In addition to iOS7, Apple's MacBook Air is also a highlight of this year's WWDC. The 13 inch Air has been upgraded from the original 7-hour endurance to 12 hours. Although there is not much upgrade compared with the previous generation, the 12 hour long endurance still makes many people have the desire to buy. What is the reason why the endurance has been improved so much? Let's take a look at the dismantling of the 13 inch MacBook Air by iFixit, a foreign website.
Step 1
First, let's take a look at the MacBook Air configuration to be disassembled
- The fourth generation Intel Core i5 processor, integrated with HD graphics 5000 GPU
- 128GB SSD, 512GB optional
- 4GB LPDDR3 memory, 8GB optional
- 13.3-inch 1440x900 resolution, 128ppi
- 802.11ac Wi-Fi
- Dual microphone
Step 2
The appearance of the new Air is basically the same as that of the previous generation, even the model is A1466, so it is impossible to install it, just like the iPhone 4S. On the right side of the Air, there are SD card slots, USB3.0 and lightning interfaces. On the left side of the air, there are two microphones.
Step 3
This step is relatively simple. Use a screwdriver to unscrew the screw on the back of the Air to see the inside.
Step 4
The left side of the figure below shows the old version of the 2012 air, and the right side shows the new version of the 2013 Air. Through disassembly, we can know more clearly what is the difference between the old and new models.
- Smaller SSD module (red)
- Upgraded AirPort card (orange)
- New control center (yellow)
- New fin fixing (green)
- New speaker connector (blue)
Step 5
Remove the screws of the battery. Compared with the previous generation, the battery has also been upgraded. The battery voltage has increased from 7.3V to 7.6V, and the battery capacity has also increased from 6700 to 7150mAh. Although the increase is not significant, it is certainly helpful for the new Air's 12 hour endurance.
Step 6
In fact, in terms of performance, the speed of the SSD hard disk of the new Air has also improved a lot, which is 45% higher than that of the previous generation. According to the test of other foreign media, the read and write speed of the SSD of the new Air has reached more than 700 MB per second. The original SSD interface has also been changed from SATA to PCIe, as well as Samsung brand, which is smaller in size than the previous generation.
Step 7
Next to be disassembled is the newly designed AirPort network card, which can provide 802.11ac Wi Fi. This network card uses the BCM4360 of Broadcom, which supports 5GHz, the speed reaches 1.3Gbps, and also supports Bluetooth 4.0. In addition, there is a Skyworks SE5516 dual band 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac WLAN module on this board.
Step 8
Apart from the different connecting lines of speakers, there are basically no differences between the previous version and the previous one.
Step 9
The I/O interface is basically the same as the old version, except that the interface is no longer provided for iSight. There is also a 4208-CRZ Cirrus chip next to the headphone connector on this board.
Step 10
Last year, the effect of one microphone was very good. This year, the effect of two microphones will be better. Just like the iPhone, dual microphones can help us reduce background noise, so that we can get a clearer effect when talking on the phone or Facetime.
Step 11
This is the main board of the Air. We can see that Intel's fourth generation i5 processor is on the right side of the main board. Different from the previous year, this heat sink can cover two chips, but it is strange that Apple only coated the CPU with thermal silicone.
Step 12
Take a closer look at the motherboard
- 1.3GHz dual core i5 processor (Turbo can reach 2.6GHz), integrated with HD graphics 5000GPU. (Red)
- Intel's Platform Controller (orange)
- Intel Z246TA38 Thunderbolt Controller (Yellow)
- GL3219 (green)
- Linear Technology LT3957 controller (blue)
Thirteenth Step
On the other side of the motherboard is
- Elpida F8132A1MC LPDDR3 RAM memory, 4GB in total. (Red)
- Broadcom BCM15700A2 (orange)
- Hynix H5TC4G63AFR 4 Gb synchronous DRAM (yellow)
- MXIC MX25L6406E 64 Mb serial flash (green)
- Texas Instruments TPS51980A synchronous buck controller (blue)
- 980 YFC LM4FS1BH (pink)
Step 14
Like all integrated MacBooks, the touch pad is fixed by six screws, but it is not difficult to disassemble it. In addition to a lot of controllers, there are many chips under the touch panel. Finally, we can remove the display screen by unscrewing the screws that fix the screen.
Finally, we summarize the main improvements of the new Air. The CPU is more power efficient, the battery capacity is slightly enhanced, and the overall endurance is significantly improved. In addition, the new SSD also makes the whole machine run faster and smoother. However, the CPU frequency is lower than that of the previous generation, so the CPU performance has not been greatly improved. However, due to its super endurance, we recommend it to users who do not play games or install the win system.
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