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The Nightmare of Replacing a Battery on a Mac Laptop

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Re: The Nightmare of Replacing a Battery on a Mac Laptop

#181

Post by tracker1 »

rhblake wrote: post #127
rayiner wrote: post #11

Out of warranty battery service on a Mac ranges from $130-200: https://support.apple.com/kb/index?page=servicefaq&geo=Unite... . I think that's a reasonable price considering Lenovo charges $140 for a 75-watt hour 68+ battery for the T450s: http://shop.lenovo.com/us/en/itemdetails/0C52862/460/D91DC49... . And for $130-200, they will replace your top-case (including keyboard and touchpad). I have had it done more than…

That battery is $75 on Newegg and Amazon.

Good luck replacing it yourself without breaking the keyboard, mainboard or other devices glued to the battery. I'm not saying you can't do it, but that it does happen.

Re: The Nightmare of Replacing a Battery on a Mac Laptop

#182

Post by kawera »

dejv wrote: post #116

Battery of my mid-2012 Mac Air died (12% capacity) after 550 cycles, they usually just swap the batteries for free, but I bought my computer while living abroad, so no luck. After some thoughts, I just bought replacement battery, two custom screwdrivers and changed the batter by myself (+ upgraded the hard drive) in about 15 minutes. Replacement battery cost around 150 USD here in EU and it is very easy to do.

I did the same with my 2010 MBA after it died at around 850 cycles. Easy to do in a few minutes and working flawlessly since.

Re: The Nightmare of Replacing a Battery on a Mac Laptop

#183

Post by maratd »

rayiner wrote: post #11

Out of warranty battery service on a Mac ranges from $130-200: https://support.apple.com/kb/index?page=servicefaq&geo=Unite... . I think that's a reasonable price considering Lenovo charges $140 for a 75-watt hour 68+ battery for the T450s: http://shop.lenovo.com/us/en/itemdetails/0C52862/460/D91DC49... . And for $130-200, they will replace your top-case (including keyboard and touchpad). I have had it done more than…

> I wonder if there wasn't something more wrong with his laptop caused by letting a worn-out battery sit in there too long.

I wonder why batteries aren't easily replaceable on both laptops and phones?

You know, it wasn't always so. I remember when you could literally slide the battery out of a laptop and slide a new one in.

And don't give me this thin bullshit.

I have a Samsung Series 9 and it is thinner than the Macbook Air. I just changed the battery myself. It took me 15 minutes. I unscrewed the back (standard philips screws) and slid the old one out and put the new one in. That's it. And I was still pissed, because, why the screws?

Oh did I mention I bought the new battery on eBay for $25? Has been working perfectly well for weeks now and when it doesn't, I'll buy a new one.

Honestly, this is nothing more than greed. Handicapping a product to increase service costs. That's just shameful.

Re: The Nightmare of Replacing a Battery on a Mac Laptop

#184

Post by robterrell »

MBCook wrote: post #136
franze wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

89% charged, 4h calculated time http://replycam.com/i/batterylifetime_1BE12F3F.png (but in reality, it will be shorter) yeah, chrome is in there. but switch to safari? my thoughts a) i'm a developer, i rather like new APIs, latest HTML 5 features b) my whole company infrastructure relies on google services (and they work best in chrome, no surprise there) c) my old macbook air (2013, maverick, killed one month ago by…

I'm not arguing you should switch to Safari (which I like) or arguing feature merits (I don't care much myself). But if you have a Mac you have Safari, so it's an easy test to run. And you will be AMAZED at the difference in battery life. It's pathetic.

Agreed. I stopped using Chrome at home. It was weird moving to Safari but I get much longer battery life now.

Re: The Nightmare of Replacing a Battery on a Mac Laptop

#185

Post by riquito »

catkin wrote: post #156
DavidAdams wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That would partially explain why an Apple laptop in Europe routinely costs $500+ more than in the US.

Except that they don't. The base 13 inch MBP costs $1299 in the US and £999 in the UK, which converts to $1531.52 at the time I wrote this comment, for a difference of ~$230. The mid-level costs $1499 in the US and £1199 in the UK, which converts to $1838, a difference of $339.

> The base 13 inch MBP costs $1299 in the US and £999 in the UK

Are they both `after taxes`?

Re: The Nightmare of Replacing a Battery on a Mac Laptop

#186

Post by [deleted] »

Caprinicus wrote: post #96
EC1 wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It took me one day to get up and running and hasn't messed up for me since (3 years on a MBPr that rarely leaves home). Have 3 monitors connected and a ton of other stuff. Never had to fiddle with getting anything working. Apple support has always served me well too.

I am on the same OS X install since like 2009 that I have gradually updated and transferred. Whereas my windows pc seems to need a new install every time there is a major hardware switch.

[deleted]

Re: The Nightmare of Replacing a Battery on a Mac Laptop

#187

Post by tracker1 »

dchuk wrote: post #4

Isn'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…

I had a C2D based MBP that I absolutely loved... the drive, ram and battery were user serviceable, and the form factor wasn't that much bigger than my current i7 based MBP. In fact if the original weren't stolen, I'd still be using it.

BTW, $400 comes pretty close to buying a new laptop nearly as capable as a 2 year old machine.

Re: The Nightmare of Replacing a Battery on a Mac Laptop

#188

Post by AnthonyMouse »

Recurecur wrote: post #173
AnthonyMouse wrote: post #163

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Judging by the increase in sales year over year for the Macbooks... ...you get a number that tracks the economy in general and the consumption of luxury electronics in particular, is affected by the relative strength of Apple's ecosystem against Microsoft and Google, how badly Superfish has affected Lenovo's reputation, etc. etc. And in any event the numbers aren't particularly optimistic: http://blogs.wsj.com/digi…

"And in any event the numbers aren't particularly optimistic" The article is stating that the rate of growth (still positive) for Macs slowed somewhat. The same article states: "Apple nonetheless outperformed the overall PC market, which saw shipments plummet 11% to 71 million for the quarter, according to IDC. Moreover, given the worse performance of other PC makers, its market share rose to 7.6% in 2015 from 6.9% l…

This is exactly what I'm talking about. The "overall PC market" is very different from Apple's market segment:

http://gizmodo.com/5033865/study-average-mac-computer-price-...

You might as well compare sales of Macs to sales of office furniture or canned beets.

The information you want is the effect of the battery/case design on Mac sales. The only way to get that is to exclude the effect of everything else that has changed in the interim, which we can't.

In other words the data we want is not available and the available data is not overwhelmingly positive.

Re: The Nightmare of Replacing a Battery on a Mac Laptop

#189

Post by ino »

maratd wrote: post #183
rayiner wrote: post #11

Out of warranty battery service on a Mac ranges from $130-200: https://support.apple.com/kb/index?page=servicefaq&geo=Unite... . I think that's a reasonable price considering Lenovo charges $140 for a 75-watt hour 68+ battery for the T450s: http://shop.lenovo.com/us/en/itemdetails/0C52862/460/D91DC49... . And for $130-200, they will replace your top-case (including keyboard and touchpad). I have had it done more than…

> I wonder if there wasn't something more wrong with his laptop caused by letting a worn-out battery sit in there too long. I wonder why batteries aren't easily replaceable on both laptops and phones? You know, it wasn't always so. I remember when you could literally slide the battery out of a laptop and slide a new one in. And don't give me this thin bullshit. I have a Samsung Series 9 and it is thinner than the Mac…

FWIW, the battery on the Air also isn't glued, changing it is also a 15 min job, and it's also available for cheap online. But you do need the special screwdrivers for the bottom panel.

https://www.ifixit.com/Guide/MacBook+Air+13-Inch+Mid+2013+Ba...

Re: The Nightmare of Replacing a Battery on a Mac Laptop

#190

Post by wlesieutre »

scholia wrote: post #91
jakejake wrote: post #18

There'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…

Depends if you are buying a business machine. If you buy, say, a Dell, you can buy three or four years of next-day on-site support for a relatively small charge. This isn't complicated -- it's a check-box item -- and it really works (in my UK-based experience). Incidentally, it turned out that on-site didn't mean a specific site. My son got on-site service both at home and at his student digs, 200 miles away. Dell al…

My housemate in college had a Dell with business support. IIRC he used the on-site support once, and another time just had them send a new part to install himself. And it was cheaper than AppleCare.
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