Egg Freckles
By Thomas Brand

22nd Oct 2014 Soldered to the Board

Apple’s trend of replacing user-upgradable parts with components soldered to the logic board has begun. The following is a list of the first Macs in a given form factor to have their upgradable memory and storage replaced with components that are not upgradable short of replacing the logic board.

Macs with Non-Upgradable Memory

The first Macs in a given form factor with non-upgradable memory. Every Mac since has had its RAM soldered to the logic board with the exception of the Mac Mini (2018 Macmini8,1).

  • MacBook (Retina, 12-inch, Early 2015, MacBook8,1)
  • MacBook Air (Mid 2008, MacBookAir1.1)
  • MacBook Pro (Retina, 15-inch, Mid 2012, MacBookPro10.1)
  • MacBook Pro (Retina, 13-inch, Late 2012, MacBookPro10.2)
  • iMac (21.5-inch, Mid 2014, iMac14.4)1
  • Mac mini (Late 2014, Macmini7.1)

Macs with Upgradable Memory

  • Mac Mini (2018 Macmini8,1)
  • iMac (21.5-inch All Models)
  • iMac (27-inch All Models)
  • iMac Pro
  • Mac Pro (All Models)

Macs with Non-Upgradable Storage

The first Macs in a given form factor with non-upgradable storage. Every Mac since has had its SSD soldered to the logic board.

  • Mac Mini (2018 Macmini8,1)
  • MacBook (Retina, 12-inch, Early 2015, MacBook8,1)
  • MacBook Air (Retina, 13-inch, 2018, MacBookAir8,1)
  • MacBook Pro (13-inch, Late 2016, Four Thunderbolt 3 Ports, MacBookPro13,2)2
  • MacBook Pro (15-inch, Late 2016, MacBookPro13,3)

Macs with Upgradable Storage

  • iMac (21.5-inch All models)3
  • iMac (27-inch All models)4
  • Mac Pro (All models)

To anyone who thinks Apple’s move to integrated components is a fad soon to be reversed, think again. The days of the Macintosh II, and “user-upgradable everything” are over. If you see your computer as more than a sealed appliance, you are no longer Apple’s customer.

  1. The iMac (21.5-inch Mid 2014, iMac14,4), and iMac (21.5-inch Late 2015, iMac 16,1 or iMac16,2) feature LPDDR3 soldered to the logic board.
  2. The MacBook Pro (13-inch, 2016, Two Thunderbolt 3 Ports, MacBookPro13,1) and MacBook Pro (13-inch, Late 2017, Two Thunderbolt 3 Ports, MacBookPro14,1) have a PCIe-based SSD on a proprietary daughter-card.
  3. Conventional 2.5 inch hard drives and 2.5 inch SSDs can only be used to replace a factory installed 2.5-inch hard drive, otherwise mounting cables and brackets are absent.
  4. Conventional 3.5 inch hard drives and 2.5 inch SSDs can only be used to replace a factory installed 3.5-inch hard drive, otherwise mounting cables and brackets are absent.