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iFixit Teardown of 2019 Base 13-inch MacBook Pro Model Reveals Reveals Larger Battery, Soldered-Down SSD, and Updated Keyboard Materials

iFixit has performed their teardown magic on the new 2019 entry-level 13-inch MacBook, which includes a True Tone display, Touch Bar with Touch ID, and more.

The repair firm’s teardown uncovered a laptop featuring a larger 58.2 Wh capacity battery, which is slightly larger than found in the the previous generation’s model that sported function keys in place of a touch bar. iFixit guesstimates this is how Apple keeps the same 10-hour battery life as the previous model, while still being able to handle the additional power needs of the new model’s Touch Bar, Touch ID, and T2 chip.

Sad news for those that like to upgrade their MacBook Pro after they purchase their device, as the new 2019 model replaces the previous MacBook Pro model’s modular SSD storage with a soldered down chip.

A slightly smaller heat sink appears to have been used in order to make room for the Touch ID sensor next to the Touch Bar. The nearby speaker appears to have also been shrunk in size.

The new MacBook Pro, model A2159, and EMC 3301 includes:

  • 13.3” LED-backlit IPS “Retina” display with 2560 × 1600 resolution (227 dpi), P3 color gamut
  • 1.4 GHz quad-core Intel Core i5 (Turbo Boost up to 3.9 GHz) with integrated Intel Iris Plus Graphics 645
  • 8 GB of 2133 MHz LPDDR3 onboard memory
  • 128 GB, 256 GB, 512 GB, 1 TB, or 2 TB PCIe-based SSD
  • Two Thunderbolt 3 (USB-C) ports supporting charging, DisplayPort, Thunderbolt, USB 3.1 Gen 2
  • Apple T2 custom coprocessor

The keyboard used in the new 13-inch MacBook Pro is the same same third-generation butterfly keyboard with updated material as the higher-end 2019 MacBook Pro models introduced in May, hopefully offering improved reliability.

As is normal for Apple products, the new entry-level 13-inch MacBook Pro received a low repairability score from iFixit, thanks to its use of proprietary pentalobe screws, a glued-in battery, and non-upgradable soldered-down storage and RAM.

The full teardown action, with the usual gratuitous photos is available at the iFixit website.

Chris Hauk

Chris is a Senior Editor at Mactrast. He lives somewhere in the deep Southern part of America, and yes, he has to pump in both sunshine and the Internet.