iFixit has torn down Apple’s first touchscreen MacBook Pro with ProLED XDR and given the 14-inch model a 5 out of 10 for repairability.
That score is one point above last year’s M5 MacBook Pro and one below the cheaper MacBook Neo. In Canada, the redesigned ProLED model starts at $3,999 CAD.
The glowing logo is back, even though this laptop no longer has a display backlight. iFixit says:
“This is the first MacBook without a backlight. Which makes it especially weird that Apple has finally brought back the glowing Apple on the back of the screen. We killed a panel to figure out how it works: there are four LEDs, which pass light through reflection and diffusion layers, and then through a one-way mirror Apple logo. That’s how it’s shiny when closed but glowing when open.”
The lid still comes off as one assembly. Cable routing is a bit cleaner than last year, and there is no separate lid-angle sensor to deal with. Getting the panel out on its own cracked the OLED, so a dead logo light is not a simple fix.
That lines up with the return of the glowing Apple on this redesign, and with the repair documents Apple published last week. iFixit notes Apple has not yet posted parts for this laptop on its self-service repair site.
Logic board swaps went better than they did on the M5 model. Touch, True Tone, full brightness control, and Touch ID all kept working, and the team could even enrol a fingerprint on a donor board. Touch needed no separate calibration. Putting the original board back left everything working again.
The 14-inch ProLED machine weighs 1.38 kg, about 170 grams lighter than the base 14-inch M6 MacBook Pro. Apple added a touchscreen and the logo light while shaving about 100 grams off the lid and another 92 grams from the lower chassis.
The familiar problems remain. USB-C ports and fans are still trapped under the logic board, so a worn port or a rattling fan means pulling the board. Storage, memory, HDMI, and the SDXC reader are still soldered, and the keyboard is built into the top case. Starting in 2027, iFixit‘s laptop scorecard will deduct more for soldered memory, which would drop this machine to a 4.
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