This CPU is quite well thermally-pasted into its heat sink; prying it out was surprisingly tough. Someone wants this processor to keep cool.

Finally, we're face-to-face with the star of this teardown: an Intel SR32W Core i5-7400 Kaby Lake CPU, 6M Cache, up to 3.50 GHz.

Looking at the rest of the Kaby Lake lineup, we're actually not seeing any desktop-class CPUs in a BGA package. Maybe Apple reverted to a socketed CPU because that's all Intel is offering at the moment.

But with Apple's clout and famous negotiating skills, you'd think they could get a soldered CPU if they wanted. Plus there's that mysterious modular RAM...

Have you been hearing our pleas, Apple?