The gang at iFixit have torn down the new 21.5-inch iMac from Apple. They say “it’s an exercise in disappointment for us.”
“We were quite worried when we saw that super-thin bezel during Apple’s keynote, and unfortunately we were correct: the glass and LCD are now glued to the iMac’s frame with incredibly strong adhesive,” says Miroslav Djuric, chief information architect, iFixit. “Gone are the lovely magnets that held the glass in place in iMacs of yesteryear.
He adds: “… the bad news doesn’t stop there. Once inside, folks can still replace the RAM, hard drive, and CPU, but they’ll have to remove the entire logic board before doing so — everything is located on the back of the board, nooked right into the iMac’s slim frame. Consequently, this year’s unit received a super-sad 3 out of 10 repairability score, down from a healthy 7 on last year’s unit. Hackers, tinkerers, and repairers be forewarned: get last year’s model if you’d like to alter your machine in any way.
You can find the complete teardown at http://www.ifixit.com/Teardown/iMac+Intel+21.5-Inch+EMC+2544+Teardown/11936/1 .
