15-inch MacBook Pro Uses a Non-Removable SSD

Apple creates device it expects you to use and then replace, but never repair. We know this from the countless teardowns iFixit carries out on iDevices only to find lots of glue, soldered in place components, and a generally hostile environment for anyone venturing inside. And with the launch of the 15-inch MacBook Pro with Touch Bar late last month, Apple removed the last user-friendly component from the laptop: the SSD.

The 13-inch MacBook Pro without the Touch Bar retains the removable SSD seen in earlier models, but the 15-inch Touch Bar model (and we have to assume the 13-inch model ( at Amazon) , too) replaces it with storage chips soldered to the logic board.

The change was confirmed by MacRumors reader Jesse D. who was brave enough to unscrew the base of his new MacBook Pro to take a look. Sure enough, he found the logic board cutout where the removable SSD usually sits had gone. The soldered in place chips can be seen in the image above.

Storage is usually the first component that gets replaced in a laptop, either due to an issue or simply as part of an upgrade. But Apple removes that option completely from Touch Bar models of its laptop. If anything goes wrong with the SSD, the entire logic board will have to be replaced, which won't be cheap.

The situation is actually worse than that, though. By soldering the storage to the board, if anything else goes wrong on the logic board you also lose all your data. You can't simply remove the SSD and recover the data anymore.

Backing up your data on a regular basis is a task everyone should be doing anyway, but if a MacBook Pro with Touch Bar is your next purchase, it becomes absolutely essential.