Apple gave us a quick peek at the inside of its new 13-inch MacBook Pro with Retina display during its event in San Francisco on Tuesday. However, if you thought the tech world would be satisfied by that, you've got another think coming. No, we wouldn't be enthusiasts if we didn't want to see every aspect of the MBP 13-inch with Retina splayed out under the cold, harsh lighting synonymous with a great tear down.
iFixit took it upon themselves to pick up one of these machines and tear it asunder. It seems Apple is still determined to discourage folks from getting inside its gadgets. iFixit reports it took five different screw drivers to perform the tear down (a 5-point pentalobe, a Phillips 00, and T5, T6, and T8 Torx screwdrivers).
But, enough about how they got in, what did they find when they did? First, there's the bits we already know about: the 13.3-inch 2560x1600 pixel (227 ppi) Retina display Apple proudly boasted about on Tuesday, along with the 2.5 GHz Core i5, Intel HD Graphics 4000, 128GB/256GB of flash, 8GB of DDR3L, Thunderbolt, USB 3.0, and HDMI I/O. Then there's the nitty-gritty that Apple didn't bother talking about on stage on Tuesday: that SSD is a Samsung MZ-DPC2560/0A2 unit and the RAM is Hynix H5TC4G83MFR DDR3L SDRAM. There's also an Intel BD82QS77 platform controller hub, an Intel DSL3510L Thunderbolt controller, a Texas Instruments Stellaris LM4FS1AH microcontroller with integrated ARM core, an SMSC USB2512B USB 2.0 Hub Controller, a Cypress Semiconductor CY8C24794-24L programmable SoC, a Maxim MAX15119 Apple-specific IMVP7 CPU/GPU power controller, a Cirrus Audio 4206BCNZ audio controller, and a Texas Instruments TPS 51980.
Overall, the MacBook Pro 13-inch with Retina display scored a two on iFixit's repairability scale. And yes, that scale is of the one-to-ten variety, ten being the easiest. Head on over to iFixit for the full gallery and details of the teardown.