MacBook Air M4 teardown reveals familiar repairability pain points

MacBook Air M4
(Image credit: Future)

The MacBook Air M4 was released last week, and with a $100 price cut on its predecessor, it’s an easy recommendation, even if it’s not an enormous upgrade. Early adopters who don’t mind getting their hands dirty with self-repairs will find iFixIt’s teardown of the laptop a mixed bag of good and bad news, however.

On one hand, it shares the modular design of its predecessor, and Apple produces guides and all the spare parts you need. On the other, some elements remain unupgradable, others are painfully hard to reach and — most damningly of all — Apple’s software locking still stands in the way of certain common fixes.

MacBook Air M4: A Repair Win or a Locked-Down Mess? - YouTube MacBook Air M4: A Repair Win or a Locked-Down Mess? - YouTube
Watch On

The Good

Shots from iFixIt's MacBook Air M4 teardown video.

(Image credit: iFixIt / YouTube)

Starting with the positive, battery and port replacement is about as easy as it gets. Though the battery doesn’t use the electrically-releasing adhesive seen on the new iPhones, the adhesive strips come loose easily enough making for a quick like-for-like replacement with a spare.

The USB-C ports are also modular and easily removed, not soldered to the motherboard, which is a big win, considering the wear and tear involved in constantly plugging and unplugging cables.

Trackpad removal is also a “fairly easy, if tedious process”, involving flipping the laptop upside down, placing a piece of paper between it and the screen, and then removing ten screws.

The Bad

Shots from iFixIt's MacBook Air M4 teardown video.

(Image credit: iFixIt / YouTube)

So far, so good, but all of these things need to be done before you can even think about a screen repair, and that’s a problem.

“This is actually one of the more common repairs on portable electronics, but in this device it’s buried pretty deep, making it a fairly unpleasant experience,” explains host Shahram Mokhtari in the video voiceover.

Once finally free, we get to the “second-most difficult component to reach” — the Touch ID button. “There is no way to remove this button without first disassembling the top half of the device,” Mokhtari explains.

The hardest bit? The keyboard. If you need to replace that, a full disassembly is required.

Once again, storage is soldered down and thus can’t be upgraded, but a bigger problem is on the software side when going alone on repairs.

The Ugly

Shots from iFixIt's MacBook Air M4 teardown video.

(Image credit: iFixIt / YouTube)

On the accompanying iFixIt blog post, the company’s Director of Sustainability, Elizabeth Chamberlain writes about the issues the team ran into while subbing in working components from other identical systems.

“When we swapped logic boards between two identical M4 MacBook Airs, System Configuration gave us an error: the ambient light sensor wouldn’t calibrate, which disabled True Tone,” she writes. “The manual said our only path to remedying that error was to go through the Self Service Repair Store team, which of course, we hadn’t used to buy the part.”

These problems will occur both with salvaged working parts from other devices and third-party components, she writes. That’s not only hugely wasteful, ensuring that otherwise working parts are destined for the e-waste scrap heap, but also makes things unnecessarily expensive for the consumer by giving Apple a monopoly on part selling.

“Overall, the MacBook Air M4 has potential to score well for repairability, owing to its largely modular construction,” Mokhtari concludes in his outro. “But the soldered-down storage module, the unresolvable calibration issues with the screen, and the keyboard that’s buried under all the internals are all factors that will negatively impact the end user’s ability to repair the most common failure points this device will run into.”

All of this adds up to a middling provisional score of 5/10 for repairability. “At least this scores better than an iPad, even though that bar is on the floor,” Mokhtari adds.

TOPICS
Alan Martin

Freelance contributor Alan has been writing about tech for over a decade, covering phones, drones and everything in between. Previously Deputy Editor of tech site Alphr, his words are found all over the web and in the occasional magazine too. When not weighing up the pros and cons of the latest smartwatch, you'll probably find him tackling his ever-growing games backlog. Or, more likely, playing Spelunky for the millionth time.

You must confirm your public display name before commenting

Please logout and then login again, you will then be prompted to enter your display name.

Read more
MacBook Air 13-inch M4 shown on tabletop
Apple MacBook Air M4 review: The top laptop value
MacBook Air M4
M4 MacBook Air vs M3 Macbook Air: Here's the biggest upgrades
MacBook Air M4
The MacBook Air M4 could be the laptop of the year — and it's not because of the new chip
MacBook Air M4
MacBook Air M4 benchmarks are here — here's how it compares to the MacBook Pro, Windows laptops and more
MacBook Air M4
MacBook Air M4 just finally solved a keyboard problem after 25 years — here's what's fixed
MacBook Air M4 vs. MacBook Air M1
MacBook Air M4 vs MacBook Air M1: 7 biggest upgrades
Latest in Computing
MacBook Air M4
MacBook Air M4 teardown reveals familiar repairability pain points
A person plugging a coaxial cable into the wall
I finally added internet to my kitchen and all it took was my old cable TV wiring — here’s how
Chelsea Manning speaking at the NymVPN launch event
Chelsea Manning-backed NymVPN launches in bid to win the "censorship arms race"
A purple Chilkey ND75 LP mechanical keyboard
This low-profile keyboard is what I needed to get me into modding — and it stuns with its performance
Ray-Ban Meta Smart Glasses
I love my Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses — but Zuckerberg's plan to create Oakley's my Dad would wear is kind of cringe
Nvidia GeForce RTX 5070 Ti
I'm worried about the latest Nvidia RTX 5060 price leak — but one thing could change my mind
Latest in News
Samsung Galaxy Tab S10 FE renders
Samsung Galaxy Tab S10 FE price leak is bad news for budget-conscious buyers
Google Assistant
Gemini to kill off Google Assistant on most Android phones — here's what you need to know
MacBook Air M4
MacBook Air M4 teardown reveals familiar repairability pain points
NYTimes Connections
NYT Connections today hints and answers — Saturday, March 15 (#643)
iPhone 17 Pro render
iPhone 17 Ultra just tipped to replace Pro Max in new leak — with these key upgrades
RCS messaging on an iPhone
Forget green bubbles — iPhones will soon get encrypted RCS messaging to Androids