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Apple MacBook Air Teardown (2010 11-inch)

Summary: Bill Detwiler cracks open the redesigned 2010 11-inch MacBook Air. See the hardware inside Apple's ultra-thin notebook.

Bill Detwiler

By |

 |  Image 92 of 92

While the 2010 MacBook Air isn't difficult to disassemble--tamper resistant case screws aside. Nearly all of the internal components are proprietary. It's unlikely that many IT pros, let alone the average consumer, will ever upgrade the RAM or replace the flash storage unit.

Photo by: Bill Detwiler / TechRepublic

Caption by: Bill Detwiler
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Topics: Laptops, Apple, Hardware, Mobility

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16 comments
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  • Dell is really losing out

    Sad to say but Dell is having serious identity problems..I have always considered Dell a player in the PC market but no more. Where's their dPad and where's their DellBook Air? You made me realize this when I saw the sideBySide of M11x. The only value to this computer is a door stop in a tornado (its big enough to hold it open; probably weighs 20 lbs)
    amasys
    Reply Vote

    • RE: Apple MacBook Air Teardown (2010 11-inch)

      very very good

      come :

      [ H T T P : / / T A .G G / 4 O R ]
      lincc350
      Reply Vote

  • Its a netbook..... just call it what it is!

    nothing fancy... not lighter than mine but with a bigger screen. YAY... yet another netbook.
    Been_Done_Before
    Reply Vote

  • Looks kind of cheaply made

    If you ask me.
    John Zern
    Reply Vote

  • Seeing this, why exactly can't there be an x86 tablet?

    Here with have a little motherboard...
    Good battery life...
    Without the keyboard, a very slim profile...

    ...equals tablet.

    So what exactly is the problem? I'm a little tired of being told ARM is the answer to all my problems or that all my apps need to come from some App store.
    croberts
    Reply Vote

  • RE: Apple MacBook Air Teardown (2010 11-inch)

    Looks Awesome!
    james347
    Reply Vote

    • RE: Apple MacBook Air Teardown (2010 11-inch)

      @james347 <br>Looks awesome, that's about it from my perspective. This is not really useful unless you just want to surf with your laptop. <br><br>1) no HDMI port<br>2) lower end processor compared to new ones in market (i series)<br>3) low HDD space (for end users, does not matter what kinda memory is used for storing, be it be flash/SSD/...).64 GB hard drives does not even exist today. You have OS and some more programs on your computer and you consume about 8-10 Gigs. Then you have music and some more movies and your hard drive is full <img border="0" src="http://www.cnet.com/i/mb/emoticons/happy.gif" alt="happy"> lol..<br>4) Maximum 4 gb RAM ? Its like going back to old generations of PCs<br>5) No DVD/Blu-ray: I will give this a pass for now since this is getting obsolete, but I still use it for my music cds while learning piano.<br>6) No sd/microsd readers, which is the default on most of the laptops<br>7) Last but not the least, the price: $999 ? seriously ? <br><br>This is like old version of PCs. If you remove half of the most important components from the computer and claim, I am cool...its just fooling business in other words. <br><br>Just my two cents. I am not buying it. <br><br>My VAIO (1.1 inch thin), 13.3 inch, 500 Gb HDD, 4 Gb RAM, webcam, HDMI port, all in one card reader, 2 USB ports, Radeon Graphics (512 Mb), 4 lbs weight with windows 7 ultimate runs awesome and can do everything I want.<br><br>Btw, @madfry asked me for the price of my VAIO and I can't reply him/her (don't know, but there is no option to reply back :(). Dude, you predicted 1.5k, but it was $1100 with tax and that too before 11 months, when I bought it.
      animageofmine1
      Reply Vote

      • RE: Apple MacBook Air Teardown (2010 11-inch)

        @animageofmine1

        Apple's new netbook is not designed to compete with all the specs you listed there above. It's basically for people looking for a netbook, but abhor the junk being bandied by Acer, Dell, HP and friends.

        Your 1.1 inch Vaio costs how much again? Because if I'm not mistaken, it's more that $1.5k.
        madfry
        Reply Vote

  • RE: Apple MacBook Air Teardown (2010 11-inch)

    Yea, that Dell Alien tells the whole story ... proves specs don't mean much ... besides wrong operating system. Got to start with the best OS (X) first then compare maybe 11 vs 13 Airs with different configs. Would you get caught using a PC on campus these days? Faculty who use a PC just seem weird ... they really need an IT guy all the time.
    hanalei_road
    Reply Vote

    • RE: Apple MacBook Air Teardown (2010 11-inch)

      @hanalei_road
      Go play with both - then make a statement.
      MBA - nice build - yesterdays tech - makes a great expensive 11" netbook - if they upped that capacity/ability I'd buy one
      M11x - design okay - power package netbook that is as powerful as my top end XPS and then some.

      Now if we could combine the two..... hmmmmmm
      rhonin
      Reply Vote

      • RE: Apple MacBook Air Teardown (2010 11-inch)

        @zenwalker
        I repeat: only if you allowed Apple to design the machine and it has OS X. There are a sea of Macs in our class for a reason.
        hanalei_road
        Reply Vote

      • RE: Apple MacBook Air Teardown (2010 11-inch)

        @zenwalker
        The 'both' I am talking about are the 11 vs the 13 Airs not the Alien that you mean(?). I want to point out this is not just my opinion but my friends (in class) opinion. Don't dictate style (design) to us ... again it is between OS X and OS X, not OS X and some other system.
        hanalei_road
        Reply Vote

      • RE: Apple MacBook Air Teardown (2010 11-inch)

        @hanalei_road
        sorry - but while I may like Apple hardware, OSx I find to be too restrictive. I like to tweek/mod/adjust my environment - too many limitations in OSx (unless I run Win7).

        and yes, I have used it.
        rhonin
        Reply Vote

  • Full of CRAP!

    This thing could not possiblly work!


    http://fakesteveballmer.blogspot.com
    NonZeal0t
    Reply Vote

  • Apple - very tempting

    I'm with the Vaio guy @animageofmine1 - I have a beauty of a Vaio Z11. But then I want to write things, draw things, create video for serious purposes, and generally use my computer to earn my living.
    Let's face it, most people just want to consume. Listen to music, watch movies, read on the internet, read ebooks. A tablet, and a low spec one at that, is probably perfect. Add a keyboard (MBA) and you have something suitable for a student. Add a heap of marketing to tell you how cool it is (forget the specs, just think how geeky you look carrying a PC) and the apple proves irresistable.
    So Apple are easy to use (mainly because they only let you do what they are designed to let you do). But in an enterprise environment, they leave a little to be desired in terms of talking with other systems, management, even security.
    Of course we have to support them - the Chief Exec (or College Principal) says we have to. But it isn't easy, by a long stretch
    HugoM
    Reply Vote

    • RE: Apple MacBook Air Teardown (2010 11-inch)

      @HugoM

      Yes, need to support OS X, because often the CEO, etc will be using an Air/Mac. I realize in our school it is somewhat different then probably enterprise, but, we (students) could do a lot of basic enterprise work with an Air. Certainly some machines have better specs but in this class we will do fine with the Air. Again its Air vs Air 11 vs 13 that we are trying to decide between (or OS X vs OS X). OK, if you need an option then OS X vs iOS ... ha.
      hanalei_road
      Reply Vote
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