M2 MacBook Air teardown casts doubt on cooling, and reveals a mysterious component

Date:
Wed, 20 Jul 2022 13:32:13 +0000

Description:
This is one of the more interesting laptop teardowns of recent times, for sure.

FULL STORY ======================================================================

Apples MacBook Air (M2, 2022) has been given the teardown treatment by iFixit , with some interesting revelations about the cooling solution for the notebook, and a mysterious addition in the component mix, too.

The finding included some things we already knew, courtesy of YouTuber Max Tech already having poked around in the innards of the laptop. Namely that
the new MacBook Air base model has its SSD configured as a single 256GB NAND flash chip, which makes it slower than the previous (M1) Airs pair of 128GB NAND chips, and thats a little disappointing (although expected, as this is the route Apple went with the entry-level model of the M2 MacBook Pro ).

Other highlights include the mystery addition we mentioned at the outset, which is the presence of an accelerometer in the MacBook Air (M2, 2022) to what end, we dont yet know and a thorough examination of the cooling system employed in the notebook.

As you may know, the MacBook Air is fanless, relying on passive cooling
rather than a fan and avoiding using up space to fit one of these, as well
as ensuring no noise during operation. But iFixit was surprised to see theres no heat spreader used, and rather, Apple seems to be relying on applying a whole load of thermal paste and graphite tape, and that the M2 chip itself is highly power-efficient and therefore easy to cool anyway.

Theres some good news in that the battery is relatively easy to remove, and therefore swap for a fresh power pack if needed, but the SSD is soldered so cannot be upgraded with a better model down the line (and the same is true of the M2 SoC, as youd expect). Analysis: Heatgate incoming? And what about that accelerometer?

The main point of interest here is the observations iFixit makes on cooling, and how Apple has potentially taken a few liberties in terms of ensuring the MacBook Airs seriously slim and svelte lines by cutting a few cooling
corners.

While we didnt find any issues with overheating in our review of the MacBook Air (M2, 2022) , there have been some owners reporting the laptop running hot in their experience, and the M2 chip throttling back as a result (cutting
down performance levels to ensure it doesnt get any warmer).

The latter is not an ideal situation, of course, and itll be interesting to see if something of a heatgate situation develops as more folks get their shiny new MacBook Airs. Especially if theyre using the portable in very hot environments, with the current heatwave situation in Europe, for example, which has already seen some companies sending out warnings about the thermal limits of their devices .

As for the mystery of the accelerometer and what its there for, these gizmos were inside old MacBooks to detect if the laptop had been dropped, and to
take precautions to try and save the hard drive from damage in the ensuing impact. Of course, Apples notebooks have SSDs these days, so thats not necessary anymore but maybe the company could still want to detect drops, perhaps to see if a faulty laptop has been dropped in the past, and any
damage is down to the owner.

Were not sure if thats a good enough reason to set aside internal space for
an accelerometer, mind when space is at such a premium with the MacBook Air in particular but its not outside the realms of possibility. Alternatively, maybe the accelerometer will have some kind of app-related function; only
time will tell, but presumably it must be there for a good reason.

Via MacRumors



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Link to news story: https://www.techradar.com/news/m2-macbook-air-teardown-casts-doubt-on-cooling- and-reveals-a-mysterious-component/


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