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Do you have an extra battery for your notebook?

How many FULLY FUNCTIONAL batteries do you have for your notebook?

  • Three or more

    Votes: 2 1.4%

  • Two

    Votes: 24 17.3%

  • One

    Votes: 107 77.0%

  • Don't have a notebook

    Votes: 6 4.3%
  • Total voters
    139
  • Poll closed .
wordmunger

wordmunger

macrumors 603
Original poster
Sep 3, 2003
5,124
3
North Carolina
Since every MacBook Air review has noted the lack of user-replaceable battery as a negative point, I was just curious: how many current notebook owners actually have an extra battery? I'm not talking about people whose old battery ran out of juice but they still have it laying around, I'm talking about people who have two NEW batteries that they swap back and forth regularly in their notebooks; e.g. for extending battery life on cross-country trips, and so on.

I've thought about doing this, but in practical terms, it's a pain. Just keeping both batteries charged would be an exercise in logistics, and a separate charger is expensive -- and yet another item to pack.
 
With seven responses (admittedly not a large sample) no one has an extra battery. This just makes me wonder whether the non-replaceable-battery issue is something reviewers should be dwelling on. Maybe mention it, but don't write three paragraphs on why someone might need an extra battery. But maybe some of these extra-battery-users will come out of the woodwork and prove me wrong.
 
I use 2 batteries with a MBP when traveling.

Logistically I don't find it that difficult to ensure both batteries are charged prior to a trip.

If real-world battery life was actually 5 hours, and/or there was consistent access to reliable power outlet on airplanes, I would likely not miss the 2nd battery.
 
I have 3 for my G4 Ti. Now do I use them .... nope. I think its one of those things like the floppy drive that people like to complain about not having but when they actually think about it, they do not need it.

Heck you really don't need a bigger HD then 80gigs. Thats what portables are for but people think they do.
 
I have two. Purchased for a trip to the UK and ended up never needing it.
 
I have two batteries for my MBP... the one that came with it, and one I bought from someone here on MR for cheap. There have been a couple of times when I've been away from an outlet long enough to run out one battery, so I had to shut down the machine and switch to the other.

My MacBook Air, obviously, will not have any spares. (Possible product idea for some enterprising person: An external battery that plugs into the MagSafe port?)
 
I have two, and I would need about 6 of them for my regular trips lol, but I try to find the nearest powerplug everywhere to recharge them while travelling (it's the SH*TTIEST route ever, I can't imagine something worse)
 
I've thought about getting a spare battery for my portable, but admittedly, it just seemed like a waste. I'm almost always near an outlet, and never away from one long enough to drain a battery completely.

To me, it's more beneficial to have multiple power adapters.. I have two right now, and would eventually probably want 3 - one for work, one for home, and one that always stays in my bag.
 
Never had a spare battery for any of my three portables (though in a pinch I could probably have used my girlfriend's battery for either the Pismo or the iBook, and visa versa. We just never actually had the need to do so).

Two of my batteries have been recalled and replaced by Apple but I was "a good boy" both times and actually shipped them the old battery... ;)
 
I do occasionally run out of battery life on long trips, but it's never that big of a deal. I just read a book or something. It seems to me that if you were in the market for an ultraportable, carrying around an extra battery would rather defeat the purpose.

For my money, the bigger problem with the MBA is hard drive size. I could live with 80 GB, for now, but I'm not sure I could two years from now.
 
wordmunger said:
For my money, the bigger problem with the MBA is hard drive size. I could live with 80 GB, for now, but I'm not sure I could two years from now.
Click to expand...
I just upgraded my MacBook with a 320 GB HD... I cannot really see myself using a machine with just 80 (much less 64), just my iTunes Music library is close to 60 GB...
 
Mitthrawnuruodo said:
I just upgraded my MacBook with a 320 GB HD... I cannot really see myself using a machine with just 80 (much less 64), just my iTunes Music library is close to 60 GB...
Click to expand...

Maybe it's the other side of "travel light" -- if you don't need to bring a second suit or a third tie, maybe you don't need your ENTIRE Beatles anthology or collection of Simpson's episodes.
 
wordmunger said:
Maybe it's the other side of "travel light" -- if you don't need to bring a second suit or a third tie, maybe you don't need your ENTIRE Beatles anthology or collection of Simpson's episodes.
Click to expand...
Yeah, if I want to listen to my more obscure music, I'll just get out my 160 GB iPod Classic, which contains ALL of my music.

Besides, the MBA's single speaker is probably not going to be optimal for listening to music.
 
wordmunger said:
Maybe it's the other side of "travel light" -- if you don't need to bring a second suit or a third tie, maybe you don't need your ENTIRE Beatles anthology or collection of Simpson's episodes.
Click to expand...
I keep all my TV shows out of iTunes and on an external disk... just music is kept locally...

I don't believe in the model with different computers... I've tried and just stop using the stationary after a while... sitting on the sofa with an PowerBook/iBook/MacBook is just WAY more comfertable than at a desk with a PowerMac/iMac. ;)

And even if I'm quite happy having a subset of the library synced on my iPod nano, I wouldn't want to start juggling different iTunes libraries for different computers...

So any concerns over battery life are more or less non-existent (<-- getting back on topic :p)
 
There aren't enough times for me when I need a spare battery to justify its 150$ price. I'm fine with one, and if I need a charge I'll just bring my adapter with me. Plus with 2 batteries, you know the charge is gonna run down anyway so in a year or two you'll need to replace both.
 
If I was using my notebook for entertainment (music, videos, etc.) then it really wouldn't matter. But if I am in the middle of working, and my battery dies, I would be extremely irritated if I could not swap batteries. The perspective regarding this differs greatly if you are considering personal vs. work.

However as I mentioned above, if a battery lasted 5 hours, this would not be a big issue.
 
It's not an issue for the overwhelming majority.

I am also curious how many of those with more than 1 baterry actually wind up using both, and if so, with what frequency.

Obviously, some will use 2 or more batteries very frequently, but I'll be their numbers are limited.

Walt Mossberg today said that he has an extra battery, albeit one that he doesn't ever use. I bet there are a bunch of users like him.
 
clayj said:
Besides, the MBA's single speaker is probably not going to be optimal for listening to music.
Click to expand...

No, but if you have an iphone, nano, or shuffle, then you might want to sync with your computer while on the road, and the HD size will be a big limitation. Also, if this computer had somewhat bigger HD, people could use it as a primary computer (although I imagine many people still will, perhaps with an external HD/time capsule).
 
wordmunger said:
No, but if you have an iphone, nano, or shuffle, then you might want to sync with your computer while on the road, and the HD size will be a big limitation. Also, if this computer had somewhat bigger HD, people could use it as a primary computer (although I imagine many people still will, perhaps with an external HD/time capsule).
Click to expand...
This is true. I will be syncing my iPhone with my MBA, not my Mac Pro, so I will need to have a pretty good chunk of my music library on my MBA.

Getting back on topic, I do plan to purchase an extra AC adapter for my MBA, so that I can leave one at home on my desk, and take one with me. I don't fly nearly enough to merit buying one of the MagSafe airline adapters, and I've found that coach seating on airplanes doesn't afford enough room to work on a laptop there anyway.

I'm curious as to whether Apple would ever consider a cigarette lighter adapter for MBA/MB/MBP computers. There are a lot of road warriors who would probably appreciate the ability to charge their computers while they were driving.
 
I have 2 batteries. I mainly use the second battery when I am traveling.

I also have 2 MagSafe wall adapters, one is for home and one is for everywhere else. :)
 
Only one. I figure it's a better deal to spend $120 replacing it in three years, if necessary, than to pay for another one off the bat that'll also be dead by then. And as others have said, that's cash that could be put toward drive or memory upgrades :^)
 
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