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iFixit Says Apple's DIY Repair Program Makes MacBooks 'Seem Less Repairable'
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Yeah very true, but that laptop was two inches thick, and weighed seven pounds - so there was space for these things.
Modern laptops are a fraction of both of those dimensions, and I'll bet hot-swappable batteries are very, very low on the average consumer (Apple's primary customer) list of things they care about.
Market demands smaller, thinner and lighter laptops (despite what you read on the MacRumours.com forums). Apple delivers on that request, as do dozens of other OEMs, with equally unrepairable laptops. How does iFixIt give the Dell XPS 15 (with integrated RAM and storage) a reparability score of 9/10? Bias much?
It’s obvious this program was designed to tick legislative checkboxes rather than meet actual needs.
$527 to replace a MacBook Pro battery. Cost of tools not included.
Same with the iPhone program. Nobody will be renting a tool kit and risking $1,300 in non-return fees, just to pay the same price for the battery part as an in-store repair.
$527 to replace a MacBook Pro battery. Cost of tools not included.
Same with the iPhone program. Nobody will be renting a tool kit and risking $1,300 in non-return fees, just to pay the same price for the battery part as an in-store repair.
But you would change the batteries in a remote control, right?
That’s because they’re designed to be user replaceable. If Apple did the same…? They could and they used to, but they choose not to.
This would be incredible and a major step forward for the company which has instead created this very odd ecosystem of third party part providers who are scavenging things from wrecked Teslas.Imagine if Telsa sends you a DIY Repair kit and instructs you to change the lithium battery of your car.
Just because you are scared of using tools to fix something doesn't mean other people are.
A battery replacement in an MBP would always require a top-case replacement, at least any friend I've spoken to who works as a Genius has always said that. The difference is, for battery-only service, it's done at a much cheaper price.
Apple made the same OEM parts and procedures they use in house available to anyone (just like the DIY people kept whining for). If that doesn’t satisfy the right to repair people, then nothing will.
However to me it seems like ifixit is just upset at Apple cutting into their earnings by making their service unnecessary.
However to me it seems like ifixit is just upset at Apple cutting into their earnings by making their service unnecessary.
It’s already a stretch that replacing the battery is termed a “repair” in the first place.
When the battery goes , which is usually after say 5 to 7 years I use it as an excuse to upgrade
By then any computer wiill be laughably out of date so it makes sense , Apple would definitely consider it so I’m sure
By then any computer wiill be laughably out of date so it makes sense , Apple would definitely consider it so I’m sure
Yeah, sure - because Apple is the only company on earth doing this.
I think a lot of people don't care simply because our lives have become so fast-paced that we're conditioned to want things done "now", and if that means a new whatever, then that's that. That's not an Apple thing, that's just how the whole world has been going for a long time now.
Apple — helping to increase literacy in the DIY world.
Here’s hoping that the apple silicon machines don’t go through batteries as fast as the intel machines. It’s true that the complexity of battery replacement in the current machines is a design decision: you could design the batteries to sit in the machine without glue, but you’d have other trade offs, most notably that consumers would keep their machines longer. I’d trade an extra mm or two of height for replaceable SSDs and batteries, but I’m afraid that ship has sailed.
swingerofbirch
macrumors 68040
Malicious compliance, as I said before.
They already solved this problem. Remember the MacBooks with the latch where you could open it up with just your finger and replace the the HDD and battery?
I know people will say there are new demands on the product, but a $3 trillion company can engineer their way around those.
They already solved this problem. Remember the MacBooks with the latch where you could open it up with just your finger and replace the the HDD and battery?
I know people will say there are new demands on the product, but a $3 trillion company can engineer their way around those.
C'mon....Let's give Apple some credit. Last year they introduced the repair kit for iPhones. It mandated that you rent and have delivered to your home a huge package weighing 79 lbs. That was pure comedy. It seems that with the worsening economy and financial restraint, Apple was not able to hire the same comedic talent for this new initiative. While sad and ineffective, it does not produce the same belly laughs as last year's farce.
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There's a very niche market for it. Some things are better off leaving it to the professionals since they have studied the products for years instead of leaving it to the consumer.
Choices are not always good. Just because you can doesn’t mean you should. Again, choices are not always a good thing to have. Some people should never have a choice.
For today's laptops (and phones) to have swappable batteries like back in the old days, they would need to be thicker. Swappable batteries require more space. They need room for hinges and clamps, or, at the very least, they need their access unobstructed by other components, which also then require moving around and re-placement in spaces that might not be the most efficient, necessitating even more room inside the device.
Remember the swappable batteries on old PowerBooks? Hinges, hinges, hinges.
Also, today's batteries are not typically "bricks" or "slabs" in shape inserted into the device, like the batteries of old. They are pressed flat and spread around like a pancake to better fit in the limited available nooks and crannies available in today's thin devices.
If you want an easily swappable battery in today's MacBook Air, expect it to be much thicker or have a much worse battery life since the battery would need to take the old form factor to be easily removable – and thus have less space for power cells.
Thin laptops are popular for some users -- not all users. While hot swappable batteries may no longer be a great solution as Apple battery life has improved so much, Apple designing a laptop where the batteries cannot be changed for less than $200 (and a week of lost time if professionally done by Apple) is a ridiculous compromise of form over function.
The years of easy repairing is over. The systems are too complex now and Apple is trying to show that with their crazy 162-page manual to support their arguement in court about not allowing repairability.
Could Apple make it easier to replace a battery? Absolutely, but it would cost in their profits. Also, it would make their designers have to change their approach to design, which is again not profitable for them anymore. I don’t think you can get the crazy speeds if you have replaceable parts (like SSD & RAM) anymore.
I have opened and worked on many computers in my life, but now-a-days…I looked at the internals since around 2013 and after in Macs and I say, “You got to be kidding..”. My eyes watered and teared up when I did surgery upgrading Mac Pro 2013 CPU to 12-core and said “never again”. Way to easy to mess up, especially the newer offerings from Apple.
We are forced now to go to Apple to replace batteries etc. No chance anymore to upgrade parts as they code them to work ONLY with the system’s configuration.
Apple has the numbers and information…but I suspect that their is just a few or a small group of users (like on these forums) that keep their Macs more than five years now, so Apple sees their products as “disposable”, NOT the eco-friendly nature tree hugging company like they claim to be. Recyclable materials in the metal, but NOT parts, so you have to throw away the system or give it to Apple at the end of life. A waste…but keeps the buying and profit machine going.
Could Apple make it easier to replace a battery? Absolutely, but it would cost in their profits. Also, it would make their designers have to change their approach to design, which is again not profitable for them anymore. I don’t think you can get the crazy speeds if you have replaceable parts (like SSD & RAM) anymore.
I have opened and worked on many computers in my life, but now-a-days…I looked at the internals since around 2013 and after in Macs and I say, “You got to be kidding..”. My eyes watered and teared up when I did surgery upgrading Mac Pro 2013 CPU to 12-core and said “never again”. Way to easy to mess up, especially the newer offerings from Apple.
We are forced now to go to Apple to replace batteries etc. No chance anymore to upgrade parts as they code them to work ONLY with the system’s configuration.
Apple has the numbers and information…but I suspect that their is just a few or a small group of users (like on these forums) that keep their Macs more than five years now, so Apple sees their products as “disposable”, NOT the eco-friendly nature tree hugging company like they claim to be. Recyclable materials in the metal, but NOT parts, so you have to throw away the system or give it to Apple at the end of life. A waste…but keeps the buying and profit machine going.
Designing your battery attachment so that replacement requires replacement of the entire top case is a staggeringly anti-environmental move. What a wasteful, thoughtless move by Apple.
If you think people who fix their own things to save money is a "niche market" I would highly encourage you to leave the Bay Area echo chamber once in a while. What a truly baffling statement to make.
There's a difference between "right to repair" and "right to an easy repair". iFixit is already moving the goal posts.
It’s safe to assume this was the cynical purpose behind Apple’s about-face on self repair. The decision was made: instead of fighting it and looking like the perpetual bad guy, Apple plays along and gets to claim its support for the Right to Repair, while simultaneously doing everything in its power to intimidate users from actually doing so. Shame on Apple for constructing this false choice between overly expensive/complex self-repair and their own overpriced, proprietary repair services.
Personally I have used iFixit for years and find their resources a godsend; they’ve literally saved me thousands of dollars, helped breathe new life into old Macs, and drastically reduced my contributions to e-waste.
Personally I have used iFixit for years and find their resources a godsend; they’ve literally saved me thousands of dollars, helped breathe new life into old Macs, and drastically reduced my contributions to e-waste.
Even disregarding the environment for a moment, it's just silly.