MacBook Air Battery Replacement Trivial?

[MacRumors]

Despite early concerns that the MacBook Air battery is unaccessible to end users, Appleinsider claims that there are no special tools or knowledge required to swap out the MacBook Air's battery.

A standard size-0 type philips is all that's required to open the MacBook Air. The replacement process is described:

Once flipped upside down, the MacBook Air's bottom cover is easily unscrewed and removed, providing immediate access to the battery cavity. From there, the battery can be unscrewed from the chassis with the same screwdriver and unplugged from the circuit board with a simple tug -- it's not soldered to the board.

Given the history of iPod battery replacements, there was some concern that users would be unable to easily replace the MacBook Air battery. Apple has said that a $129 replacement will be available but will require the MacBook Air to be sent in from Apple. If the battery replacement is this easy, however, 3rd party batteries will certainly also be available.

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[Harpo]

A little screwing can go a long way.

[Artofilm]

Well... that's one less thing for the whiners to whine about.
Im sure they'll find something to replace it to whine more, though.

[mikef07]

What? You mean I have to buy my own screwdriver. That is ridiculous. They should include one. Not to mention that the RAM is soldered so I presume it comes with a solder gun.

Hope people realize I am kidding.

This is good news.

Wishes would be a 3rd party battery that could possibly provide even longer battery life.

The one thing that is holding me back is the lack of a internal cell card or a place to put a cell card. the only thing I would be stuck with is a USB cell card.

[Rocket Rion]

Good, maybe the whiney crybabies will shut up. No, that's expecting too much.

[Bensch]

nontheless it will be hard to just swap it on-the-go.

bensch

[David G.]

While this news is good it still hasn't changed my mind about me not getting one.

[Ubuntu]

Originally Posted by Rocket Rion

Good, maybe the whiney crybabies will shut up. No, that's expecting too much.

Oh the irony.

[imacdaddy]

Originally Posted by Rocket Rion

Good, maybe the whiney crybabies will shut up. No, that's expecting too much.

I just wish the whiney crybabies would just leave this forum, full stop! They do the forum no good. Nothing but negativity, emotions, bashing...page after page after page. I just skip through them but in doing so, I would miss one or two good valid posts.

[meagain]

Originally Posted by Rocket Rion

Good, maybe the whiney crybabies will shut up. No, that's expecting too much.

I hear ya. It didn't take a genious to see the back can be easily removed from the get-go. Never did I once think I couldn't replace this battery.

[BRLawyer]

Originally Posted by Rocket Rion

Good, maybe the whiney crybabies will shut up. No, that's expecting too much.

You mean also the numerous moronic PC/MS fanboys that populate this forum? Surely this will shut them up for a while, even if almost no one needs a replacement battery in real life...

[apachie2k]

hahaha.... this is good news, i guess. but i'm assuming that the majority of the people using it is for travel, and obviously to make a statement. So while this isn't impossible to remove the battery, it will look kind of odd when the TSA (at the airport) is looking through your bag and sees a screwdriver, and you have to explain its to remove the battery to put another one in... haha how embarrassing

[localnet]

Originally Posted by mikef07

What? You mean I have to buy my own screwdriver. That is ridiculous. They should include one. Not to mention that the RAM is soldered so I presume it comes with a solder gun.

Hope people realize I am kidding.

This is good news.

Wishes would be a 3rd party battery that could possibly provide even longer battery life.

The one thing that is holding me back is the lack of a internal cell card or a place to put a cell card. the only thing I would be stuck with is a USB cell card.

You ought to give one of the new USB cellular cards a try. I have one for work, a Novatel Sprint USB. It is extremely fast on my MacBook. Much faster than my slot loader I had on my PC. Even in non Evdo areas, it is still incredibly fast. I don't know what they did different, but it is a huge improvement over the old pc slot loader. Which mine was not that old, Rev A Evdo.

Just plug a pre-authorized USB card into your laptop and you are ready to go. No software needed on the Mac. True plug and play.

[willdenow]

Originally Posted by Artofilm

Well... that's one less thing for the whiners to whine about.
Im sure they'll find something to replace it to whine more, though.

As someone who needs a laptop on long flights, I don't see complaints above no user accessible/replaceable battery as whining. If it is indeed as simple as it appears to replace the battery, this will allay my biggest concern regarding the MBA. But only so long as Apple doesn't void the warranty.

I will not be surprised, though, to see Apple make it more difficult to replace the battery on future models (like they did with the user serviceable parts on the iMac) and/or simply refuse to honor the warranty if this turns out to be a revenue stream that Apple covets. After all, if Apple is willing to insult its iPod Touch customers by charging for software it intentionally withheld for a mere $20 per user, I imagine it's salivating over a frequent influx of $129 from its Airbook customers. Time will tell.

[tuneman07]

I am still going to be one of those whiners Great piece of technology and very impressive, but not something that makes any sense to buy.

[maverick808]

I don't see how this helps. I travel a lot and often on long plane journeys I go through 3 batteries with my MBP. How am I supposed to perform a MacBook Air battery swap on a plane? Even if I'm in first class with plenty space I'm still not going to want to attempt it.

Also, opening your MacBook Air to perform this swap will invalidate your warranty so it's not really that great a solution.

[Crash-n-Burn]

Great, but if it voids your applecare......

[bigmc6000]

Originally Posted by willdenow

As someone who needs a laptop on long flights, I don't see complaints above no user accessible/replaceable battery as whining. If it is indeed as simple as it appears to replace the battery, this will allay my biggest concern regarding the MBA. But only so long as Apple doesn't void the warranty.

I will not be surprised, though, to see Apple make it more difficult to replace the battery on future models (like they did with the user serviceable parts on the iMac) and/or simply refuse to honor the warranty if this turns out to be a revenue stream that Apple covets. After all, if Apple is willing to insult its iPod Touch customers by charging for software it intentionally withheld for a mere $20 per user, I imagine it's salivating over a frequent influx of $129 from its Airbook customers. Time will tell.

You do realize that Apple makes an airplane power cord that's a hell of a lot cheaper than an extra battery and if you're taking a flight so long that your battery is going to run out I guarantee you there is DC power available under the seat. I have no idea why people keep using the long flight excuse, just buy the adapter and have unlimited power the whole flight!!

[cwryn]

Originally Posted by bigmc6000

You do realize that Apple makes an airplane power cord that's a hell of a lot cheaper than an extra battery and if you're taking a flight so long that your battery is going to run out I guarantee you there is DC power available under the seat. I have no idea why people keep using the long flight excuse, just buy the adapter and have unlimited power the whole flight!!

I have never flown on a seat in which that plug works. I was told that the plug only works if you are in first class. Coach flights that I have taken on Delta, United and Alaskan in the states have not had the plug, nor have United, Quantas or Lufthansa flights internationally.

An easily swapped battery would be nice.

[KindredMAC]

As long as you have Apple Care you should be covered. Once Apple Care runs up, there is no more warranty to void out with cracking the case open to get at the battery.

In 2-3 years I expect the iPod battery manufacturers to be on board with the replacement batteries for the MBAir so that we can all crack the case to do the dirty deeds.

[SiliconAddict]

Originally Posted by Artofilm

Well... that's one less thing for the whiners to whine about.
Im sure they'll find something to replace it to whine more, though.

Umm not it isn't. Anyone who is a road warrior and is away from the outlet that long takes multiple batteries with them. Hell I have 2 to last me through the entire day. (And no I don't believe that 5 hours is a realistic estimate of battery life.) So yah tell me how many people are going to be willing to drop everything they are doing. Pull out a screwdriver, and go to work on their laptop vs just going with another ultralight laptop which has every feature someone on the road could need, is about as thick as the air on its thick end, and maybe a pound more. (Oh boo ho 4lbs instead of 3lbs.)
This is thin for the sake of thin. It does NOTHING for the end user. The relative difference between carrying a 3lbs laptop and a 4lbs laptop is about the same as carrying a 200 page text book vs a 400 page text book. Its borderline retarded and people are arguing over semantics when it comes to portability. its even funnier when you talk thickness. .15-.75 over 1" thick again is arguing semantics. I saw this same crap done with PDA's. Quibbling over less then a millimeter in those cases.
It does NOTHING for the portability of the system beyond eye candy and occasionally sending the thing via interoffice mail.
Again this is pure eye candy. If Jobs wanted to do something substantial with this product they should have made a thinner replacement to the 12" PowerBook, with LED display, SSD, optical drive, Ethernet, this motherboard inside but with a substantially bigger battery that would take up the extra space to keep you going for 8+ hours. That would have been impressive. Instead Jobs has once again focused on his fetish for all things thin. I'm waiting for the day that a laptop or iPod is released by Apple that is so thin that if you drop it, it will shatter.

Originally Posted by AidenShaw

Note that American and some other airlines that use cigarette lighter plugs can use a device like http://www.wagan.com/htmls/detail-2107.html



for power and charging. (Obviously works in an auto as well)

I want to know what airlines have these plugs. I've flown American Airlines and Northwest for years and have yet to be on a single plane that has these installed. Guess its a business class thing.????

Originally Posted by AidenShaw

This statement alone makes me disbelieve every other statement in your post.

Windows takes "5 minutes" to resume from standby? Pure BS.

Psst. You are on an Apple forum. The concept of not talking crap about the competition is rather humorous....sadly.

Originally Posted by Digital Skunk

I would see this in a hotel room, but then you could just plug it into the socket.... the flight.... hmmm... I don't know about that one. I could see screws flying all over the place or even worse... A PC user with a Sony TZ or that new uber sweet 12" tablet laughing at how Apple users have to go through so much trouble to get their ultra portable up to the standards of the PC versions.

When you do get to screw your battery back in though... I am sure they will be amazed at the multi-touch trackpad and backlit keyboard..

I think flying screws would be the least of your concerns. Lets see. You are taking the back of your laptop off, removing a battery pack. The wrong person sees that and they are going to think bomb and panic. Because god knows we've never seen anyone overreact to a harmless device.
*coughs**coughs*
you'll be lucky if you came out of the experience with only a black eye.

[AidenShaw]

Originally Posted by SiliconAddict

I want to know what airlines have these plugs. I've flown American Airlines and Northwest for years and have yet to be on a single plane that has these installed. Guess its a business class thing.????

Go to http://www.seatguru.com and look up the airlines.

American seems to be the leader in this regard, most of their planes are covered in first class and the forward part of coach (for example, http://www.seatguru.com/airlines/Ame...ines_MD-80.php).

Northwest seems to be missing in action.

Flying trans-Atlantic and trans-Pacific in business class, I almost always find power outlets at the seats. American, Qantas, JAL, Cathay, Singapore, BA and others put the plugs at the seats. I have a trip to Hong Kong, Singapore, Bangalore and Tokyo the end of next month - all business class, and power to the seat on every flight. (E.g. http://www.cathaypacific.com/cpa/en_...businessclass#) Of course, each plane ticket is roughly the price of an MBP, so it's not like I'm saving money on swappable batteries ...

Seatguru.com is great for arranging for a seat with a plug on flights within the US.

However, even when I have reserved a seat with power, I still bring my swappable batteries. A few times either the power isn't working on that plane that day, or it isn't working in the seat or row that I'm in. If I *need* to get work done on the plane, I don't depend on the on-board power - I bring a couple of extra batteries in my laptop bag. And more often than not, in fact I *need* to customize my presentations for the target customers on the flight to the meeting. Running out of juice is not an option.

Also, and I have no idea if this applies to Apples as well, some laptops will only run in power-saving modes when on batteries - so that they're noticeably faster when plugged in. This applies to the Dell Core 2 systems, so I'll always plug in even if I don't need to for runtime.

It makes Internet Explorer snappier.

[kuwisdelu]

In case anyone's interested, I've been running my MacBook for about 3 1/2 hours now on battery, full brightness, Airport on. I've been browsing the internet and doing some photo editing. I'm at 36% battery.

[Yankees 4 Life]

people are so stupid to rush to judgement

[EricNau]

Originally Posted by MacRumors

Apple has said that a $129 replacement will be available but will require the MacBook Air to be sent in from Apple. If the battery replacement is this easy, however, 3rd party batteries will certainly also be available.

Does the computer have to be mailed in or stay overnight at a Genius Bar? ...If the replacement process is so easy, I would think be a a quick 10 minute procedure at any Apple Store.