Battery life 2008 unibody to new MBP.

[craiggg]

I have a 2008 unibody MacBook. It is 6 years old in May so I will probably be upgrading to a MBP soon.

I'm worried that the battery isn't replaceable. My current macbook is on its second battery. The first one died after about a year and a half and I was forced to replace it as it would drain to 40% within half an hour then abruptly turn off.

I tried to argue it with Apple as at the time the website stated that with 300 charge cycles it would still retain 80% of its capacity. When really it died with about 250 charge cycles. I think they should have given me a free one as the battery didn't perform as sold.
Now on my second battery at 205 charge cycles, it jumps between percentages so it can have 58% then a few moments later it will say 61% and only lasts a couple of hours at best.

I really like Macs but I am worried that if I get a new one I will be forced to replace the battery a couple of times over its lifetime.

Any thoughts on this?

 

[Gav2k]

The new MacBook range all have 1000 cycle batteries in them. Technology has moved on a fair bit

 

[26139]

Huh?

Batteries degrade and die over time.

The newer ones are better, but it's a bit unrealistic to expect one battery to not need replacing after 2-3 years of heavy use.

 

[kohlson]

Apple has stated that the new type of non-consumer replaceable batteries last longer. In my experience that's true. FWIW my college-age daughter's 2011 MBA is 3.5 years old, and when I checked it at Christmas it had a cycle count over 900. I asked her how long it lasted between charges and she said about 3-4 hours. At work I had a 2011 MBP, and it was at 500+ cycles at the end of its 3 years. It lasted about 3-4 hours, but sometimes I did some pretty intensive things. There are lots of things that make the newer ones better, and power management is one of them.

 

[gdicenzo]

I also have the late 2008 MacBook (aluminum). My first battery was also problematic - swelling and dying - and I almost never used it on battery alone.

Bought a new one about 2 years ago: it is having problems, too. And, again, I don't often use it on battery alone. Erratic charging, or not charging when the green light and icon says it is charging.

I would not worry about a better technology (and longer-lived) battery not being replaceable. When I am ready to replace this one, I will be glad for the all around better hardware.

 

[chogue23]

You can replace the batteries on a Retina Macbook Pro, they are just glued into the case instead of being screwed in

 

[keysofanxiety]

You can replace the batteries on a Retina Macbook Pro, they are just glued into the case instead of being screwed in

Yes but they're not user-replaceable, as they were on the older models (2008 and earlier). This means that you will void your warranty if you remove it. Plus it's really, really difficult to remove the glued batteries compared to the ones which are screwed in.

 

[Samuelsan2001]

Cycles less important than age

I have a 2008 unibody MacBook. It is 6 years old in May so I will probably be upgrading to a MBP soon.

I'm worried that the battery isn't replaceable. My current macbook is on its second battery. The first one died after about a year and a half and I was forced to replace it as it would drain to 40% within half an hour then abruptly turn off.

I tried to argue it with Apple as at the time the website stated that with 300 charge cycles it would still retain 80% of its capacity. When really it died with about 250 charge cycles. I think they should have given me a free one as the battery didn't perform as sold.
Now on my second battery at 205 charge cycles, it jumps between percentages so it can have 58% then a few moments later it will say 61% and only lasts a couple of hours at best.

I really like Macs but I am worried that if I get a new one I will be forced to replace the battery a couple of times over its lifetime.

Any thoughts on this?

Cycles on a battery are less important than age in my experience.

My old 2010 still gets 3-4 hours. My 2013 rMBP still gets 8-9 hours light use after a year.

 

[chogue23]

Yes but they're not user-replaceable, as they were on the older models (2008 and earlier). This means that you will void your warranty if you remove it. Plus it's really, really difficult to remove the glued batteries compared to the ones which are screwed in.

I guess it depends on your definition of 'User'

Even for the Unibody line, the battery was not listed as user-replaceable, and Apple did not sell a replacement battery. There are instructions online and batteries on amazon, but it would still void the warranty.

My idea is that if the computer is still under warranty, let Apple fix it. It costs about $129 to get them to replace a battery, and you wouldn't have to worry about losing AppleCare. If the computer is out of warranty, there are guides on iFixIt for replacing the batteries on the Retina models just like there were for unibody models

 

[keysofanxiety]

I guess it depends on your definition of 'User'

Even for the Unibody line, the battery was not listed as user-replaceable, and Apple did not sell a replacement battery. There are instructions online and batteries on amazon, but it would still void the warranty.

My idea is that if the computer is still under warranty, let Apple fix it. It costs about $129 to get them to replace a battery, and you wouldn't have to worry about losing AppleCare. If the computer is out of warranty, there are guides on iFixIt for replacing the batteries on the Retina models just like there were for unibody models

The early unibody ones had a user-replaceable battery, when the bottom case was in two parts -- just the later unibody models where the bottom case was all one part stopped allowing users to do it. Mind you, that's probably due to the size difference ... it's crazy how large the batteries in Apple computers are.

But yeah I agree with you, let Apple sort out the battery. I'd suggest to most people that they should do it themselves on the unibody models, but on the glued models there's no way that'll end well.