154
Apple Accidentally Leaks 'MacBook Neo'
(www.macrumors.com)
This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.
That discussion is nothing more than a forum post, as much anecdotal as something posted to reddit. Whoever told him the top case had to be replaced is in error; the battery is glued to the top case, but with special adhesive that releases when pulled (like a strip of tape). iFixit calls this a "moderate" on it's scale of difficulty.
It is glued, but designed to be replaced.
Depends on the device, I suppose, but incorrect for the m2 version at least, where you have to use adhecive remover: https://www.ifixit.com/Guide/MacBook+Pro+13-Inch+2022+(M2)+Battery+Replacement/156551. I wouldn't go as far as to call this "difficult" as they did, but def. time-consuming.
Also, you can't source just the battery from apple.
That chassis hasn't been for sale for 4 years, so judge repairability on what they sell now. And regardless of sourcing it from Apple or not, you can easily source the battery.
Yap, newer models use those strips, my bad. Although, I disagree the inability to source stuff from the manufacturer isn't a big deal: batteries made of chinesium tend to fail really quickly, up to the point I started replacing just the cells myself with known good quality ones after a couple of batteries failing in like half a year. However, I suspect apple should sell batteries for said newer models, since they've made 'em replaceable.