Don't agree. My 2010 MBP still runs great with original battery installed, 150 cycles. As a matter of fact, I've never had one single lithium battery expand or blow up or even go dead on me over the years.
I hope not. It pretty much ruined my trackpad. The replacement feels like brand new, of course.
I hope I'm wrong too. I've had a bunch of Lithium batteries and none of them have killed me or burned down everything I cared about, but I've had my iPhone 5S break open because of the battery. And on some of my lesser used batteries I've seen swelling. I guess the way that I look at it is that in high use devices, it's a given. Not in all batteries, I should have worded that differently. But where there is a fairly heavy cycling particularly with irregular charging intervals like with a heavily used device, I expect it to happen, just based on what I've read abut the chemistry.
Again, hopefully I'm wrong. At the same time, I think three years out of the battery in a heavily used device is a good return, anything more than that is borrowed time in my opinion. I completely expect to be replacing either my MBPro battery, or the entire MBPro at 3 years. Hopefully just the battery.
The 2018's look good though, niggling issues aside, which I'm sure they'll get figured out. I don't even use my battery that heavily.
It's also possible my expectations are too low. I base them on the MBPro lasting up to 6 years, at a stretch, and so a replacement at one point, perhaps the midpoint, is a small price to pay. US$199 into 6 years is $2.76/month if amortized. But then, my parents are both on 5 year old devices and original batteries so perhaps I am being too pessimistic.
I'm currently at 128 cycles since April 2016 and 92% battery life. I'm not that heavy on the battery but I don't see it lasting 6 years. I still consider the battery a consumable.
