[onlyone-jc]

Hi.

Can anybody explain how the serial number system works with the MacBook Pros? How can you tell what date the MacBook Pro was made, what revision it is, etc?

Thanks,
onlyone-jc.

[mduell]

Klantenservice: Serienummers will tell you what week your MacBook Pro was made in.

There are only 2 MBP revisions and they can be discriminated by processor: Core Duo vs Core 2 Duo.

[Simon]

Originally Posted by onlyone-jc 

How can you tell what date the MacBook Pro was made, what revision it is, etc?

The serial number is very simple to decipher. The first to digits are the factory code. Then you have one digit for the year and two digits for the week, so for example 719 if it were assembled today. And finally the remaining digits are use to specify your Mac model and the sequential manufacturing number of that production week.

The revision is a bit more difficult because it depends on what you call a revision. Basically you can distinguish a first an second MBP generation (the former has a CD CPU while the latter has the C2D). Some would call the first rev A, others argue that the first generation isn't really a revision and therefore rev A is the second generation - but that's just a question of definition. Apple never refers to rev A or rev B. They normally prefer ridiculously long names like 12" iBook dual USB which can lead to much confusion since often later generations have the same features Apple uses in its nomenclature for earlier generations.

With the Intel switch things have become even a bit more complicated since Apple has updated their offers within a product generation by increasing the clock while leaving everything else the same. For example the high end 15" MBP was introduced with 1.83 GHz (1.67 GHz on the lower end), it never sold at that clock rate though. Instead Apple launched it with 2.0 GHz (1.83 GHz on the lower end) and kept selling it until May 2006 when they increased the clock to 2.16 GHz (2.0 GHz on the lower end). Most people consider this the same generation or 'revision' of the MBP because there was no real product relaunch and other than a clock increase everything stayed the same. However, you can easily distinguish these 'sub-generations' by looking at their specs.

Finally, some people also talk about logic board revisions. During the manufacturing process Apple an their manufacturers sometimes fine tune the assembly process or even swap components. Although Apple never publishes these changes openly and never uses the revision scheme publicly, rumor sites often mention that the LB got a revision starting week xy. If you want to believe those rumors you can compare your serial number's year/weak information with the rumor site's claims of when a specific change was made in the manufacturing process. Be aware though that since these LB revisions are never publicly confirmed by Apple there is usually quite lot of disagreement between the various rumor sites on what and when things supposedly changed.

[onlyone-jc]

mduell: I was after the manual approach, since I don't really like putting serial numbers in to websites that I don't know the origin of. But, thanks!

Simon: That was nicely detailed! Thank you!

Thanks again,
onlyone-jc.

[badnewsblair]

Simon: Holy crap! What a really intriguing, informational post! Those are pretty rare on the Internet these days.

[Simon]

Glad you liked it.