OWC Teardown of 2016 MacBook Pro: SSD is Removable in the 13-inch non-touchbar model

2016-10-29 • SEND FEEDBACK |
Related: 2016 MacBook Pro, laptop, MacBook, MacBook Pro, Other World Computing, SSD

See my Mac wish list at B&H Photo and see all 2016 MacBook pro models at B&H Photo.
See all 15" Apple MacBook Pro 2016 models or see all 13" Apple MacBook Pro 2016 models. MPG gets credit if you buy through those links.

Update 18 Nov 2016: the touchbar models have soldered-on SSDs.

OWC has a teardown blog post and video of the late 2016 Apple 13" MacBook Pro.

• Solid State Drive module is removable
• SSD – Using NVMe driver and an Apple designed controller. (See benchmarks below).
• SSD had very strong tape covering the interface port
• Memory soldered on — no upgrade. Uses DDR3 in 13" (no touch bar) vs DDR4 in the touch bar models.
• Bottom was more difficult to remove than previous generations, but it was not glued
• Speaker module needs to be removed to pull SSD back
• Laptop automatically turns on when you open it regardless of pressing power button
• CPU – Intel 6th gen, Skylake i5-6360U
• Keyboard – Keys seem to have a bit more throw then the MacBook.