{"id":21528,"date":"2022-07-21T19:25:45","date_gmt":"2022-07-21T19:25:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/apple-forgoes-heatsink-in-m2-macbook-air-the-register\/"},"modified":"2022-07-21T19:25:45","modified_gmt":"2022-07-21T19:25:45","slug":"apple-forgoes-heatsink-in-m2-macbook-air-the-register","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/apple-forgoes-heatsink-in-m2-macbook-air-the-register\/","title":{"rendered":"Apple forgoes heatsink in M2 MacBook Air \u2022 The Register"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"body\">\n<p>The engineers at iFixit have turned their tools on Apple&#8217;s flash new M2-powered MacBook Air to find a startling lack of cooling.<\/p>\n<p>Before cracking the beast open, the teardown team took a moment to wonder at the amount of ports crammed into a machine that is even slimmer than its predecessor, noting the return of MagSafe, two Thunderbolt 3 ports, and \u2013 strangely enough for an Apple product \u2013 a headphone jack.<\/p>\n<p>  Youtube Video\n<\/p>\n<div aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"adun\" data-pos=\"top\" data-raptor=\"condor\" data-xsm=\",fluid,mpu,\" data-sm=\",fluid,mpu,\" data-md=\",fluid,mpu,\">\n        <noscript><\/p>\n<p>                <\/p>\n<p>        <\/noscript>\n    <\/div>\n<p>The Air&#8217;s innards are secured by four screws on the underside which took a disconcerting amount of force to free, iFixit said.  After some difficulty locating the battery connector, which was stowed away under some brackets and a &#8220;neat little trap door,&#8221; the teardown could begin once it was safely disconnected.<\/p>\n<div aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"adun\" data-pos=\"top\" data-raptor=\"falcon\" data-xmd=\",fluid,mpu,leaderboard,\" data-lg=\",fluid,mpu,leaderboard,\" data-xlg=\",fluid,billboard,superleaderboard,mpu,leaderboard,\" data-xxlg=\",fluid,billboard,superleaderboard,brandwidth,brandimpact,leaderboard,mpu,\">\n            <noscript><\/p>\n<p>                    <img src=\"https:\/\/pubads.g.doubleclick.net\/gampad\/ad?co=1&amp;iu=\/6978\/reg_onprem\/personaltech&amp;sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&amp;tile=4&amp;c=44YtmoN2LTl6rV9UYXZxyEdgAAANQ&amp;t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D426raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0\" alt=\"\"\/><\/p>\n<p>            <\/noscript>\n        <\/div>\n<div class=\"adun_eagle_desktop_story_wrapper\">\n<div aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"adun\" data-pos=\"mid\" data-raptor=\"eagle\" data-xxlg=\",mpu,dmpu,\">\n                <noscript><\/p>\n<p>                        <img src=\"https:\/\/pubads.g.doubleclick.net\/gampad\/ad?co=1&amp;iu=\/6978\/reg_onprem\/personaltech&amp;sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&amp;tile=3&amp;c=33YtmoN2LTl6rV9UYXZxyEdgAAANQ&amp;t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0\" alt=\"\"\/><\/p>\n<p>                <\/noscript>\n            <\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p>The engineer&#8217;s attention then turned to the logic board, which was removed by dealing with ever more brackets and screws.  Clip-on shield dispatched, the team were aghast to find an incredibly minimal cooling system.  Breezing over the empty space left for an &#8220;SSD chip we didn&#8217;t pay for,&#8221; iFixit started scraping around for a heat spreader but found only thermal paste and graphite tape.<\/p>\n<div class=\"CaptionedImage Center Border\"><img loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/regmedia.co.uk\/2022\/07\/21\/macbook_air_m2_board-shield-wide.jpg?resize=648%2C357&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"MacBook Air logic board\" title=\"MacBook Air logic board\" height=\"357\" width=\"648\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"text_center\">Credits: iFixit<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>&#8220;What&#8217;s with this big gap? How does this thing cool down?&#8221;  they asked.  &#8220;The M2 is efficient, but this shield is super thin, so it&#8217;s not helping much \u2013 and the case is lighter than last year&#8230; Maybe the M2 Air is secretly an iPad&#8230; or maybe Apple is just letting it run hot &#8220;<\/p>\n<p>Apple&#8217;s new ARM-based chip is indeed efficient, and the company has made sure that everyone knows it, claiming that the processor provides 87 percent of the peak performance of Intel&#8217;s 12-core Core i7-1260P while using just a quarter of the rival chip&#8217;s power.<\/p>\n<p>So while Intel has the M2 beat, such a performance metric at about 15W power consumption is not to be sniffed at.  We&#8217;re going to go out on a limb here and say that Apple probably knows what it&#8217;s doing when paring back cooling systems.<\/p>\n<div class=\"CaptionedImage Center Border\"><img loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/regmedia.co.uk\/2022\/07\/21\/mba_m2_2022_chipid-1-blog.jpg?resize=648%2C431&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"MacBook Air logic board\" title=\"MacBook Air logic board\" height=\"431\" width=\"648\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"text_center\">Credits: iFixit<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>Looking at the logic board, iFixit was able to identify, among other things:<\/p>\n<p>Answers on a postcard for the accelerometer.  Moving on, iFixit was able to free the trackpad via screws, washers, and an &#8220;annoying cable&#8221; but had some difficulty removing the four speakers thanks to screws being hidden beneath the laptop&#8217;s hinge covers.  The team noted that Apple has changed tack on audio, with the speakers pumping out sound between case and display via grilles rather than a perforated top case.  &#8220;Apple&#8217;s obsession with sound still comes through, and they sound great,&#8221; they said.<\/p>\n<p>The audio board and ports tell a different story, however.  The audio board is &#8220;adhered, but comes right up. Even better, every single port \u2013 the endangered headphone jack, prodigal MagSafe charger, and both USB-C ports \u2013 are modular, and not glued down. We love to see it!&#8221;  Likewise, the TouchID button came out through the top case &#8220;with ease.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>To the battery, then, and iFixit wondered if it had shrunk slightly compared to those in the last Air model.  The four cells are secured to the case by a mix of screws, stretch-release adhesive, and a metal tray.  The specs on the back give a capacity rating of 52.6Wh.  The top two cells are wired in parallel and bottom two in series, making it operate like a three-cell battery, iFixit said.  &#8220;Maybe don&#8217;t think too hard about why; it doesn&#8217;t make sense to us either.&#8221;<\/p>\n<div class=\"CaptionedImage Center Border\"><img loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/regmedia.co.uk\/2022\/07\/21\/macbook_air_m2_layout.jpg?resize=648%2C486&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"MacBook Air layout\" title=\"MacBook Air layout\" height=\"486\" width=\"648\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"text_center\">Credits: iFixit<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>As for the display, it pulled right off once those fiddly hinge covers were unscrewed.<\/p>\n<p>This is iFixit&#8217;s initial probing of the machine so it did not provide the coveted repairability score but the team conceded that the Mac Air &#8220;has been headed in a positive direction these days \u2013 more and better ports, a better keyboard, and a return to some more repairable ideas.&#8221;<\/p>\n<div aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"adun\" data-pos=\"top\" data-raptor=\"falcon\" data-xsm=\",fluid,mpu,\" data-sm=\",fluid,mpu,\" data-md=\",fluid,mpu,\">\n            <noscript><\/p>\n<p>                    <img src=\"https:\/\/pubads.g.doubleclick.net\/gampad\/ad?co=1&amp;iu=\/6978\/reg_onprem\/personaltech&amp;sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&amp;tile=4&amp;c=44YtmoN2LTl6rV9UYXZxyEdgAAANQ&amp;t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D426raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0\" alt=\"\"\/><\/p>\n<p>            <\/noscript>\n        <\/div>\n<p>However, they did question the reliability of a &#8220;fanless, heatspreader-less, non-upgradable laptop.&#8221;  Time will tell, but think of the blissful silence without having a fan constantly whizzing.  On the other hand, Apple will be providing parts for the M2 Air so at least it has been designed with some repairability in mind, and iFixit&#8217;s video of the operation shows few real struggles.  Cupertino has come a long way from the inscrutable, impenetrable black boxes of old.  \u00ae<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The engineers at iFixit have turned their tools on Apple&#8217;s flash new M2-powered MacBook Air to find a startling lack of cooling. Before cracking the beast open, the teardown team took a moment to wonder at the amount of ports crammed into a machine that is even slimmer than its predecessor, noting the return of &hellip;<\/p>\n<p class=\"read-more\"> <a class=\"\" href=\"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/apple-forgoes-heatsink-in-m2-macbook-air-the-register\/\"> <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Apple forgoes heatsink in M2 MacBook Air \u2022 The Register<\/span> Read More &raquo;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":19643,"url":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/ifixit-tears-down-m2-macbook-air-finds-accelerometer-and-adhesive-pull-tabs-for-battery\/","url_meta":{"origin":21528,"position":0},"title":"iFixit Tears Down M2 MacBook Air, Finds Accelerometer and Adhesive Pull Tabs for Battery","date":"July 20, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"With the M2 MacBook Air now available for purchase, repair site iFixit picked one up and decided to do one of its traditional teardowns on the machine to give us a look inside. A prior teardown already revealed the biggest potential issue with the base model 256GB \u200cM2\u200c \u200cMacBook Air\u200c\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Technology&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":20697,"url":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/m2-macbook-air-teardown-reveals-accelerometer-minimal-heat-management\/","url_meta":{"origin":21528,"position":1},"title":"M2 MacBook Air teardown reveals accelerometer, minimal heat management","date":"July 21, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"The MacBook Air after the teardown. iFixit didn't find much in the way of a thermal management system in this machine. An X-ray reveals the new speaker system. The M2 MacBook Air has been arriving to those who pre-ordered it over the past few days, and repair supplies vendor iFixit\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Technology&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":19950,"url":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/ifixit-teardown-shows-the-inside-of-m2-macbook-air\/","url_meta":{"origin":21528,"position":2},"title":"iFixit teardown shows the inside of M2 MacBook Air","date":"July 20, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"The new M2 MacBook Air is finally here. And while some customers won't get their hands on it for another month, those who bought it during pre-order have now received their new laptop. iFixit also got its hands on the M2 MacBook Air to show us a full teardown of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Technology&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"iFixit teardown shows there's not much inside the new M2 MacBook Air.","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/9to5mac.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2022\/07\/M2-MacBook-Air-iFixit-teardown-1.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":810,"url":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/ifixit-teardown-shows-m2-macbook-pro-is-a-recycled-laptop\/","url_meta":{"origin":21528,"position":3},"title":"iFixit teardown shows M2 MacBook Pro is a recycled laptop","date":"July 1, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"Announced at WWDC 2022, the new 13-inch MacBook Pro with the M2 chip finally arrived in stores and in the hands of customers last week. And, while the fact that the M2 MacBook Pro is not a huge upgrade compared to its previous generation is no surprise, a teardown by\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Technology&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"iFixit teardown shows M2 MacBook Pro is just a recycled laptop with a new chip inside.","src":"https:\/\/9to5mac.com\/2022\/06\/30\/ifixit-teardown-m2-macbook-pro\/m2-macbook-pro-ifixit-teardown-bottom-cover\/","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2025,"url":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/teardown-reveals-apples-latest-13-inch-macbook-pro-is-basically-last-generations-model-with-an-m2-chip\/","url_meta":{"origin":21528,"position":4},"title":"Teardown Reveals Apple&#8217;s Latest 13-Inch MacBook Pro is Basically Last Generation&#8217;s Model With an M2 Chip","date":"July 2, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"Apple announced the new M2 MacBook Pro earlier in June with the same design as the M1 variant. While there are no new design variations, the M2 chip brings the required performance upgrades to the table. However, the base model is still slower than the M1 MacBook Pro due to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Technology&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"Apple M1 and M2 MacBook Pro Teardown","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/cdn.wccftech.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/M2-MacBook.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/regmedia.co.uk\/2022\/07\/21\/macbook_air_m2_59-16x9-full-res.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21528"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21528"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21528\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21528"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21528"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21528"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}