iFixit's Sam Goldheart writes that the new MacBook Pro guides "threw us for a loop." The issue: the documentation "makes MacBook Pros seem less repairable" than they have been in the past.

The repair manual for replacing the 14-inch MacBook Pro's battery, for example, is a whole 162 pages long. (One of the first steps, of course, is "Read the entire manual first.")

The reason the guide is so long, it turns out, is that replacing these batteries isn't just a matter of popping the battery out. A user needs to replace the entire top case and keyboard in order to replace the battery. It is unusual for a laptop battery replacement to require a full-computer teardown but it is pretty clear that Apple does not want users doing their own repairs.

Goldheart points out that the "top case with battery" part that you'll need to purchase for the 2020 and 2021 MacBook Pro models is about $400.

"Apple is presenting DIY repairers with a excruciating gauntlet of hurdles: read 162 pages of documentation without getting intimidated and decide to do the repair anyway, pay an exorbitant amount of money for an overkill replacement part, decide whether you want to drop another 50 bucks on the tools they recommend, and do the repair yourself within 14 days, including completing the System Configuration to pair your part with your device," Goldheart writes.