466 but the motherboard doesn't work and i would like to know if i can pass my motherboard on his Mac?
Can u elaborate on what U meant while saying that the ssd is configurable to 512gb but not upgradable.
What does configurable mean? How is it different from upgradable ssd?
What apple means is that you can order an upgrade with them on the onset of your purchase since they will change the soldered components into the one that you ordered especially with RAM. Since DIMMs are soldered, there are no chances to upgrade afterwards.
Fuu Raa -
Review about nothing. The author did not indicate that there are models with an I7 processor and 8 Gb of memory. This is important because these models are relevant even now - they process all modern applications no worse than modern models. At a much lower cost. This is important - 8 GB of RAM because it is rsamayan and you cannot increase it, unlike an SSD drive, it can be replaced. I specifically buy motherboards with 8GB of memory on ebay to restore my clients' macbooks so that they do not pay extra money for a new macbook ....))
Can you link some ressources please?
Chris -
hd is upgradable,upgraded mine to 1 terrabyte
How'd you install the OS then? Through OS recovery and connect via network?
Fuu Raa -
Why do the teardowns never go as far as the keyboard? I have a replacement keyboard that I need to install- any resources on how to do that for this model?
The keyboard on this model is mounted on rivets. You can tear it off with a sharp movement. In this case, some of the rivets will fall out. You can then screw screws into the vacated holes to secure the keyboard. Although the right thing to do is to drill out all the rivets that have not fallen out to secure the keyboard more securely. But sometimes the existing screw holes are enough. Screws can be used from model A1278, they are commercially available.
Yur -
how to configure to 8GB RAM? you have a part number SK Hynix LPDDR3 SDRAM 4 x 2 GB for 8 GB total ? I will repair it in my macbook
Aleex PWTKLC - Antwoord