New Apple 11.6-inch MacBook Air has released for almost one week, many friends have intention of buying this new 11.6-inch MacBook Air. In order to further understanding the new MacBook Air, we disassemble 11.6 inches Apple MacBook Air for you.

Here, we will show you the 11.6 inches Apple MacBook Air’s performances of dismantling complexity, scalability, electromagnetic shielding, insulativity, and radiating performance.

There is no doubt that an easily disassembled laptop is easy for users to clean dust and do some upgrade.

First of all, we removed the screws we can see on the bottom case, and then we can remove 11.6-inch MacBook Air bottom case. But Apple used 5-point Security Torx to attach the lower case. This kind of screw is rare and we are difficult to find such kind flathead screwdrivers to take out the funky screws.

Removed eight screws, the back case of 11.6-inch MacBook Air can be successfully taken off, and there are no buckles on new MB Air laptop, so it is much easier to disassemble new 11.6-inch MacBook Air.

After removing the back case, we can see the motherboard and heat sink. Generally speaking, our final purpose is dismantling or removing the motherboard and heatsink. We can remove these two components without disassembling laptop screen. So it reduces the difficulty of dismantling Apple 11.6-inch MacBook Air.

There are three screws holding the squirrel cage fan. When the Apple 11.6-inch MacBook Air fan is removed, to our surprise, we can clean the fan directly instead of removing the heat pipe first. It means that it is not difficult at all to clean dust on the fan.

At this time, if users just want to clean dust or do something like that, users have done the easy work; even the newer can do it easily by himself. The whole dismantling complexity is small, new Apple MacBook Air is exactly an easy dismantling laptop.

For an 11-inch ultra compact laptop, scalability is often its weakness, not even the new MacBook Air.

11.6-inch MacBook Air comes with two USB ports, one mini displayport, Magsafe, microphone jack and headphone jack; while there is no card reader, which is weird and bad design.

Toshiba’s SSD module, although it can be plug, but such a module hasn’t be sold on market, so users may not upgrade it until next year.

Removing the SSD module, we find the RAM, but RAM is soldered to the logic board and is not upgradable. So it is smarter for users to get the 4GB RAM when they are going to buy this 11.6 MacBook Air.

The 11.6 inches Apple MacBook Air CPU and GPU are also soldered to the motherboard, users are unable to upgrade. However, most CPU on other brands notebooks can be changed.

In addition, Display Port can be converted to VGA \ DVI \ HDMI and other ports by purchasing the additional adapter, but is still almost no expansion ability of the new Apple MacBook Air notebook.

As everyone known, the internal components such as CPU and GPU that high-frequency chips will radiate electromagnetic wave, which is harmful to us.

Below the 11.6 inches MacBook Air keyboard, there is a large scale electromagnetic shielding metal completely covering the compact motherboard, protecting users from electromagnetic radiation. This design is nice.

If you look carefully, you’ll see that Apple’s removed the microphone from the display assembly. The microphone now lives in the body of the computer, right next to the headphone jack, away form the CPU module that is with serious electromagnetic radiation. This design effectively reduces the damage of electromagnetic interference on sound quality.

Screen cables on many laptops are not being protected, but this MBA (Apple MacBook Air) did it. Because there are shielding rings on screen cables and a copper metal bezel protected the screen cable jack, and they are placed far away from the graphics card; all which effectively reducing the impact of electromagnetic waves on the picture quality.

Here you can see two shell fragments on the picture; these two shell fragments not only to secure the touchpad PCB in place but also grounded. The contact part of the two fragments makes that shell and touchpad form a loop, so that the touchpad is not affected by currents, and providing better multi-touch experience.

In addition, the black plastic sheeting protects the components on the motherboard from short circuit. This may prevent some electrifying results from occurring should the contact points wear through the plastic sheeting and touch the aluminum case of the Air.

On the back of the 11.6 inches Apple MacBook Air palmrest, there are two beams on each side; this design can withstand greater pressure.

Have you seen the four corners of CPU and GPU, they have adopted a number of BGA glue to fix them, increasing resistance of deformation capacity.

Thermal performance not only affects the user experience but lead to high failure rate. Therefore, as a high-end positioning product, 11.6 inches Apple MacBook Air thermal performance is definitely good.

11.6 inches Apple MacBook Air comes with large-diameter turbofan, all of the cooling and ventilation in the MacBook Air is provided by the single squirrel cage fan, but the fan has high utilization ratio of wind.

Two chips are directly contacted with copper heat-absorbing surface, which is very advanced design. Because the two chips are ensured to at an exactly height, and has high requirements on the workmanship of the logic board. This may be why the CPU was soldered to the logic board.

In addition, new MacBook Air comes with the Ultra-Low Voltage Intel Core2 Duo CPU, and the CPU is a cool chip, greatly reducing the cooling system pressure.

We found that the heat sink on the new MacBook Air is considerably smaller than all previous models. It weighs only 10 grams.

Therefore, the 11.6 inches Apple MacBook Air is not suitable for playing high intensity game such as some 3D games for a long period time.

All in all, the new 11.6 inches Apple MacBook Air is a high-end laptop with best design, workmanship and material. However, the scalability of this new MacBook Air is not so good.  11.6 inches Apple MacBook Air is not a gaming laptop too.

You can also read:

New Apple 11.6-inch MacBook Air Review

Apple MacBook Disassembly

New Apple MacBook Air Specs:

Shell:
Aluminum unibody in unison
Processor:
1.4GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor (11.6-inch), 1.86GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor (13.3-inch)
Memory:
2GB 1066MHz DDR3 SDRAM (up to 4GB)
Storage:
64GB flash \ 128GB flash memory
Optional Optical Drive:
Optional external drive, USB MacBook Air SuperDrive optical drive (sold separately)
Graphics:
NVIDIA GeForce 320M graphics card and 256MB DDR3 SDRAM
Video:
FaceTime camera; Mini DisplayPort (supports DVI, VGA, dual-link DVI and HDMI) (converter required, and sold separately)
Display:
11.6 inch LED-backlit display, 1336 x 768 pixel resolution \ 13.3 inch LED-backlit display 1440×900 pixel resolution
USB:
Two USB 2.0 ports (up to 480 Mbps)
Audio:
Stereo speakers, l microphone, headphone mini jack
Network:
Apple USB Ethernet adapter (sold separately)
Wireless:
2 built-in AirPort Extreme Wi-Fi (based on IEEE 802.11n) 4; built-in Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR (Enhanced Data Rate) module
Hardware accessories:
45W MagSafe Power Adapter, AC wall plug, power cable

11.6 inch Apple MacBook Air features11.6-inch LED screen with the resolution of 1366 × 768, with 1.4GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor, 2GB memory (up to 4GB), 64GB or 128GB hard drives with flash storage. There is no built-in optical drive.

11.6-inch Apple MacBook Air is equipped with NVIDIA GeForce 320M integrated graphics processor. And 11.6 inch Apple MacBook Air provides FaceTime camera, Mini DisplayPort, two USB ports. 11.6 inch MacBook Air supports for DVI, VGA, dual-link DVI and HDMI (need to use converter). 11.6-inch MacBook Air also comes with 802.11n wireless and Bluetooth 2.1 module. 11.6-inch MacBook Air is at the dimension of 0.3-1.7 cm × 29.95 cm× 19.2 cm, and weighing 1.06 kg.

13.3-inch Apple MacBook Air comes with a LED screen with the resolution of 1440 × 900. 13.3-inch Apple MacBook Air is equipped with 1.86GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor, 2GB memory (up to 4GB), and 128GB or 256GB hard drives with flash storage. No built-in optical drive is available either.

13.3-inch MacBook Air is equipped with NVIDIA GeForce 320M integrated graphics card. It also comes with FaceTime camera, Mini DisplayPort, two USB ports and SD card slot, supporting for DVI, VGA, dual-link DVI and HDMI (need to use converter). 13.3-inch MacBook Air is available with 802.11n wireless and Bluetooth 2.1 module. 13.3-inch MacBook Air is 0.3-1.7 cm × 32.5 cm × 22.7 cm,  and weighing 1.32 kg.

New Apple MacBook Air all-Flash Storage, Instant-on gratification.

The flash storage on the iPod, iPhone, or iPad can be used in the ultra compact notebook like MacBook Air. Flash allows you to access data quickly, and it makes your laptop remaining in standby mode to 30 days possible. Which means your MacBook Air snaps to in an instant, whether you open it tomorrow, next week, or next month.

FaceTime Camera.

The wafer-thin MacBook Air display is equipped with a FaceTime camera. It’s an ultra thin but with incredibly strong camera. It allows you to have FaceTime calls by the help of Wi-Fi with anyone as long as they have a Mac, an iPhone 4, or the new iPod touch. And the video quality is so good; low-light conditions will not affect the video quality any more.

The new MacBook Air comes with aluminum unibody design. The new MacBook Air comes with a new wedge design instead of sleek curved design.

Unibody in unison

MacBook Air display is still coming with the precision unibody enclosure. The display shell is just a single piece of aluminum, with all the structural elements machined directly into it. The unibody housing make the MacBook Air with fewer parts, it is simple, thin, and light while durable.

Keyboard

New Apple MacBook Air comes with built-in 78 (U.S.) keys or 79 (ISO) keys standard keyboard, including 12 function keys and 4 arrow keys (inverted “T”-shaped arrangement).

MacBook Air Stereo Speakers

MacBook Air comes with built-in stereo speakers that can not be seen by us. The sound comes out through the keyboard. Stereo Speakers audio quality is very good no matter when you listen to music, watch movies or play games.

Touchpad

New Apple MacBook Air comes with a solid-state scrolling touchpad for precise cursor control. The touchpad supports the inertial scrolling, pinch open and close, swipe, three-finger swipe, four-finger swipe.

The left side ports and connectors on 11.6-inch Apple MacBook Air and 13.3-inch Apple MacBook Air

The right side ports and connectors on 11.6-inch Apple MacBook Air and 13.3-inch Apple MacBook Air

11.6-inch MacBook Air battery life can be up to 5 hours, while 13.3-inch MacBook Air battery life is 7 hours and standby time is 30 days.

Four huge batteries

11.6 inches Apple MacBook Air with a 64GB or 128GB flash storage are priced at $ 999 and $ 1,199; and 13.3 inches Apple MacBook Air with 128GB or 256GB flash storage are priced at $ 1,299 and $ 1,599.

Apple’s entry-level notebook MacBook inherits the design of Apple’s usual style, is still targeted at high-end IT spending crowd. Compared with the previous generation product, the new MacBook in the design and hardware configuration on both upgraded to make it much higher in performance.

Aluminum floor

Disconnect the battery cable

Strong built-in battery power

Toshiba 250GB 5400rpm hard drive

Aluminum cooling plate

Woofer Speaker

Wireless LAN

Demolition Drive

Wireless Module

Wireless Antenna

Macbook Fan

Macbook Motherboard

CD-ROM Specification

Macbook Intel Core 2 Duo P7550 2.26GHz processor and NVIDIA GeForce 9400M integrated graphics chipset