I'm doing research into MacBooks and would like to pick the one which is easiest/cheapest to repair. Can someone point me to a list which has some metrics like "repair score" or reliability? I know lists like these exist for iPads and some of the latest ones receive horrible grades, like 0 for repair score. I read about keyboard issues and high costs of repair for the newest 2016-17 models as well.
Which pre USB-C MacBooks have the highest repair score?
Ideally I'm looking for information on how easy it is to replace faulty components, like memory or keyboard (apparently I need to replace the entire board on MacBook Air to change memory and entire upper body to replace keyboard, or send it to specialized repair shop)
I would like to have one with traditional USB ports, as I want to use it for traveling abroad, where new USB-C? devices are still very rare, and genuine Apple stores are few and far between.
Best Answer
iFixit.com has an entire blog about repairability scores:
Laptop Repairability Scores
It's sorted by score from highest (easiest) to lowest (most difficult) or by release date (most recent first). It includes all makes and models, not just Apple, so if you're looking for an Apple centric list, you'll need to extract the data manually.
IMO, this is an exercise in futility. Why?
MacBook Airs from 2012 have not only soldered in RAM, but the drives are proprietary making them expensive. These are the only ones that currently (as of this writing) have SSDs that technically can be upgraded.
MacBook Pros from 2013 on have soldered in RAM and proprietary SSDs as well
2015 MacBook Pros are the only ones with a removable SSD and without the problematic butterfly keyboard
After 2016, you're getting the butterfly keyboard, soldered in RAM and SSD and USB-C
So, if you want high repairability and no USB-C, you're looking at a 2012 model which makes it 6+ years old (soon to be obsolete). Every manufacturer is going USB-C/Thunderbolt 3 so it's much more economical to just bite the bullet and get a dongle.