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17" Unibody MacBook Pro with Non-Removable Extended-Life Battery

Maxington said:
Non-removeable batteries seem to be the suck.

Main benefit I can see for companies is the ability to put it deeper in the machine without being accessible.
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One of the largest benefits to this would be for Apple. If the battery is not user replaceable it creates another way for Apple to make money providing a service. I am sure if it happens that is one of the considerations. When your battery gets weak after a couple of years you send in your notebook to Apple and they will replace the battery for a set charge.

Apple is in the business of making money and they know they have loyal customers who will still purchase their products even if the maintenance cost is higher.

I am not convinced this will happen however. It would be a huge marketing blunder in my opinion, but I guess we will have to wait and see.
 
I haven't even read the thread, but I bet everyone's going mental.
How do you know Apple haven't invented or are using some kind of battery that runs down but doesn't wear out completely after a few years. We don't know yet, and this is just a rumour.
How long will it take before Apple get a Class Action Lawsuit. Any takers. :p
 
It's gonna be A or B

A.) 17" MacBook Pro / Quad Core / 8GB Ram

or

B.) 17" MacBook Air / Quad Core / 8GB Ram
 
Kilamite said:
Quad-Core chip etc
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Considering that Apple switched to using 25W P-series chips instead of 35w T-series chips, I wouldn't that a 45w quad core would be likely.

iMacmatician said:
9 to 5 mac makes a hypothesis that this notebook will use Silver-Zinc batteries. If so, then maybe this rumor isn't all bad news.
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That might fit with the comment about a product with lower margins. Silver-Zinc technology is much more expensive than lithium ion.
 
mikeinternet said:
Don't college kids have a place to plug in their laptops during lectures?
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It depends on the lecture hall or room. Older buildings will only have a few outlets on the walls. Even in the newer ones there are cases where the built-in outlets in the desks/tables have just taken a beating over the years.
 
powers74 said:
This makes perfect sense. In the MBP it makes almost none.
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It would be interesting if Apple released a larger Macbook Air and not a smaller one considering how many people want the latter. Could be very interesting.
 
calm down!

Really people, calm down. Supposing this *rumor* is true, more likely than not replacing the battery would be a simple of case of removing 8 or so screws and removing the lower panel of the computer, just like a memory upgrade on the current Unibody MacBooks. The only foreseeable downside would be the inability to swap out the battery on the fly. Please stop claiming that you’ll have to send your Mac away if there’s a battery recall or your battery health drops to ~50% when there’s absolutely reason to assume such. It’s a Mac, not an iPod or an iPhone.


To be honest, I wouldn’t mind not being able to swap batteries on the fly if I got... say... a 10 hour battery life. It’s certainly a lot better (and cheaper) than carrying 2 or 3 extra batteries to achieve the same thing. I even have a second battery, but I only ever use it when I’m on a train/bus/plane/whatever for more than 3 hours.

The more time Apple can squeak out of their nonremovable battery, the fewer people affected. The only people who should be complaining about this are those who need a *lot* of battery time, but perhaps they need something like this (maybe there are better solutions out there, that was the first hit in Google for me).
 
Zpower MBP 17 perhaps MBA

I'm not sure if this discussion is leading us in the direction of the 'new battery tech' being ZPOWER's Silver-Zinc technology perhaps being used in the new MBP 17 or an updated MBA.

But from reading about the ZPOWER battery they are trying to control the usually high cost of the silver component in their battery with a mandatory recycling program.

"...ZPower plan to reduce the cost by a trade-in policy that will reduce the cast of mining new material. As 95% of the material is recyclable most of the raw material is recovered and as per ZPower the process used also makes sure that the quality of the material is maintained...."

Source: http://jedi-star.com/index.php/long-lasting-laptop-batteries/

That would make a non-user replaceable battery almost a given, since they are counting on you or Apple returning it at some point (if indeed this is the battery that Apple uses in it's new MBP).

If the battery really does last longer and and be recharged quicker it would be a terrific battery for the MBA certainly (already non-user replaceable, why not last longer ?)
Now onto the MBP 17. I regularly observe the use of the MBP 17 in a client's medical office. They either have to plug it in for a portion of the day or replace the battery. They have 2 batteries for each MBP. They are always swapping batteries on their smaller non-Apple laptops as well (Fujitsu, Acer). A non-replaceable battery could hinder their ability to use the laptop, unless it lasted the whole time the doctor is carrying it from room to room seeing patients. Perhaps from 8 ~ 12, short break for lunch, perhaps some recharging, then again from 1 ~ 5. It would be amazing if it could last for 8 hours of use including wireless usage.
 
if they do come out with these batteries will we be able to purchase them later on and use them in our current macs? (i have a unibody 2.4ghz right now)
 
When will we find out if the rumour is true or not? tomorrow?
When would the new 17" MBP be available (please answer if you have knowledge of previous macworld expo's and the time when new products were released until they hit the online shops!).
 
i think this a bad thing there doing with the batteries, but when you think about it how many people have a spare battery. not many.
 
Rocketman said:
If you happen to be a professional or power user that is willing to carry the mass of a 2nd or 3rd battery anyway there is no downside to an external battery.

http://www.calcellular.com/ext-lap-battery.html?gclid=COPWp4Hk9ZcCFRxNagodd0_IDQ

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/237082/

http://www.batterygeek.net/

http://www.quickertek.com/products/macbook_charger.php

Rocketman
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Interesting. If Apple comes out with a laptop which has a build-in battery I don't see a reason why they shouldn't come out with their own external battery packs.

Didn't know such batteries exist.
 
Portable Batteries

If apple came out with their own line of portable batteries do you think they will move to non-removable batteries in all of their products?? Just to drive up the sale of said batteries?
 
Price drop?

Seems unlikely that they would price drop now. Think of all the folks who bought macbooks right before christmas that would still fall in the refund window.

I bought mine on the 26th and the return date is the 9th. Does Apple have a price drop protection on all their products? I seem to recall it happening on the iphone price drop.
 
Beric said:
That statement by Henry Ford is so arrogant. I can't believe you actually have bought into it.

Maybe, just maybe, us customers know what we want better than Apple.
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The only problem with Microsoft is they just have no taste. They have absolutely no taste. And I don't mean that in a small way, I mean that in a big way, in the sense that they don't think of original ideas, and they don't bring much culture into their products. - SJ

You can't just ask customers what they want and then try to give that to them. By the time you get it built, they'll want something new. - SJ

Visionaries tend to be a little cocky, but if you think you know what you want, you do have options.
 
I'm calling ********* on this new battery and 17" MBP.

(1) why wasnt this batter used in the new MB and MBP's if its so superior.

(2) Batteries can fail, need to be replaced etc. It can't be so attached to the computer that it makes it difficult to replace.

This whole rumor is junk , next rumor plz.
 
Oh, and about the lowering the price of the MB. Why on freaking earth would they do that? How many people just bought new MB's, you think Apple wants everyone of them running back to store to get a rebate or money back?

Why would a company do that to themselves? Maybe a price drop in 6 months or so, but not anytime soon. Remember the iPhone fiasco?

And 9to5 reports this ****? Holy cow, I could tell you that if the white MB's are phased out, that would lead to a lower priced aluminum MB one day. Give me a break.

Here's a prediction....Apple will upgrade one of their computers this year !
 
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