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Image source: YouTube Director Feng
By repurposing a mobile chip and housing it inside an aluminum chassis, Apple is showing just how low the barrier to entry for the often-overlooked budget laptop market really is. The MacBook Neo is a great value machine, but obviously some details, such as limited RAM and storage, had to be cut to minimize costs. Thankfully, a modder from China is showing how to fix at least one of these issues.
Director Feng is a professional repairman and technician who has repaired a variety of Apple devices, including iPhones and previous MacBook models. His most recent work involves the MacBook Neo, specifically the base 256 GB model, which has barely enough storage space for modern use. Since Apple doesn’t let you upgrade the storage yourself, DirectorFeng will replace the NAND chip itself with a higher-capacity chip and then re-flashe MacOS so that it recognizes the new SSD.
It sounds simple, but it’s a job only a professional can do, and you can tell by watching the video. After unpacking, Director Feng began to disassemble the device; after a few screws and a few picks, the back cover came off. He laid out all the parts neatly and described what each one did, eventually getting to the logic board that housed the SSD.
Image source: YouTube Director Feng
A few unfinished connectors later and the board came out. He removed the shielding tape to reveal a dense collection of components, including an SSD. He began heating the NAND chip, slowly removing the surrounding BGA glue until it eventually fell away. Then, after cleaning the pads with some flux, he just placed the new 1 TB module in there and preheated the area again to hold it in place.
The most difficult part was done, Director Feng then connected the Neo to another MacBook via a USB cable to refresh macOS. After the test was complete, he shut down the laptop, reapplied BGA glue on the new chip, and then put the entire logic board into a reflow oven to allow the glue to solidify properly. Place the circuit board back into its original position in the case and reseat all connectors before final assembly.
Director Feng on YouTube
Director Feng on YouTube
Director Feng on YouTube
After a quick check of the device settings and seeing 994.61 GB under “Macintosh HD,” the job was done. This is the world’s first MacBook Neo with 1 TB of storage space. Considering the Neo’s target audience, this will be enough for most people, but the whole process has diminishing returns. For a device as cheap as the Neo, opting for expensive mods like this almost negates the point of a laptop in the first place.
We can only imagine how much the chip itself would cost during component shortages, and then the labor on top might make an external drive a smarter purchase. That’s before we start thinking about the possible data security issues that may arise from modifying an SSD. But we can’t deny the skill on display here, and if you can afford it, this is some impressive work. Especially when you consider that even transfer speeds will eventually fluctuate a bit.
In the Blackmagic Disk speed test, the stock 256 GB SSD was around 1,500 MB/s, while the new 1 TB SSD hit 1,600 MB/s. Faster storage can come into play when it comes to memory starvation situations. Having only 8 GB of RAM on the Neo forces macOS to switch to swap frequently, so a faster connection to the SSD could make paging file access faster, but that would require a larger speed difference.
