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by bigyabai 329 days ago
Which would all be very useful if Apple actually did board-level repairs and not logic board swaps. But they don't, so it is all just for show.
3 comments

I dunno man, Apple's PCB designs are incredibly space efficient. Compare the sandwich PCB of a modern iPhone against the main board of something like a Samsung Galaxy. Apple is sweating out every cubic millimetre it can, while Samsung is perfectly fine with a load of empty green PCB all over the place.
Does discrete circuit density correlate with engineering quality somehow? Are we back around to the parable of Master Foo and the Hardware Designer in the year of our lord and savior 2025?
It correlates with how much stuff you can pack into a small device.
Apple definitely refurbs boards. They just don't do it in the back of an Apple Store. It's far more economical for them to do full logic board swaps (or other components) than spend the time and effort doing component level repairs in the back of a retail store.
I have seen some Apple ][ motherboards with jumper wire(s) hidden on the back side.