M5 MacBook Pro Teardown: iFixit Gives 4/10 Score, Calls Battery Replacement 'Absurdly Complex' [Video]

iFixit has published its teardown of the new 14-inch MacBook Pro with M5 chip, revealing that while Apple is making gestures toward repair, the device's core design makes the most common repair—a battery replacement—an unnecessarily difficult and convoluted process. The findings led iFixit to give the new MacBook a provisional repairability score of just 4 out of 10.

The teardown confirms that Apple's official battery replacement procedure is absurdly complex. Because Apple only sells the battery pre-installed in a new top case assembly, a simple battery swap requires a complete teardown of the entire machine. Every single component—from the logic board to the ports and speakers—must be removed from the old chassis and transplanted into the new one, a process iFixit highlights as wasteful and arduous.


While the fundamental process remains flawed, iFixit did note a couple of minor improvements. The availability of official repair manuals from day one is a positive step, and a small design tweak now allows access to the central battery pull tabs without having to remove the trackpad first—a first for this MacBook Pro design. The 6-cell battery is rated for 72.6 watt-hours and is still secured with tedious stretch-release adhesive pull tabs, which can be a frustration to remove.

Other common repairs remain just as challenging. The teardown shows that frequently failing components like the fans and all of the modular ports are still buried beneath the logic board. This design choice means that replacing a single faulty port requires a nearly complete disassembly of the laptop, adding significant time, complexity, and risk to what should be a straightforward repair.

iFixit says that while Apple is leaning into parts and manuals, its hardware design still has a long way to go.

You can purchase the new M5 MacBook Pro here.


Take a look at the full teardown video below...