2021 MacBook Pro teardown reveals juicy new battery details

Apple’s new 2021 MacBook Pro laptops have been cracked open and given the teardown treatment, revealing juicy new details about the hardware’s battery as well as its overall repairability. But is it good or bad news for Apple laptops fans?

• Our complete guide to the new 2021 MacBook Pro

On the positive side, seasoned gadget maimers iFixit discovered that Apple has equipped the batteries of its latest MacBook Pro units with pull tabs to aid with their removal. This means replacing faulty or burnt out batteries later in the product’s life should be easier than in previous years. 

Their tests confirmed that official battery replacement units were fully functional and didn’t result in the user being given a warning message about the swap compromising their device – all of which could (in an absolute best case scenario) make MacBook Pro battery repairs cheaper.

New MacBook Pro battery spec unearthed

Of course, that isn’t to say that replacing a 2021 MacBook Pro battery is something anyone can do at home. It’s definitely a bit more complicated than swapping your SIM card and still requires a considerable amount of know-how, but for tech hobbyists this is big news.

The under-the-hood investigation also revealed the exact spec of the 2021 MacBook Pro batteries. The new 16-inch MacBook Pro features a 8693mAh battery (99.6 Wh, 11.45 V), while the 14-inch model packs a 6068mAh cell (69.6 Wh, 11.47 V) – the latter being a major step up from last year’s M1 MacBook Pro’s 5103 mAh offering.

However, the teardown ultimately only scores the device as a 4/10 for repairability, with things like glued-in speakers, fiddly screws, and permanently fixed storage working to the 2021 MacBook Pro’s detriment.

Watch the full teardown video via YouTube below.

James Laird Contributing Editor

About

James has been covering gadgets and other cool tech stuff for more than 10 years, most recently as the Sports and TV Streaming Editor at TechRadar. Before that, he was News and Features Editor at Trusted Reviews, where he developed a love of big phones and even bigger headlines. In his spare time, he can usually be found behaving badly on a golf course or watching the New England Patriots.