iFixit teardown confirms Apple's M1 MacBooks are basically the same as their predecessors

It was only a matter of time before iFixit got its hands on Apple's M1-powered MacBook Pro and MacBook Air for its official teardown sessions. And, aside from a new processor, cooler, and slightly different battery, the new laptops remain almost identical to their predecessors (which sounds awfully familiar to the iPhone 12 lineup).

Starting with the MacBook Air, its biggest change under the hood is that it's fanless. Apple replaced it with an aluminum heat spreader instead, which iFixit says requires less maintenance.

According to the report, there's a thick cold plate over the M1 processor which draws heat through conduction to the laptop's flatter and cooler side, allowing it to radiate away safely. Since there's no fan, it might take longer for the MacBook Air to cool off but by nixing heat pipes and a vapor chamber, the heat sink has "more mass to saturate with thermal energy."

SEE ALSO: MacBook Air (late 2020) review: The one with Apple Silicon inside

Having recently reviewed the M1-powered MacBook Air, I can confirm that it would only get slightlywarm even when I had tons of tabs open on my browser and apps running simultaneously. I can confidently confirm that its fanless design is my favorite thing about the new laptop.

iFixit also points out that without all those aforementioned parts, there's nothing to break. And, the only thing you'll really need is new thermal paste every now and then. As for the rest of the MacBook Air's parts, everything remains identical to its predecessor aside from a new battery model with slightly different specs (that lasts longer as well).

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The same thing applies to the MacBook Pro, which has even fewer internal changes compared to its predecessor than the Air does. But unlike the Air, the Pro still comes equipped with a fan and it's the exactsame one found on the Intel-powered MacBook Pro.

I have yet to review the new Pro, but it apparently remains super quiet even under heavy use. Thanks to the M1 chip, the fan might not even kick in as much so you won't have to worry about that awful sound.

The M1 chip comes complete with a 5-nanometer process (which allows for better performance and lower power consumption) that's also seen on the A14 Bionic chip in the iPhone 12 models. It also includes an 8-core CPU and the option to choose between a 7-core or 8-core GPU when purchasing either the MacBook Air or Pro.

It also features the same "integrated" memory chips as seen on the 2020 iPad Pro (both 11-inch and 12.9-inch models). With the both MacBooks, you can upgrade the base model from 8GB of memory to 16GB but that'll cost you an extra $200.

SEE ALSO: What Apple’s new in-house silicon chip means for you

iFixit notes that with these integrated chips each part of the M1 can "access the same memory pool without having to copy or cache the data in more than one place," and it also increases speed and efficiency. However, users are still locked into a specific amount of storage and memory, which means they'll probably have to upgrade their device sooner rather than later.

If you want to see a completelist of chips found in the MacBook Air and MacBook Pro, iFixit also made sure to note all the things that are included in both machines.

As for iFixit's final thoughts on this teardown? Well, they're apparently halfway between proud and disappointed. While the M1-powered chips are proof of Apple's hard work and a foreshadowing of even more complex machines in the future, these MacBooks are going to be very hard to repair outside of Apple's network.