Image: Apple
Yesterday, Apple revealed it would expand its Self Service Repair program to let you fix your own MacBooks, and today the program is here. You can now download full repair manuals for your 2021 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pros and the 2020 13-inch M1 MacBook Pro and M1 MacBook Air — and shop for parts you might need.
But what will Apple actually let you buy, and how much will you really have to pay? That’s not obvious until you enter your serial numbers and root around the company’s entire store — so we did it for you.
Many prices seem (relatively) generous! Others, not so much. You can’t just replace your own battery or keyboard on a MacBook Pro, for example! You have to buy the entire top lid that comes with that and other parts preattached, and it’ll cost you more than twice the $199 that Apple charges for a battery replacement. Apple didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
Image: Apple
The battery, speakers, microphone, and keyboard are fixed to the top case of 2021 MacBook Pros.
And while you can replace just the battery on your 2020 M1 MacBook Air, you’ll have to spend $39 — the same price as a full set of keycaps — to replace broken keys on your function row. That might be because Apple ships seven sets of Fn keycaps at a time:
Image: Apple
That’s a lot of function row keycaps.
The motherboard prices are particularly interesting. Not only will Apple not let you upgrade to a higher-end board but also the company is dramatically incentivizing you to return the original part. It expects you to lay out as much as $4,222 for a new logic board — ouch at having that on my credit card — but you’ll get the vast majority of it back upon return. You should wind up paying $588 for a 16-inch MacBook Pro board, $500 for a 14-inch or 13-inch MBP board, or $368 for an M1 Air board, no matter how loaded it is.
Lastly, here’s a list of the optional tools and some secondary parts you might need:
You can also opt for Apple’s $49 tool rental — if you’re willing to sign away its whole purchase price in the event you don’t return it within seven days. (This nearly got me in trouble when I used one to repair my iPhone, as my parts arrived days after the kit, and even though I sent it back in time, Apple initially reported it missing.)
You can find a list of everything that comes with the MacBook tool rental at the bottom of this webpage. Interestingly, only the 2020 MacBook kits come with big, heavy special tools like display and battery presses.