MacBook Air's Battery is Actually Easy to Replace

pizzach noted that the MacBook Air battery is actually fairly easy to replace. "All it requires is a philips screwdriver. Unlike some of Apple's other products, the battery is not so soldered in which should make a lot of people at least a little bit happier." I think I'll have to wait for something with a bigger screen and a faster clock speed.

Comments

Something bigger/faster

[erebus24]

I think I'll have to wait for something with a bigger screen and a faster clock speed. You means something like a MacBook Pro? I think one of us is missing the point of the MacBook Air.

Re:Swapping batteries, not replacing is the point

[kaan]

$29 buys you a tiny usb dongle with an RJ-45 port for wired lan. It's listed on the accessories section of store.apple.com.

As for the battery needs, I'm a business user and while I do agree that extended batteries are nice, I don't think it's the norm that you need 8 hours of battery life without a single power outlet nearby. Where are you using your computer for that long that you're not near an outlet once in a while? I typically need stretches of several hours, possibly as much as 4 hours from time to time, but never much more than that. The people I know who have the extended battery packs seem to use them just because they can, not because they need to.

I think the integrated battery decision is possibly market-limiting to the users who really do (for some reason) need 8 hours of battery life, but not nearly as limiting as you suggest. Overall, a simpler design has positive aspects in that Apple can spend time making features that most of their target users will benefit from, they can also get the product to market faster and lower R&D costs building it.

This reminds me a lot when the iPod first came out. Most people just couldn't say enough bad things about it. Too simple. No features. No replaceable battery. Too expensive. But the core comptency of the iPod hasn't really changed that much over the years: it lets you organize your music in a really simple way, and find any song fast. When it comes down to it, if you can't find your music easily, you're far less likely to use the device. And if you don't use it, every other "neato" feature is irrelevant because it'll be sitting in your desk drawer.

Re:Ask Slashdot: Battery life with the SSD option?

[Sancho]

You can actually configure an Air with either SSD, faster processor, or both. The SSD drive costs $999, and the faster processor costs $300.