mac laptop batteries???

[bigben334]

today i went with my brother to bestbuy to buy a cheap windows laptop for him. we decided on one and the sales guy told me to get the 2 year replacement warranty because all laptop batteris are GUARANTEED to die out in 7-9 months. was he lying just so that i would buy the extra warranty??? and if he wasnt lying, is it the same with mac laptops??? i plan on buying the first mactel powerbook that comes out in about a year and i didnt plan on buying a new battery every 7-9 months. thanks

[evilgEEk]

...was he lying...
He was definately lying. In my experience PC laptop batteries do seem to have a shorter life than their Apple counterparts. I've never owned a PC laptop, but I have a lot of friends that have them and they always whine about battery life. I have had a PowerBook and an iBook and neither one of their batteries went out after 7-9 months. I had my PowerBook for about a year and a half and it was still going strong when I sold it. I've had my iBook since last August and I still get a good 5-6 hours out of one charge on normal operation.

[cardiac dave]

Nevermind the fact that Best Buys extended warranty doesn't even cover batteries.

I bought a Toshiba (open box special) a few years ago, and decided to apply the open-box discount to the 3 year warranty.

During the first year the hard drive went ka-boom, but it was still under the manufacturers (first year) warranty and replaced at a local service center.

14 months in, the DC-DC inverter board went kaput (laptop would only run off AC) but the BB tech support insisted that it was the battery and wanted $120 for a new one.

I argued with them, and they agreed to bring in the new battery and test it out. Of course the new battery didn't work either, so they sent it away for service. 8 weeks later I got my laptop back, inverter board fixed. Long wait, but they mistakenly give me the extra battery as well and forgot to charge me for it.

Beware the extened warranty there... repairs take forever.

In AppleCare I Trust :o

[cblackburn]

I would reccomend the extended warranty for other reasons, i.e. PC laptops have a habit of randomly and expensively dying, but for the batteries no.

Mainly because the battery will be classed as a consumable item and therefore will *NOT* be covered by any warranty you buy

Chris

[andiwm2003]

I would reccomend the extended warranty for other reasons, i.e. PC laptops have a habit of randomly and expensively dying, but for the batteries no.

Mainly because the battery will be classed as a consumable item and therefore will *NOT* be covered by any warranty you buy

Chris

that's correct.

the extended warranties are usually a rip off. they don't cover the battery anyway. and replacing the battery is easy and less expensive than the extended warranty. aside of that a laptop battery has ~300-500 recharging cycles in it. depending on use and temperature you can have it for 2 years or more.


but the extended warranty is useful inexpensive for notebooks because if the hardware fails, especially the display, the repair costs are horrendous.

andi

[wordmunger]

In my experience Apple laptop batteries begin to really show their life around year 2. You might make it 3 years, but that's pushing it. Part of the price of portability, I'm afraid.

My current iBook battery is holding up great at about 9 months old. I can't discern any shorter lifespan than when it was brand new. But I expect in another year, I will.