If you plan to replace the battery on a MacBook Pro yourself through Apple’s self-service repair system, brace for a long, arduous process that'll cost over $500.
On Tuesday, Apple began selling official replacement parts for the latest M1 MacBooks, offering consumers a way to fix the products themselves. However, electronics repair provider iFixit claims Apple’s approach to self-service repairs can make MacBook Pros “seem less repairable.”
In a blog post, iFixit points out that replacing a battery on any of the M1 MacBook Pro models requires removing about a dozen other parts—including the display, logic board, and fans—when following Apple’s official repair manuals. For the 14-inch MacBook Pro, this means going through a 162-page document covering the various steps.
In contrast, iFixit’s own repair guide for replacing a 14-inch M1 MacBook Pro battery is 26 steps.
The other problem with Apple’s repair approach, iFixit says, is that it requires the consumer to spend over $500 to buy the replacement part, which includes the battery and a new keyboard top, bundled together. There’s currently no option to buy a replacement battery individually.
“And so their [repair] guide has you remove literally every component from the top case. The laptop is built on the top case, so to get to it, you’ve got to demanufacture the whole thing,” iFixit’s Sam Goldheart wrote in the blog post.
According to iFixit, the result leaves “DIY repairers with an excruciating gauntlet of hurdles” when it comes to repairing a MacBook Pro. “Apple seems to be saying, ‘Actually our batteries are so hard to replace, they’re literally the last part you remove,’” Goldheart added. Meanwhile, Apple’s repair guide for the M1 MacBook Air only requires you to remove the bottom case and speakers when replacing the battery.
The good news is that a notice on Apple’s self-service repair store says it’ll eventually sell individual battery replacement parts for M1 MacBook Pros. So it’s possible the repair process will get simpler and more affordable. Apple didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.