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MacBook's "Unremovable" Battery Easy To Remove
Slatterz writes "Going just a bit further than your average unboxing, someone has stripped a new 17-inch Apple Macbook Pro to its component parts revealing one or two little surprises. The biggest of which is that the built-in battery is easily accessible, requiring the tinkerer to remove just the 13 Philips screws which hold the bottom cover in place, and the three tri-wing security screws which hold the battery in place."
If your Macbook Pro battery starts swelling to the point where it's likely to damage the laptop, as mine did, you'll be able to pop out the battery as soon as you notice it, and get an advance replacement from Apple overnighted to you the way I did, and run your laptop off AC in the meantime.
Right?
I thought Apple learned the lesson with the IPOD with how it pisses people off.
Guess not.
---- Booth was a patriot ----
In a Macbook Pro? Once, so far, but it wasn't because it wasn't holding a charge... it was because it was visibly swelling in it case. If I'd had to wait until it had distorted the laptop case before I noticed it was swelling and replaced it... well, replacing that battery would have taken a week or more while I waited for Apple to repair or replace my laptop and ship it back to me.
I have a screw driver kit (one handle with 30 something bits) I picked up over 10 years ago with these three way phillips bits. These have been around for a while just not many people have been using them. I picked this kit up for $20.
I think you're on to something there.
I've never owned a laptop without buying spare batteries for it sooner or later. With a battery in the docking bay, you can swap the main battery without shutting down. (Too bad they don't build in a capacitor to run the laptop for 30 seconds while swapping batteries).
Plus, the batteries go bad after a couple years.
I would understand if there something to gain by not having a removable battery. But really, does it save any space at all? Usually the bottom of the battery is the exterior of the laptop, so it doesn't have to fit "inside."
I guess you can't make any compromises if you're dead set on being the very thinnest or lightest. But count me in for something a little thicker with a lot more functionality.
but honestly what are we losing? While I won't purchase one on the simple grounds is that it is hilariously overpriced. I mean, people on Apple forums deride gamers who buy silly cases or pay extra for AW yet turn around and go all ga-ga over the new macbook cases. Hell they feel honored to pay $50 extra for a matte screen surface!
No, in this case there is no net loss for consumer or Apple. Face it, the majority of those who might take one on a long flight are going to be in the class that allows them to plug it in. Even then most who do fly usually are well prepared enough to not need to do extensive work in flight. Short hops on trains don't even raise an eye with a battery that can last as long as this one is. Let us also toss out the fact most travelers don't use 17" laptops in the first place, the size is annoying.
So, comparing it to the iPod issue. The iPod is something you could likely keep and not need or want to replace after killing the battery. Early ones had streaks of bad batteries but for the most part that isn't an issue now.
Last point, how could they or anyone have learned? Who else has made a laptop that the battery isn't easily removable? Let alone one as capable? Time will tell if the decision is bad. From what I read on the forums the biggest issues that come up is the obnoxious cost, not the battery.
Can you imagine the hell that would be raised if it didn't support fire wire? Now that would get the masses in an uproar :P
* Winners compare their achievements to their goals, losers compare theirs to that of others.
But really, does it save any space at all?
Almost certainly. It saves both size and weight, since you no longer need to reinforce the walls of the laptop to handle the battery connection, and you of course eliminate any casing around the battery itself. You also get rid of the fairly heavy-duty external connector, and at least the iBook batteries were fairly complicated - they had a button and lights to indicate charge.
Now, is it a worthwhile tradeoff? I suppose the market will decide. Personally, I've never removed the battery from any of my laptops (except to replace) so it doesn't affect me. But if I routinely swapped out batteries, I'd have to consider another laptop. Or, more likely, I wouldn't waste money on a new OEM battery and instead I'd get one of those universal external batteries - if only because then you could charge both at the same time.
W..w..W - Willy Waterloo washes Warren Wiggins who is washing Waldo Woo.
It's a good thing that removing those 16 screws to change the battery doesn't invalidate your Apple Care agreement or any of the other agreements that Apple believes you enter into when you buy a MacBook.
Right?
You are welcome on my lawn.
For me, I think the whole swapping battery thing is overblown. I'm typing this on a macbook pro that, when I bought it 3 years ago, I decided to do the pro-active thing and bought two batteries for the purpose of swapping them out. In that three years, I can count on one hand the number of occasions where I've been stuck without access to power and had to use my laptop for an extended period of time. It's just about as much trouble to find a power outlet and plug my laptop in as it is to shut it down and swap batteries. So, for my lifestyle and uses, I'm not crying any tears over the lack of a swappable battery, maybe you might, but this is not your laptop then. The fact that the battery is relatively easy to replace should it fail or if reaches its end of life is a relief (and ifixit rocks btw, I have repaied two old laptops using their instructions, I love it!).
Gentlemen! You can't fight in here, this is the war room!
As much as that sucked, it at least made it understandable when Apple claimed that only service centres should replace the drives (not that I ever understood why they designed it that way in the first place...).
What I find odd is that this battery is still classed as non-user-serviceable, even though the (user serviceable) hard drive and RAM require the exact same procedure. Apple are quite happy for you to take off the back casing, pop out the memory and remove a further couple of screws to pull the hard drive, but if you dare touch the three screws to remove the battery while you're at it you lose your warranty.
The irreplaceableness of their batteries is an anti consumer decision.
To try to paint this as a wise design decision is frankly ridiculous.
IANAL but write like a drunk one.
>I always recommend extended warranties (such as AppleCare)
Wait. So they are already paying a premium (2800+ dollars) for Apple quality. Now "Apple Quality" turns out to be a myth so they now have to spend even more for an extended warranty? Wow.
Thats like buying a new car and being told "Well, you need the rust undercoating for this. It'll fall apart in a week!" Its a borderline scam.