MacBook Air Battery Replacement Trivial?

[dcphotog1]

will become a non issue

Apple or a third party licensee will release a external battery with a mag safe connector on it that you plug in and powers the computer. It won't be any bigger than carrying an extra battery and it will shut up all the whiners.

 

[mvc]

i would just like to make the simple inquiry of... why is the battery not user swappable? what possible reasoning for this can there be other than making it a PITA for people to change themselves, and to rape a few hundred more bucks from everyone?

Oh I'm sure it could be Mac Greed™, but I suspect it could perhaps be structural.

The strength and especially the rigidity of that skinny aluminum clamshell would probably be undermined by whacking great big holes in it suitable for battery access. The Macbook pros have a very different internal configuration I expect, more of a chassis, and the vertical sides of the case add rigidity and resist twisting somewhat.

Or maybe St Ives and Stevie Baby just wanted it to have the smoothest bum possible to add sex appeal, because as far as I can tell, this machine is for the ladies 😛

 

[tirant]

Well, I firmly believe that about 60% use is the norm for MacBooks and MacBook Pros. So far I've owned 6 and that's the typical amount I've seen on them, and other MacBooks my colleagues have. And if you browse through those threads on the Apple forums you'll see that many people replying to people worrying they have a broken battery, who say their own batteries are fine/normal, typically report about 60-70% of what Apple state.

If people really care that much then just post a new thread in this forum asking people how long their batteries last in real world use.

Macbook SR. I get quite more than 60%. It could easily be 5 hours or even more. No DVD use and minimun brightness, off course.

 

[TokyoJustin]

Due to the Air's width, it's begging for a piggy back battery (from Apple?) to give it a PDA battery life but still remaining thinner than most notebooks. While I so wanted the Air to be a "real" computer, a 10 battery would certainly make me stop and think.

My 2 yen observation - there seems to be 3 types of posters on this forum:

1) The whiners.

2) The whiners who take the bait and whine about the whiners (a draw - goto 1)

3) Those hoping to find out some new titbits.

1 and 2 seem to be making up the majority. We should have sympathy for them, love and care for them like there were our own. Maybe some kind of fund to relieve them of their 6kg, company Dell laptops?

 

[digitalbiker]

That's boarderline FUD man, come on. 215 mins spinning the optical drive with the sound on and full screen brightness and you're claiming you can't get anything more than that just surfing the web? Every single apple product I've ever owned, iPods, iPhone, PB have met and exceeded their Apple rated battery life. My PB still exceeds it's rated battery life w/ my WiFi on...

Stop the spreading of mis-information. I love Apple but... My company has purchased hundreds of macbooks, MBP, etc. Every unit that we have ever bought under performs Apple's stated battery spec. Sometimes the models miss by as much as half the stated battery life amount.

The only model that would consistently meet Apple's stated battery life, were the old G3 ibooks. That G3 ran for 5-6 hrs. without even trying to conserve.

 

[0007776]

This is good news, since I am away from power and needing to use a computer for longer than I can get on one battery too rarely to justify a second battery anyway, but I was concerned about replacing it when it no longer held a reasonable charge, and it doesn't sound too bad how it is. Now one of my two objections to the air are gone.

 

[carbonmotion]

Magsafe airline adapter?

most of the long trans pacific routes are done on 10 year old 747s, the magsafe adaptor doesn't work on them. that's why you need battery swap.

 

[theBB]

I frequently travel between the US and Europe. With connections that can mean I'm travelling for more than 10 hours at a time. I have an MBP and two spare batteries. Often, by the time I reach my destination all three have been fully used up.

Your use pattern makes sense to me, I don't know why these guys are giving you such a hard time. Their clueless claims of power outlets on every seat on every plane is unbelievable.

Anyways, if you are going to take spare batteries with you, which tend to be quite heavy, I don't think buying a very lightweight or thin laptop makes sense for you. Those batteries will take up quite a bit of uneven space in your bag and weigh you down, so why would you want to pay so much more to get a very slim laptop? The overall space or weight savings will be negligible. There are a lot of people who travel often, but do not bother carrying extra batteries for one reason or another. I think that's Apple's target market, along with image conscious customers of course.

 

[WildPalms]

Despite early concerns that the MacBook Air battery is unaccessible to end users, Appleinsider claims that there are no special tools or knowledge required to swap out the MacBook Air's battery.

A standard size-0 type philips is all that's required to open the MacBook Air. The replacement process is described:Given the history of iPod battery replacements, there was some concern that users would be unable to easily replace the MacBook Air battery. Apple has said that a $129 replacement will be available but will require the MacBook Air to be sent in from Apple. If the battery replacement is this easy, however, 3rd party batteries will certainly also be available.

Article Link

Does MacRumors need a proof reader? The correct term is inaccessible, not unaccessible.

 

[jragosta]

I don't see how this helps. I travel a lot and often on long plane journeys I go through 3 batteries with my MBP.

Huh? I routinely get 5 hours with my MBP. If you need 15 hours of battery time, then you must be on round-the-world nonstop flights (considering that you can't turn your computer on until you're well into the flight and have to turn it off before landing and allowing time for sleeping, eating, and going to the bathroom).

Fine if you can get one. You'll find that on many airlines you'll only get a power socket in first class, particularly if you are travelling outside the US. Sometimes you don't even get one in first class.

Then stop flying Ryan Air.

American offers power sockets in almost all first class seats and most coach seats (except for commuter flights which are never over 3 hours). I don't know, but I suspect that most US airlines are similar.

And if you're a regular enough flyer to be moaning about this, then you'd be exec platinum on American and sitting in first class, anyway.

Yep... Quite right.

I've flown on as long of flights as you can get in the United States, and I have absolutely never (and I mean never) been on a plane with something I could plug a computer into. No power taps anywhere.

Either you're flying Podunk-air or you're misinformed.

Go to seatguru.com. I looked at American Airlines since it's my preferred airline, but you can check any airline.

On American, every single plane (except commuters) has power ports in coach. Not at every seat, but if it's important to you, it's trivial to see which seats have power ports and ask to be seated there.

I wish people would stop making complaints that are just plain wrong.

Fine if you can get one. You'll find that on many airlines you'll only get a power socket in first class, particularly if you are travelling outside the US. Sometimes you don't even get one in first class.

Name one major airline that has no power ports in first class. Then name one that never has any power ports in coach.

Then go to seatguru.com and see how wrong you are.

(Commuter planes excluded since they almost never fly over 3 hours).

Not usually.

With the first several batches of the MacBook Pro, they were quoting in the 4+ hour range. But, users were frequently reporting that in their most conservative use that they could only get between 1.5 and 2 hours at the most. Some were even getting far less than that with no resolution being provided by Apple..

I guess I got the good one, then. I get 5 hours on my 17" MBP.

 

[QuarterSwede]

Are you serious? The MacBook Pro is rated for 6 hours. With wifi and BT off, the screen on dimmest and doing nothing but browsing so the CPU never goes over 20% you'll be lucky to get 3 1/2 hours. Same with the MacBook. I believe the only way you'd get 6 hours out of either an MBP or MB is to turn the screen off and use it with an external monitor.

For the MBA I bet you'll be lucky to get 3 hours under light use. With a rated 5 hours there's simply no way you'd ever get 6-7 hours no matter what you turn off.

I guess it just depends on the machine because my wife's MacBook easily gets 4 hours with normal usage (screen brightness to max & wi-fi usage) and my 3 year old 12" PB still gets about 3-4 hours with the same settings.

Also, I agree about the airline power being nearly impossible to find on airliners (it ought to be a standard feature these days!). This is traveling on United, US Airways, Delta from DCA to Vancouver, Hawaii, Seattle, Tampa etc. Apparently American Airways is the ONLY airline that has airline power available to coach (first class is largely a massive rip off).

 

[Analog Kid]

Ok, this is good news. Knowing I can replace the battery myself at least means this might be a workable solution for my wife. Still won't fly as a replacement for my work laptop-- I do want the abilities to swap batteries during the day. Don't do it often, but often enough.

 

[winterspan]

I don't see how this helps. I travel a lot and often on long plane journeys I go through 3 batteries with my MBP. How am I supposed to perform a MacBook Air battery swap on a plane? Even if I'm in first class with plenty space I'm still not going to want to attempt it.

Also, opening your MacBook Air to perform this swap will invalidate your warranty so it's not really that great a solution.

I just thought of something that shall potentially make this less of an issue.
I remember seeing on the net last week that the TSA is banning standalone lithium-ion batteries from airplanes. All lithium ion batteries have to be IN a device or you can't bring them along.
It will be interesting to see how that plays out...

 

[jragosta]

i would just like to make the simple inquiry of... why is the battery not user swappable? what possible reasoning for this can there be other than making it a PITA for people to change themselves, and to rape a few hundred more bucks from everyone?

Because making the battery swappable changes a lot of things:

- Reduces physical integrity of the case
- Adds complexity
- Adds weight
- Reduces space available fore battery, reducing battery life
- Connectors where the battery hooks into the case may be a source of bad connections - leading to fires

And so on.

Apple's solution is much, much cleaner - particularly on a computer that's as thin as this one.

 

[skippy911]

14 hours from ATL -> Narita (Tokyo). Figure 7-8 hours sleeping, so 1 extra battery would be all you would need to remain productive for the flight.

Wow 14 hours you must be on some specialflight? I take Delta nonstop to Tokyo and it still takes on avg 16+ hours.

 

[ClimbingTheLog]

I am still going to be one of those whiners 🙂 Great piece of technology and very impressive, but not something that makes any sense to buy.

But it'll look great with your G4 cube!

I don't see how this helps. I travel a lot and often on long plane journeys I go through 3 batteries with my MBP. How am I supposed to perform a MacBook Air battery swap on a plane? Even if I'm in first class with plenty space I'm still not going to want to attempt it.

So it's not for you. Can't Apple make something you don't want?

Also, opening your MacBook Air to perform this swap will invalidate your warranty so it's not really that great a solution.

Cite? Most states' laws prohibit this type of stipulation, unless it can be shown that such opening caused damage. That's why replacing the HD on my MBP doesn't invalidate its warranty, on say the optical drive. Unless I bung it up while changing out the hard drive (I haven't managed to do that in about 15 years, though I sure did it then).

Bingo. My last trip to Tokyo on a fn' new 777 had no power unless you were in first class. I even called ahead to check and the airline said every seat has access to one of those airline power adapters, but no such luck.

Damn, you need to get everything in writing these days.

But with them designing it not to be user replaceable, I can't see how they can avoid replacing the batteries under warranty/applecare when they stop holding a charge. If they did, a class action lawsuit is sure to follow.

That's a great point, and I'm sure a round-trip to AppleCare + battery is figured into the $1799 price. Probably $200 of it, so even when the price drops, it probably can't ever get under $1399 while the MB is at $1199, even ignoring the screen size surcharge.

If not, get yourself an external battery pack.

They used to sell custom-sized pancake batteries that would velcro to the bottom of the old Powerbooks. Something like that could slip into your laptop bag pretty easily.

Well, if it's that easy to remove the bottom plate, then maybe a third party will sell a replacement bottom plate that allows for easy battery access.

I think, 'no', though I initially though this was a great idea. Because the batteries are still screwed in. You could make a replacement bottom that had a changeable battery easily enough, but then you've just negated the 'Air'.

Macbook SR. I get quite more than 60%. It could easily be 5 hours or even more. No DVD use and minimun brightness, off course.

Sure, which is why the advertised ratings are dishonest. Minimum brightness sucks unless you're working in the dark. Somebody should do a website for a real-life battery ratings database.

 

[jragosta]

Wow 14 hours you must be on some specialflight? I take Delta nonstop to Tokyo and it still takes on avg 16+ hours.

According to Delta's web site, it's 14 h 30 min - and airlines usually pad their flight times to allow for departure delays.

 

[QuarterSwede]

Name one major airline that has no power ports in first class. Then name one that never has any power ports in coach.

Then go to seatguru.com and see how wrong you are.

Ouch, wrong. The 757 I'll be flying on to Hawaii on Sunday doesn't even offer power in First class. I'm sure US Air has power on some flights but it isn't as universal as you'd like to think.

 

[jragosta]

Ouch, wrong. The 757 I'll be flying on to Hawaii on Sunday doesn't even offer power in First class. I'm sure US Air has power on some flights but it isn't as universal as you'd like to think.

OK. So there are some third world airlines (US Air fits that description) that don't offer power sockets.

If it's that critical to you, either buy an MBP instead of MBA or fly an airline that provides the service you want.

Problem solved.

 

[twoodcc]

well this should make more people like it.

 

[~Shard~]

Just familiarizing myself with the Air right now, as I've been away for a couple weeks. I must say I am quite impressed overall, and hearing about further details such as this is great as it makes the machine an even more attractive option.

 

[QuarterSwede]

OK. So there are some third world airlines (US Air fits that description) that don't offer power sockets.

If it's that critical to you, either buy an MBP instead of MBA or fly an airline that provides the service you want.

Problem solved.

? ... US Airways is a major airline (equally as large as AA, which hasn't been doing so hot itself). I usually fly United (miles) but US Airways had a much better rate on this particular flight and since it's apart of the Star Alliance I can still rack up my miles.

I don't have a problem with power usage because I don't spend the ENTIRE flight using my PowerBook. I posted because I don't like people spreading FUD. From what I've seen AA seems to be the only major airline to offer airline power to all (or most) seats.

 

[billystlyes]

Apple needs to start making less expensive systems that aren't so niche. Folks, we are about to go into a major recession in the US and Apple only sells one system for under a thousand dollars. That is not a good recipe for an economic downturn. Forget about that battery.

 

[jragosta]

? ... US Airways is a major airline (equally as large as AA, which hasn't been doing so hot itself). I usually fly United (miles) but US Airways had a much better rate on this particular flight and since it's apart of the Star Alliance I can still rack up my miles.

Actually, USAir is no where close to American. American happens to be the only major US carrier which has avoided bankruptcy.

I don't have a problem with power usage because I don't spend the ENTIRE flight using my PowerBook. I posted because I don't like people spreading FUD. From what I've seen AA seems to be the only major airline to offer airline power to all (or most) seats.

Delta has power ports on many flights. Other airlines have some power ports.

The point is that if having a power port is critical to you, it's easy enough to find a flight which has it.

Apple needs to start making less expensive systems that aren't so niche. Folks, we are about to go into a major recession in the US and Apple only sells one system for under a thousand dollars. That is not a good recipe for an economic downturn. Forget about that battery.

Not so surprisingly, 'luxury' brands tend to do better in a recession than budget brands. Apple isn't complaining about their sales results.

If Apple tries to compete against every Tom, Dick, and Harry cheapo computer manufacturer, they either get killed now or they have to cut back on their customer service - and get killed later.

 

[QuarterSwede]

Actually, USAir is no where close to American. American happens to be the only major US carrier which has avoided bankruptcy.

So just because AA has avoided bankruptcy makes all other airlines that haven't "third world?" Riiiiiight.

Delta has power ports on many flights. Other airlines have some power ports.

The point is that if having a power port is critical to you, it's easy enough to find a flight which has it.

Easier said than done. My point is that MOST airlines don't provide adequate power (only in first class doesn't cut it), not just one or two airlines.