COMPUTERS

Leave it to the guys at iFixit to get a new MacBook Air and, instead of showing off at the local coffee shop (like us), they take the thing apart. The company specializes in Mac and iPod parts and repairs, but it is perhaps best known for taking every new Apple product and dissecting it. They then post step-by-step photos and a detailed analysis of the parts inside.

From iFixit's photos, we see that the battery is the biggest internal component by far. It is held in place by nine screws, in case you were thinking about replacing it yourself. Like the iPod, the 80GB hard drive is protected by both a rubber bumper and a layer of foam (similar to what we found when replacing an iPod hard drive a couple of years ago). The custom Intel CPU is protected by an unusual thin aluminum heat sink--necessitated by the laptop's slim design.

You can check out the dozens of detailed photos, and a piece by piece count of the 88 screws that hold it together, over at iFixit's MacBook Air autopsy. After spending 20 minutes with the MacBook Air at Macworld Expo Tuesday, I've got some first impressions that will have to last me until we're able to walk away with a shipping unit and put it through the usual testing rigamarole in the Macworld Lab.

As you'd expect with a computer so devoted to aesthetics, getting to the "user-installable" parts is going to be a bit more challenging than usual.

The bottom case is held down by 10 screws.

Removing the lower case proved a surprisingly pleasant task. Thanks Apple.

Look! We found the battery.

Unfortunately, it's no longer considered a user-installable part by Apple and is attached to the case by 9 screws. But things aren't so bad. Once the screws are out, you can just unplug it.

Replacing the battery is straightforward, but not something you'll be doing when your battery dies mid-flight.

The hard drive sits beneath the USB, micro-DVI, and audio ribbon cables.

Borrowing from the iPod design, the hard drive sports both foam padding and rubber bumpers. For those of us too stingy to spring for the shock-resistant SSD, hopefully this will give the hard drive a little extra protection.

The display assembly is attached to the case with 19 small screws.

Apple made no compromises on the Air's display. Amazingly, the entire display assembly weighs only 465g (slightly more than a pound), 34 percent less than the functionally-equivalent display assembly on the MacBook.

We're left with 88 screws and lots of parts. It's hard to believe everything here weighs in at only three pounds.

If you have any additional information about components in the MacBook Air, or interesting information about its construction, please drop us a note. We're happy to post additional information.