Apple’s MacBook Neo marks a rare step towards repairability in MacBooks

The MacBook Neo has received the highest repairability score for a MacBook in 14 years, signalling a modest shift in Apple’s design approach and offering potential benefits for long-term ownership costs.

Apple’s new MacBook Neo has emerged as a rare bright spot for repairability in a product line that has long drawn criticism for being difficult to service. iFixit’s teardown gave the laptop a 6/10 repairability score, the highest it has awarded to a MacBook in 14 years, suggesting Apple has made at least a modest shift towards a more serviceable design.

The improvement matters because Apple has consistently lagged rivals on repair access. The US PIRG Education Fund’s “Failing the Fix” report gave Apple poor grades for both phones and laptops, and the organisation has placed heavy emphasis on how easy a device is to open, dismantle and restore. Apple was ranked last for repairability among major brands in the report for two consecutive years, underlining how unusual the MacBook Neo’s result is.

According to iFixit’s teardown, the MacBook Neo’s battery is held in with screws rather than being glued in place, which should make replacement simpler and less risky. The internal layout is also more orderly than on many recent Apple notebooks, and the display and USB-C ports are described as relatively accessible. Even so, the machine remains far from fully user-upgradable: RAM and storage are soldered to the board, and pentalobe fasteners still make entry harder than it needs to be.

That leaves the MacBook Neo in an awkward but notable position. It is still an Apple laptop with clear repair limitations, yet it is also the company’s most repair-friendly notebook in years, according to iFixit and other teardowns. For buyers weighing long-term ownership costs, that may be as significant as its lower entry price, particularly if the improved battery design translates into cheaper repairs over time.