Upgrading A MacBook Neo Using A 1 TB IPhone NAND Flash

April 9, 2026 by Maya Posch 9 Comments

The nekkid Flash footprint with unused pads perimeter. (Credit: dosdude1, YouTube)

For some reason the newly introduced MacBook Neo appears to be the subject of a lot of modding, though a recent mod by [dosdude1] leans into the fact that this laptop has been assembled using what are effectively iPhone 16 parts inside a laptop case. This consequently means that there’s an overlap with certain iPhone 16 components, such as the NAND Flash. Incidentally storage on the Neo is limited to 512 GB when you purchase it from Apple, which is weird since the same SoC in the iPhone 16 Pro happily uses 1 TB.

Even if it was just a price point thing that Apple went for, there’s seemingly nothing standing between a Neo owner with a hot air gun and sheer determination. As long as you’re comfortable soldering a fine-pitched BGA NAND Flash package, natch.

Of course, there was always the possibility that Apple used a different NAND Flash package footprint, but the installed 256 GB model chip that comes installed matches the replacement 1 TB model K8A5 chip as hoped. This just left disassembly and preparing the PCB for a storage replacement. Removal of the BGA underfill and desoldering the old chip without taking out surrounding SMD parts is definitely the hardest part, but handled in the video with the equivalent of an IC spatula and a temporary removal of some capacitors.

Interestingly, the uncovered IC footprint shows a whole perimeter of unused pads that might target other NAND Flash packages. Regardless, the new chip installed fine, giving the Neo 1 TB of storage and a slightly faster read/write performance.

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An upside down laptop with its cover removed on a grey surface. The inside of the laptop is a series of black modules connected to the frame with glorious amounts of screws and not glue!

Apple’s Most Repairable Laptop Is Thanks To Right-to-Repair

March 28, 2026 by Navarre Bartz 22 Comments

The common narrative around device design is that you can have repairability or a low price, but that they are inversely proportional to each other. Apple’s new budget MacBook Neo seems to attempt a bit of both.

Brittle snap-fit enclosures or glue can make a device pop together quickly during manufacture, but are a headache when it comes time to repair or hack it. Our friends at iFixit tore down the Neo and found it to be the most repairable MacBook since the 2012 unibody model. A screwed in battery, and modules for many of the individual components including the USB ports and headphone jack make it fairly simple to replace individual components. Most of those components are even accessible as soon as you pop the bottom cover instead of requiring major surgery.

As someone who has done a keyboard replacement on a 2010 MacBook, the 41 screws holding the keyboard in brought back (bad) memories. While this is a great improvement over Apple’s notoriously painful repair processes, we’re still only looking at an overall 6/10 score from iFixit versus a 10/10 from Framework or Lenovo.

The real story here is that these improvements from Apple were spurred by Right-to-Repair developments, particularly in the EU, that were the result of pressure from hackers like you.

If you want to push a Neo even further, how about water cooling it? If you’d rather have user-upgradeable RAM and storage too in a Mac, you’ve got to go a bit older.

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