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MacBook Air's Battery is Actually Easy to Replace

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the well-that's-not-so-bad-then dept.

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.

10 of 420 comments (clear)

  1. Keep waiting by adamwright · · Score: 5, Insightful

    If you want big screens and fast clocks, I'd conjecture you're not the market segment the Air is aimed at. Have you considered a Macbook Pro?

  2. I don't mean to troll but... by toppavak · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Isn't the whole point of the 'Apple experience' to never have to do something like open up your laptop's case with a screwdriver?

    1. Re:I don't mean to troll but... by v1 · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Like the iPods, the mechanics (structure) involved to make the battery as easy to remove as say, the macbook, would add a significant amount to the size of the unit. The battery latch on the macbook is roughly the size of a nickel. Would you like your ipod to be 1/8" thicker just to add a latch for the battery?

      For apple, a BIG selling point is it's the thinnest thing going for anywhere near those specs. Adding a latch is NOT worth losing that bragging right.

      Also you'd have to consider adding casing for the battery since its no longer considered always protected inside the shell of the computer, so that adds both size and weight. The iPod's internal battery has an "outer case" of foil, hardly suitable for consumer handling. And the connector needs to be something that can handle many hundreds of uses, not just a few. That connector again adds size and some weight. The external battery connectors that apple uses are actually pretty big, and I'd be willing to bet you can't find that much unused space in the Air.

      And considering the claimed battery life, it almost erases the need to carry a spare battery.

      My watch has a battery that I can't replace myself. I have to take it into the store for them to crack it open because it's a diver's watch and requires a special tool to unscrew the back cover. Does this bother me? no. I expect it. Your car needs the transmission serviced after so many miles, and that's not considered a user-maintenance thing either. There are many more examples. It's not like you throw it away when the battery goes out... Now THAT you would have room to complain about.

      --
      I work for the Department of Redundancy Department.
    2. Re:I don't mean to troll but... by toppavak · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Like the iPods, the mechanics (structure) involved to make the battery as easy to remove as say, the macbook, would add a significant amount to the size of the unit. The battery latch on the macbook is roughly the size of a nickel. Would you like your ipod to be 1/8" thicker just to add a latch for the battery? I completely understand what you're here, I was just trying to make the point that proposing this 'solution' to assuage peoples' concerns about not having a swappable battery is a little... disingenuous to the ideal of the Mac as easy to use. If someone doesn't want to buy a Mac cause they can't swap batteries, being able to swap batteries by opening up the case isn't going to change that.

      And considering the claimed battery life, it almost erases the need to carry a spare battery. For a lot of people, I can see this being the case, but equally not the case for many other people that want ultraportables. A 5 hour battery life on a 16 hour flight would be a bit... lacking. Not to mention people that travel to underdeveloped regions. Especially considering the 5 hour rating is probably the max not the minimum. I'd much rather have a slightly larger laptop (like a thinkpad X61) with the oversized battery giving 10 hours of juice and keep the original 5 hour battery in my bag for emergencies.
    3. Re:I don't mean to troll but... by Murphy+Murph · · Score: 5, Insightful

      These Sansa e200 things have these neat little beveled screws that add approximately .04 microns to the width of the device. I actually WOULDN'T want a latch on my MP3 player that disengaged the battery, thank you very much. But beveled screws...I'm so excited about where this new technology will take pioneers like Apple!


      The Sansa E200 series actually proves the grandparent's point.
      The Sansa E200 series contains the three most-requested features the iPod Nano lacks:
      FM radio.
      Expansion card slot.
      Easily swappable battery.

      What do we get?
      A device almost exactly twice as thick as the thickest Nano.
      --
      I dub thee... Sir Phobos, Knight of Mars, Beater of Ass.
    4. Re:I don't mean to troll but... by Yahweh+Doesn't+Exist · · Score: 5, Insightful

      >Even an external USB battery expander would defeat the purpose of an ultraportable- it'd be a little awkward to have a brick sticking out of the side of your sleek sexy ultra thin Air.

      in that case, surely having a swapable battery would also defeat the point as you'd be carrying another battery with you everywhere.

      I genuinely can't understand the mentality of all these people who claim to be constantly going on 10+ hour flights with no access power sockets and want an ultraportable laptop but also want to carry the weight of several spare batteries.

      post screenshots of your airline tickets or you're all a bunch of whining fucking liars.

      personally, I don't care about swapping batteries because I never want to carry a spare with me anyway. if a slimmer design means having to visit a store in person every 2 years or so to have it changed, then get over it or buy a different laptop.

  3. convenient mail-in replacement by backslashdot · · Score: 5, Funny

    They also mention you can have it replaced for $129 by mailing it in. Ahh, that must be why Steve Jobs showed us that it fits in a manila envelope. How convenient!

  4. They don't get it by Dasher42 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    There's a certain crowd that's criticizing the MacBook Air a lot for what it leaves off, and I don't think they get what you want with a subnotebook. I likewise wonder what they think of the EeePC.

    There's a diversity of needs in personal computing, and at one end you have the gamers who want highly upgradable components and to cram everything they can into a 600-watt beast with fans whining. Fine, okay, but my own preference is that I'd rather not share my living space with that. The next is the quiet low-profile desktop, and Apple's doing that kind of thing very recognizably with the iMac and Mac Mini. There are PC systems like the shuttle. Then there are desktop-replacement laptops with enough GPU for gamers and CPU for number crunching. And now there are subnotebooks. Cite whatever midpoints or extremities you want, these are the relevant ones.

    Most web/email/office use is simply best done on something like an iMac if you're stationary, or a laptop. Those of us who value quiet and energy efficiency will more and more choose this route. The real junkies among us have not one, but several machines. After a while, it gets annoying if they're all identical configurations. You don't want to pack a DVD and a monster peripheral set into your subnotebook - that's for basic needs on the go! Leave your movie collection at home, say, on a nice Kurobox or some other NAS. You don't need multiple DVD burners. You can get disk images off your NAS. Back it up with a Time Capsule or roll your own.

    I like my network of specialized machines. It makes choosing an operating system and hardware configuration a matter of the right choice for the job. I think most of the criticism of the MacBook Air comes from the 600W desktop beast crowd that has everything in one or two boxes. Well... they'll come around.

  5. Re:Something bigger/faster by Tony+Hoyle · · Score: 5, Interesting

    What *is* the point.

    What market segment up until now were saying to themselves "If only this laptop was exactly the same size but *thinner*"

    My boss travels a lot on airlines and was waiting for an ultraportable macbook. He wanted one *smaller* - that could fit nicely in the limited space on airline seating in the way a normal laptop won't. This doesn't either.. so it's a missed opportunity.

    The other thing he asked for - solid state disks (hard disks don't last long if you fly a lot) - was answered, but he won't be getting the Air.

  6. Re:Nibbled to death by ducks... by linuxwolf · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Maybe you should have tried reading the "What's in the box" section:

    • Micro-DVI to DVI adapter
    • Micro-DVI to VGA adapter

    That lets you connect an Off-the-shelf MacBook Air to anything you can connect an Off-the-shelf MacBook Pro.

    I'm not saying you won't get nibbled to death in other places (*cough* iTunes rentals *cough*), but this isn't one of them.