This seems to explain somewhat the "safari is the new IE" phenomenon. If using the battery has such drawbacks, one might well wish to avoid doing so, web standards be damned.
The Nightmare of Replacing a Battery on a Mac Laptop
51–60 of 246 posts
Re: The Nightmare of Replacing a Battery on a Mac Laptop
#52I have a 13 inch MacBook Pro and while I initially liked the portability compared to my old 15 inch laptop, I think this will be the last slim laptop and probably the last MacBook I get. The reason is precisely because the parts in it, like the battery or the RAM, are unserviceable.
I have had this laptop for a year and a half, I can't upgrade its RAM from 8 to 16 GB, the battery feels worn out, the Retina screen has stains on it and the command key is discolored from pressing it too much I guess. With my old ThinkPad these would have been non-issues.
Re: The Nightmare of Replacing a Battery on a Mac Laptop
#53new (1 month old) macbook retina, 12 inch, el capitan http://replycam.com/i/Pasted_Image_28_10_15_17_10_1BE12B12.p... fully charged battery -> 4h max ... (running mostly chrome and keynote) not really the "all day battery life" they promised ( http://www.apple.com/macbook/design/ )
That does seem rather short – most reviews of the 12" Macbook seemed to indicate that 8h was an achievable runtime.
I hear that Chrome sucks up battery like nothing else though; might be worth investigating whether Safari's improved power usage is worth the tradeoff in other aspects?
Re: The Nightmare of Replacing a Battery on a Mac Laptop
#54The technician that was servicing your machine made an error that can save the author some money. If you have proof of purchase for your applecare, and it was bought within the 1st year, there is an option for to add applecare to said unit. Dept on the situation, and how far the unit is out of warranty they would have to call an agreement admin, and have it added to the unit. Of course this could all be done in one appointment, Order the part, call the admin, when the part comes in repair the unit.
I blame the technician for not supporting the client, now of course the client was nuts for thinking that they could offer a turn around time for this machine in a day with no parts in stock.
There is also the testing phase to consider which adds several hours to the machines repair time, if not overnight.
Re: The Nightmare of Replacing a Battery on a Mac Laptop
#55Out of curiosity, am I alone in not wanting to use apple products because I find such practices as this to be unethical engineered extortion to extract more money from the consumer?
I find such things exploitive and the product's success giving a green light for other manufacturers to re-engineer their products based on less honorable principles.
For instance, on flip phones, batteries would eject if you dropped it in order to absorb impact. They were designed to fly out to minimize the damage to the device and screen. Very clever - solid engineering. However, what if if you want to sell a phone when the battery dies or make a fall break the phone so you can ... sell more phones! And now the industry no longer follows what was a very smart durability focused engineering practice.
Like the laptop in the OPs article. They could have decided to adhere it in a more clever way to make it removable instead of fusing it with glue. Screws, latches ... lots of technology was readily available.
I'm not interested in "debating" whether this is "true", clearly I'm the only one at this time, on this thread, that thinks this. I'm curious as to whether I'm just some minority of one here.
Re: The Nightmare of Replacing a Battery on a Mac Laptop
#56There's a trade off to having a laptop that seemingly defies the capabilities of the day - they have to glue parts and remove coverings. Apple has been shedding ports & user-serviceable parts in laptops for years to get them thinner and lighter. Almost every complaint in the article has a counterpoint. Bought AppleCare but didn't register it. Complains about the Genius Bar repair time - try finding somebody to even s…
Disclaimer: I currently own both Apple laptop (MBP13) and Lenovo laptop (T430s).
When my previous Thinkpad T400 needed servicing - a line of bad pixels developed on the display - the display was replaced by the next business day, for free (under warranty). The kicker is, that I didn't buy the NBD service and I didn't need to prove anything about the date of purchase or something - I forgot to bring my proof of purchase and the service center looked up everything they needed in their system.
I can't expect anything approaching level of service for the Apple laptop. In my country, we don't have Apple Store and Genius bar, and in the past it took the authorised repair center cca 3 weeks to do anything, including simple swapping faulty power supply. Not because they are lazy (they are great guys actually), but because they have to wait for spares.
Re: The Nightmare of Replacing a Battery on a Mac Laptop
#57On my macbook pro, the battery is a bit worn down and it hard-crashes when the Battery is at around 5%. You'd think that Apple would be able to write an OS that detects this new low for the battery and adjust the meter correctly and hibernate the computer, so you it doesn't cause you to accidentally loose work. But I guess AAPL can't afford those kind of development costs; or maybe improving the pixels on some transi…
Apple do provide details on how to calibrate a battery correctly; it should be part of your general maintainance, though I'll bet barely anybody bothers in practice. See https://support.apple.com/kb/PH14087
"If your portable Mac has a built-in battery, you don’t need to calibrate the battery."
Also, this 'calibration' is just charging and discharging. Which happens normally. Also, the mac doesn't go to sleep, it crashes, so I guess it doesn't get calibrated.
Maybe I'm holding it wrong. ;)
Re: The Nightmare of Replacing a Battery on a Mac Laptop
#58new (1 month old) macbook retina, 12 inch, el capitan http://replycam.com/i/Pasted_Image_28_10_15_17_10_1BE12B12.p... fully charged battery -> 4h max ... (running mostly chrome and keynote) not really the "all day battery life" they promised ( http://www.apple.com/macbook/design/ )
I don't know about the MB Retina, but I get more than the advertised 9 hours on my rMBP 15" running Word and Outlook.
Your problem is probably Chrome + screen brightness. Recommended monitor brightness in an office setting is 100-150 cd/m^2. The MB gets up to 375 cd/m^2 for outside use, but inside it should be at like a 35% setting. Also, Chrome guzzles juice like there is no tomorrow--use Safari.
Re: The Nightmare of Replacing a Battery on a Mac Laptop
#59Just as a side-note (IANAL), in the EU, retailers can't refuse to fix something just because it's past their warranty period. If you can establish that the product has broke under reasonable use then you can argue that the product wasn't fit for purpose when you bought it, and therefore it is still the retailer's responsibility to repair it, replace it or give you a partial refund. I did this with Apple when my logic…
Usually you have a warranty exception on batteries, though, because they naturally degrade with use.
I assume Apple is still liable, at least for Europe. I'd say Apple knows very well the requirements very well too and the stronger consumer protection factors into the decision of manufacturers to price their devices higher in Europe.
Re: The Nightmare of Replacing a Battery on a Mac Laptop
#60Isn't this sort of a cake-and-eat-it-too situation? If you want a slim, lightweight laptop that still performs at a high level, you can't expect the old pop out batteries with the little switch we grew up with on laptops. While $400 is expensive to replace a battery, it's obviously not as simple as just popping a new one in, which is the compromise one has to make if they want a Macbook Pro. If you want easily swappa…
Is this a trade-off that most buyers are aware of? I'm not sure it's as simple as "shaving off a couple of millimeters", but if that's the case I know I would personally trade those millimeters for better serviceability, especially the day I realize I need a new battery. I was thinking about switching to a Macbook Pro, but for me this is just another argument to go with something else. Can't deny that the hardware is…
I would personally trade those millimeters for better serviceability
Same here. I've been a dedicated Mac user since 2002, and have been contemplating upgrading my 2010 MBP. The decreasing serviceability gives me lengthy pause, though I'm not sure that I would be happier with something else (even if it were more serviceable).