Apple iPhone Battery Replacement $85.95

[MacRumors]

Apple has posted an iPhone Battery Replacement FAQ and policy.

The replacement program costs $79 plus $6.95 in shipping and takes three business days for service. All daya will be cleared from your phone so it is important to sync your iPhone with iTunes prior to service.

[Rychiar]

that **** is crazy. this is gonna make me miss verizon. my battery starts gettin old and i just walk into my mall, they swap a new one for free and im set

[graymccarty]

If you have 'applications' on your phone, do they get cleared as welll?

[daveschroeder]

Apple WILL also provide a loaner iPhone which assumes your telephone number and looks and behaves exactly like your own iPhone after one sync with your computer) while your phone is being serviced:

http://www.apple.com/support/iphone/service/faq/#faq11

All of these questions are also answered here, for reference:

http://ipodbatteryfaq.com/#iphone (Disclaimer: this is my web site)

Anyone complaining about the battery needs to remember that the iPod has been this way for four years, and it's not as if it needs to be replaced frequently.

Further, the phone WOULD be bigger if it had the mechanisms to allow for a user accessible battery, even if by only a couple of millimeters, and the battery would also probably be smaller (equating to lower capacity and less life). This is because the battery would need to be segregated from other components and so on.

Having the iPod sealed was an engineering decision, and it's the same with iPhone.

[Squonk]

Originally Posted by Rychiar

that **** is crazy. this is gonna make me miss verizon. my battery starts gettin old and i just walk into my mall, they swap a new one for free and im set

I hear you! That phone insurance is really nice! Sprint replaced my wifes 2 year old phone that was falling apart with a brand new one and threw in another wall charger too.

I like Apple stuff, but I just don't think I'm willing to pop for 500/600 for one of these.

Wasn't there some talk out there of battery swaps being able to be done in Apple stores? Or something about loaner phones during service?

[EDIT: Thanks David for this information...]

[daveschroeder]

Originally Posted by graymccarty

If you have 'applications' on your phone, do they get cleared as welll?

How would you have any applications on your phone?

(And the answer is, since they don't return your iPhone, yes, everything gets cleared. But since everything is synced with iTunes, when you get the replacement phone back, one sync and you're done. "What??? They don't even return my iPhone??" you say? No, they return a factory-tested "refurbished" iPhone in a completely new enclosure and a new battery, with its own factory 90-day service warranty. Just exactly the way it has been with iPod since November of 2003.)

[daveschroeder]

Originally Posted by Squonk

I hear you! That phone insurance is really nice! Sprint replaced my wifes 2 year old phone that was falling apart with a brand new one and threw in another wall charger too.

I like Apple stuff, but I just don't think I'm willing to pop for 500/600 for one of these.

Wasn't there some talk out there of battery swaps being able to be done in Apple stores? Or something about loaner phones during service?

Yes. Read my above post. It's all online, even though all of the articles about the iPhone battery seem to ignore it. Some are even saying that once the battery dies, you have no choice but to get a new iPhone. It's like the "iPod's Dirty Secret" crap all over again.

[krimedog]

I've replaced 3-4 batteries myself in an iPod for <$20. I'd be shocked to learn we can't obtain a battery off eBay when the replacement is necessary.

3 business days is just silly. I'm going to crack it open and change it myself.

Anyone agree/disagree?

[bignumbers]

Originally Posted by graymccarty

If you have 'applications' on your phone, do they get cleared as welll?

Since there's no way (yet) to load "applications" onto the iPhone, this is a somewhat imaginary question.

But it's safe to assume the phone comes back to you essentially in factory-new state.

Hopefully iTunes will eventually handle backup of any user-created data, similar to how Missing Sync does this with my Treo (retired three days ago). Just sync with the factory-reset unit and everything is reinstalled.

If you load anything onto the iPhone's disk mode (which doesn't exist yet of course), I would not anticipate that to be backed up by iTunes. That's disk data, up to the user to back up.

[daveschroeder]

Originally Posted by krimedog

I've replaced 3-4 batteries myself in an iPod for <$20. I'd be shocked to learn we can't obtain a battery off eBay when the replacement is necessary.

3 business days is just silly. I'm going to crack it open and change it myself.

Anyone agree/disagree?

Disagree.

If you're so inclined and are capable, sure, crack it open. But it looks a lot more difficult than iPods from the disassemblies I've seen so far, for what it's worth.

Since Apple provides a loaner iPhone that will essentially become your own phone with one sync while yours is in for service, I don't see it being an issue for the very infrequent occurrence of replacing the battery.

[bignumbers]

Originally Posted by krimedog

I've replaced 3-4 batteries myself in an iPod for <$20. I'd be shocked to learn we can't obtain a battery off eBay when the replacement is necessary.

3 business days is just silly. I'm going to crack it open and change it myself.

Anyone agree/disagree?

Yep. I'll bet we'll have iPhone replacement batteries available online within a few weeks (or less if it's a simple stock battery).

If the installed battery lasts 18 months, I'm happy, and have no real complaint about either the $80 Apple fix or the $20 self-install if I feel adventurous.

I'm definitely of the camp that a non-replacable battery is better since it reduces the size of the unit.

Plus, anytime I carried my Treo around without a carrying case the battery door would fall off, and occasionally the battery would fly out too.

[Sideonecincy]

I dont think this is that crazy...my razr battery costs $50 from verizon.

I am just getting sick of hearing "dude, wait 3 years, the iphone will be $50 w/ service contract"...dumb people

[Ubuntu]

I'd love to see the fanboys defend this one. It's pathetic to the level that Apple announces it after launch.

Unless it was posted before, but it seems now.

[arn]

Originally Posted by Ubuntu

I'd love to see the fanboys defend this one. It's pathetic to the level that Apple announces it after launch.

Unless it was posted before, but it seems now.

Defend what? Is it a surprise that Apple is offering a battery replacement program? They have an ipod one.

arn

[plumbingandtech]

Originally Posted by Ubuntu

I'd love to see the fanboys defend this one. It's pathetic to the level that Apple announces it after launch.

Unless it was posted before, but it seems now.

Defend the fact that if you do not want to do the service yourself you pay apple $90 for a whole super long lasting battery and service and shipping?

Sure.

Things in life cost money.

Unless one believes everything in life should be free and in beer and nuts or whatever the credo is for less then user friendly OSs like linux.

[Multimedia]

That is a very high price. Does anyone know what mAh rating the iPhone battery has and if it's Lithium Polymer or not?

[Maxx Power]

Some money making tactic.

[Darkroom]

WHAT IS THE PROBLEM?!!! you can spend $600+TAX on an iPhone that requires a monthly service rate, and THEN you complain about this? would you rather buy a new iphone when your battery dies?

and it's called a LANDLINE by the way... *snap*

[plumbingandtech]

Originally Posted by Multimedia

That is a very high price. Does anyone know what mAh rating the iPhone battery has and if it's Lithium Polymer or not?

If as mentioned razor batteries cost $50 (and I bet one has to do self service) I really don't think this is much worse considering the longer it lasts.)

But I bet there will be clone batteries for $29... only problem is opening it up yourself.

I have opened a mac mini to add ram. I have been thru HELL

I'll pay the extra fee.

[macklos]

isn't there an apple care protection plan available for the iphone as there is for all other apple hardware?

[JSmoove05]

Ok so AFTER we spend out 500+ tax and 600+tax which is alot to begin with. They now tell us that the batter replacement is gong to cost us 80 dollars + this is ridculous. Apple is trying to milk its customers for everything its worth. The phone itself is overprice for what it can do right now and they wanna charge nearly 20% of phone price for a battery replacement. This is seriously making consider switching back to old my carrier.

[G4scott]

My razr has a replaceable battery, but I'll tell you what, whenever I open up the battery cover to get the memory card out, the whole compartment is full of dust and dirt. I would honestly have a sealed battery that requires some disassembly or service to repair than have to worry about all this crap getting into my phone and ruining it.

Also, whenever I see a razr, or any other phone for that matter, hit the ground, it always breaks into no less than 4 pieces. I've seen this happen dozens of times on campus.

If I had the $$$, I'd prefer an iPhone, but for now, I have to be careful not to drop my phone, and I'll clean it out every two weeks or so.

[slffl]

Negative for the iPhone Rental Program!

I already need to send in my iPhone for repair, and no way am I paying for a rental! That should be provided, or at least a cheap loaner phone.

[BKF]

It would have been nice if Apple had bit the bullet on this and made the battery replacement so inexpensive that it would be a non-issue. Even if the company lost a little money on it, it would be a big reassurance to people on the fence about dropping $500/$600 on a phone, and it would have clammed up a lot of critics quite nicely. A bit of missed opportunity here, I think.

[ajhill]

Originally Posted by krimedog

I've replaced 3-4 batteries myself in an iPod for <$20. I'd be shocked to learn we can't obtain a battery off eBay when the replacement is necessary.

3 business days is just silly. I'm going to crack it open and change it myself.

Anyone agree/disagree?

Yes, there are kits for under $20 to replace iPod batteries, including the tools to crack the case.

More importantly, if I can change the subject, my iPhone has been unable to connect to the EDGE Network for the last hour. No google maps, no safari, no stock quotes, nothing?

Anyone else having trouble with EDGE today? I'm in Los Angeles.