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)
- Mac Mini (2018 Macmini8,1)
- iMac (21.5-inch All Models)
- iMac (27-inch All Models)
- iMac Pro
- Mac Pro (All Models)
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)
- iMac (21.5-inch All models)3
- iMac (27-inch All models)4
- Mac Pro (All models)
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.