My Biggest Problem With Mac Laptops

Looks just aren’t enough.

Years ago, I was a die-hard Apple fanboy. Having used Windows laptops for years, I was sick of the driver incompatibilities, bluescreens, poor battery life, and other assorted dumpster fires that were intrinsic to the Windows ecosystem. So I jumped the fence and bought a MacBook Pro.

I loved that laptop. It was fast (for the time). Looked cool. Was upgradable. And felt premium.

But today’s Macs are in a different world. The design philosophy they follow is just not something that I can support. At least not right now. There’s one glaring flaw — yes, I’ll use the word flaw — that I just can’t overlook.

Every Mac laptop has soldered storage.

As much as I love macOS, and as much as I appreciate much of what Apple has done with their computers — like using screens that don’t suck — all of that good is outweighed by something unacceptable: Soldered storage.

Unlike most other laptops, these devices have their storage drives permanently fixed to their system boards. In years past, these storage devices were modular and could be upgraded or replaced as needed.

But starting around 2016, that changed for the worse.

Why is this a problem?

In a perfect world where parts never fail and where we never run out of space, soldered storage wouldn’t be a problem. But because of this design decision, a user’s abilities are limited.

I work in IT, and I have seen many SSD’s fail over the course of my career. They’re not any more immune to failure than a keyboard or a trackpad. Typically, when this happens, we can pop out the old drive, put in a new one, install the OS, and get on with our lives.

But on a Mac? Nope. A failed SSD requires replacing the entire logic board of the machine.

It’s worse, though. I’ve often seen laptops fail for other reasons — like liquid damage, drops, electrical problems, etc. When that happens, it sucks. But typically, we can still salvage a user’s data by pulling out the laptop’s storage drive and copying off his data. On a Mac? Not possible.

Why does Apple solder storage to the board?

I’ve long asked myself why a company that has tried to position itself as a maker of premium computer products would develop systems that are designed in such an anti-user way.

While only those inside Apple — and likely only those at the very top — know the real reasons behind this sort of design, my theory is two-fold.

1. Soldering storage requires purchasers to buy more than they need up front. If you can’t upgrade the storage, you’re forced to think about the future and likely buy more storage than you actually need — spending more money than you should have had to.
2. Soldered storage makes machines disposable. Lest we forget, an SSD is a wearable part with a limited lifespan. As data is written to the NAND flash cells of a solid state drive, they wear ever so slightly. Over time, that wear adds up and ages a drive. Now, it takes a lot of writing to wear out a drive, but if your plan is to keep your Mac for years, it’s something to be aware of — especially if you have a smaller SSD as larger drives tend to have a better write endurance due to the larger number of NAND cells available for writing.

That’s not to say Apple’s designs are necessarily all nefarious. Mac laptops do have blazingly fast storage drives, and that shouldn’t be overlooked. Some have theorized that Apple’s drives are soldered to guarantee speed and power efficiency. But while that may be a factor — and again, no one outside of Apple can truly say for sure — that seems like a poor reason to take a part that should be user-serviceable and integrate it into the logic board.

“But other manufacturers solder things too.”

I can hear some of you now. “Other brands have soldered components too!” And that’s true. They do. Some OEMs have models with soldered RAM. And some models are designed in such a way that removing or replacing the solid state drive would be very difficult — if not impossible.

But is that really any excuse? If multiple entities do something bad, does it become less bad?

I don’t like that many of Lenovo’s laptops have soldered RAM that I cannot upgrade down the road. But they have others with socketed RAM that I could upgrade. I don’t like some of the design decisions on many of Dell’s laptops. But there are other options from the same brand. I don’t have to accept anti-consumer design in order to buy a Dell or Lenovo laptop. But further, both Dell and Lenovo machines run Windows — so I’m not a hostage to either company because I need a specific OS. I could easily jump ship to HP, Asus, Microsoft, Acer, MSI or any of the many other brands that build capable Windows machines.

Apple is unique. As it’s only company that (legally) manufacturers computers that run macOS, buyers are stuck with Apple if they need Apple’s OS. They don’t have the option to get macOS on another brand’s hardware if they don’t like what Apple churns out.

But I think Apple knows that and takes advantage of that fact.

It’s time to stop making excuses for anti-customer design.

Here’s what it boils down to for me. For far too long, many people have sung Apple’s praises and turned a blind eye to their missteps. And that’s problematic.

Yes, Apple has done lots of good over the years. The battery life of their notebooks is phenomenal, and even their cheapest laptops have color-accurate, bright screens. That’s a beautiful thing.

But it’s time to stop making excuses for Apple’s anti-repair stances, and it’s time to stop rationalizing away their “just buy a new one” mentality.

We, the customers, have the ability to vote with our wallets. And just like any other kind of voting, we should exercise that right to work toward a more open, more repairable future for everyone — no matter what computing platform he or she prefers.

Whatever the reasons are behind Apple’s decision to solder storage drives, the fact remains: It’s bad for the environment, and it’s bad for customers. And we shouldn’t accept practice in the interest of protecting both.

Look, I don’t hate Apple. I just want it to do better.

Lest some of you misunderstand me here, I feel like I need to say this. I don’t hate Apple. I do think they’ve done some good things over the years. I have (and love) an iPhone. My wife has an iPhone. I recommend people buy iPhones. I love my iPad Pro and my Apple Watch. I actually have a 14" MacBook Pro, and it’s a great laptop. (In fact, I boot from an external SSD to avoid using the internal drive. More on that later, maybe?)

But Apple. You can do better. Please stop soldering storage drives on your Mac laptops.

Everything else — the ecosystem, the battery life, the screens… all of that is great.

My hope with content like this is simple: I want Apple to produce devices that work great, last a long time, and are serviceable. While they’ve made some strides toward that last goal in recent months, it has — objectively — been one of Apple’s weak points.

I dream of a future Apple that is more open and friendly to repair — and thus to professionals in all fields. But as an IT professional, I just can’t trust a machine with a soldered storage drive.