iFixit Finds the M5 MacBook Pro Slightly Easier to Repair—but Still a Pain

Apple’s new M5 MacBook Pro doesn’t change much on the outside, but iFixit says there’s one small win for repairability: swapping the battery is finally a bit easier.

In its latest teardown, iFixit found that Apple no longer requires removing the trackpad or fiddling with hidden frame cutouts to reach the battery pull tabs. That’s progress—but only if you ignore Apple’s official repair instructions. Following Apple’s approved method still means replacing the entire top case, keyboard, and battery assembly for over $500 CAD, a process iFixit calls “tedious and expensive.”

Apple now publishes official repair guides on day one, which include steps like disconnecting the Battery Management System cable before working on the laptop—a welcome safety detail. But the rest of the design remains largely unchanged, with tightly packed components and glued-in speakers.

Ports and fans are technically modular, but most are buried under the logic board, making simple fixes far more complicated than they should be. Display replacements still require removing multiple layers of brackets and screws.

Overall, iFixit gave the M5 MacBook Pro a 4 out of 10 repairability score. It’s a baby step forward for Apple’s laptops, but the teardown shows the company still has a long way to go before MacBooks are truly repair-friendly. With Apple Silicon since the M1, RAM and SSD have been soldered onto logic boards, so it’s not possible to upgrade them yourself easily.

Check out their video teardown below: