5 Details You Didn’t Know About the New 16-inch MacBook Pro
Apple’s new 16-inch MacBook Pro is a breath of fresh air for many users with its new keyboard, better sound system, and improved thermal architecture. But those aren’t the only changes Apple has made.
This week, repair site iFixit has officially completed its teardown of the new MacBook Pro model. And, just like was past Apple device teardown, the site has found a few interesting details that we didn’t previously know about. Continue reading to learn 5 Hidden Details You Didn't Know About the New 16-inch MacBook Pro.
Magic Keyboard Interchangeability
Apple has officially ditched the butterfly mechanism in favor of a new scissor-switch keyboard they call the Magic Keyboard. (The Magic Keyboard is also coming to 13-inch laptops soon enough.) But, as you might expect, there are some other new tidbits related to that keyboard, too.
The company says that the “core” of the new Magic Keyboard comes from Apple’ past Magic Keyboard designs, such as the old-school white keyboards that Apple has shipped with most desktop Macs shown above.
Interestingly, the keyboards are so similar that iFixit was able to place one of those white keycaps on the new 16-inch MacBook Pro. But before you get too excited, the site notes that not all keycaps are exchangeable.
(Lack of) Keyboard Repairability
While the rest of the items we’re going to cover are changes Apple has made to the new MacBook Pro, there is at least one change it didn’t make. According to iFixit, the keyboard assembly is riveted down — meaning that it isn’t really any more repairable than butterfly keyboards.
It isn’t clear what the repair process will be like for the new Magic Keyboard, but it’s pretty clear that Apple isn’t expecting them to fail. In fact, there isn’t even any type of dust-proof membrane. While the keyboard itself may be much more reliable, if one does start to give out, then the repair will still be expensive.
Lid Angle Sensor
While the lid of the new MacBook Pro is pretty much identical to past models, there is at least one new component related to it: a “lid angle sensor.” That’s according to a recent internal Apple Support document obtained by MacRumors and later confirmed by iFixit.
The magnetic sensor itself, which faces the left side hinge of the lid, appears to be much more sophisticated than the sensors that previous MacBooks used to determine whether their lid was open or closed. iFixit theorizes that this sensor could give Apple techs much more minute detail about the lid operation, but it could even be used for a currently unknown macOS feature down the road.
Longer Speaker Enclosure
Apple has also given the 16-inch MacBook Pro a refresh in the speaker department, with significantly updated sound and recording quality. The new speaker system also includes a longer speaker enclosure with woofers on both the top and the bottom.
Why Apple decided to go with this design, it isn’t clear. The woofers are pretty clearly meant to cancel out each other’s vibration, and iFixit notes that they’ll likely also direct sound to improve the overall audio quality.
Battery Changes
Battery life is important to pretty much all electronics users, and Apple has given the new MacBook Pro an upgrade in battery life. Apple estimates that the new MacBook Pro will get about an additional hour of wireless browsing time when compared to the previous 15-inch MacBook Pro.
That increase will be much-appreciated, but Apple had to make a few interesting changes to make that happen. For one, the 16-inch MacBook Pro now has the largest battery capacity that’s still allowed on airlines (99.8Wh). To fit in the additional capacity, Apple made each battery about .8mm thicker.