MacBook Pro Retina display teardown

The repair company iFixit carefully took apart the new MacBook Pro's Retina display. The company called the high-resolution screen an "engineering marvel." Moreover, the design of the screen doesn’t include front glass that allows the screen to be thinner than its predecessor.

"Rather than sandwich an LCD panel between a back case and a piece of glass in front, Apple used the aluminum case itself as the frame for the LCD panel and used the LCD as the front glass," the solutions provider explained.

iFixit confessed that the Retina display itself is not suitable for repair by third-party companies such as itself.

"If anything in the display assembly breaks, you'll need to replace the whole thing," they said. "It will be more expensive than just replacing the LCD inside a regular MacBook Pro, but it will also make the choice (of whether to replace just LCD or entire display assembly) very easy."

The teardown also discovered that cables are routed through the Retina display and that FaceTime camera connects to the MacBook Pro with a Vimicro VC0358 USB camera interface integrated circuit. The screen is illuminated by 48 LED backlights.