Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

OK...so let's say I buy the new 17" MacBook Pro with a non-interchangeable battery...

B

Brad Trent

macrumors member
Original poster
Oct 14, 2008
43
0
NYC
...and being a photographer I find myself on location, as I ALWAYS am!!! The battery dies, as I ALWAYS does, 'cuz I shoot tethered and it takes a lotta juice to power a 33mp Leaf back!!! NOW WHAT DO I DO?!! Don't these Apple design geniuses EVER ask people like me how we use their products? If I'm out in East Jesus with no power, a laptop that doesn't have a spare battery is nothing more than a paper weight! And no...I don't wanna unscrew the case, remove the battery, pop in a replacement battery (and probably void my warranty, right), and take about ten stinking minutes to do so!!!

The 17" laptops have become the de-facto standard for location guys like me and now Apple goes and makes another boneheaded move by taking away interchangeable batteries?!! Jesus-H-Christ.........the stupidity is getting too much to take!

BT in NYC
 
Brad Trent said:
...and being a photographer I find myself on location, as I ALWAYS am!!! The battery dies, as I ALWAYS does, 'cuz I shoot tethered and it takes a lotta juice to power a 33mp Leaf back!!! NOW WHAT DO I DO?!! Don't these Apple design geniuses EVER ask people like me how we use their products? If I'm out in East Jesus with no power, a laptop that doesn't have a spare battery is nothing more than a paper weight! And no...I don't wanna unscrew the case, remove the battery, pop in a replacement battery (and probably void my warranty, right), and take about ten stinking minutes to do so!!!

The 17" laptops have become the de-facto standard for location guys like me and now Apple goes and makes another boneheaded move by taking away interchangeable batteries?!! Jesus-H-Christ.........the stupidity is getting too much to take!

BT in NYC
Click to expand...

get the MBP 15' or get two 17" So you dun have to change the battery.

I was once in a trip to Africa, where there are no power around me, i bought 360 Extra battery for my Macbook Pro, for a trip for 2 months. I have to book a container to ship those battery. A removable battery is reli important to me.

TBH, U can get the power from a car anyway.
 
I like it the way it is...they can't please everyone. Use a 15" if you don't like it.
 
So, you really have more than 2 batteries that you take on a shoot? This is (presumably) the same as 2, so it should equal out. People that I know who use a spare have just that - 1 spare. You would have to be accustomed to using 3 batteries regularly for this to seriously hamper its usability.

But I understand why you feel frusterated. It feels like Apple has chosen to make it more consumer, ie, less configurable/less expandable. A lot of recent, subtle moves like that from Apple recently have made a lot of pros (myself included) vary wary of their dedication to the pro market.
 
InLikeALion said:
So, you really have more than 2 batteries that you take on a shoot? This is (presumably) the same as 2, so it should equal out........
Click to expand...

No...I take FIVE batteries on a shoot! No joke...I used to carry only three, but on an all-day, outdoor location gig, 3 ain't gonna cut it! On 90% of my shoots I always end up on the third battery, but I have at least twice in the past month made it to the fifth. Try shooting outside in December with anything battery-powered...the cold kills the batteries twice as fast!

What bugs me about how Apple is making design decisions is that they truly aren't polling professional users about very important design changes they have made on the latest laptops. First they dump the firewire 400 port, which basically means they are going to stop supporting a very important segment of current hardware design...and without rehashing my rants when the new 15" was announced, using a step-down 800-400 cable is incredibly touchy...I know, I've been tearing my hair out for months using one with my Leaf back and the instances of corrupt files is WAY more than it was when I used a dedicated firewire 400 cable! Now they decide that nobody will ever be away from power so long as to need a spare battery...first off, Apple has ALWAYS overestimated the battery life on it's laptops so why are you guys willing to believe them now and secondly, there are plenty of situations where power availability may not be forthcoming and a second battery would be useful.

Short-sighted.....period!

BT in NYC
 
Brad Trent said:
No...I take FIVE batteries on a shoot! No joke...I used to carry only three, but on an all-day, outdoor location gig, 3 ain't gonna cut it! On 90% of my shoots I always end up on the third battery, but I have at least twice in the past month made it to the fifth. Try shooting outside in December with anything battery-powered...the cold kills the batteries twice as fast!

What bugs me about how Apple is making design decisions is that they truly aren't polling professional users about very important design changes they have made on the latest laptops. First they dump the firewire 400 port, which basically means they are going to stop supporting a very important segment of current hardware design...and without rehashing my rants when the new 15" was announced, using a step-down 800-400 cable is incredibly touchy...I know, I've been tearing my hair out for months using one with my Leaf back and the instances of corrupt files is WAY more than it was when I used a dedicated firewire 400 cable! Now they decide that nobody will ever be away from power so long as to need a spare battery...first off, Apple has ALWAYS overestimated the battery life on it's laptops so why are you guys willing to believe them now and secondly, there are plenty of situations where power availability may not be forthcoming and a second battery would be useful.

Short-sighted.....period!

BT in NYC
Click to expand...


Just buy the very last 17MBP before this new 17unibody (or the 15MPB Unibody). Its the best there is, has everything you want and a lot cheaper. FW400 and 800, Upgradable to 6GB RAM, 128SSD, matte screen, DVI Port, 3 USB ports, changeable battery
 
The unfortunate truth is that products are designed for the majority, not the minority. And in this case, the vast majority of the potential buyers are better served by a non-replaceable 8-hr battery than a replaceable 5-hour battery.

So Apple has chosen to do what benefits the many over what benefits the few.

As for the few, you can either:

1. Stop "shooting tethered." Lots of cameras out there now are fast enough, with enough capacity, for you to manage. Heck, back in the day, photographers found ways to take pictures on rolls of film, with nothing but Polaroids to work from, reloading as they went.

2. Buy a PC notebook. Hey, Apple abandoned you in search of other customers. I think it'd be quite fair to switch if another manufacturer met your needs better.

3. Find another power source. A few hundred dollars will buy you a large-capacity plug-in battery, or even a solar charging system.
 
Brad Trent said:
No...I take FIVE batteries on a shoot! No joke...I used to carry only three, but on an all-day, outdoor location gig, 3 ain't gonna cut it! On 90% of my shoots I always end up on the third battery, but I have at least twice in the past month made it to the fifth. Try shooting outside in December with anything battery-powered...the cold kills the batteries twice as fast!

What bugs me about how Apple is making design decisions is that they truly aren't polling professional users about very important design changes they have made on the latest laptops. First they dump the firewire 400 port, which basically means they are going to stop supporting a very important segment of current hardware design...and without rehashing my rants when the new 15" was announced, using a step-down 800-400 cable is incredibly touchy...I know, I've been tearing my hair out for months using one with my Leaf back and the instances of corrupt files is WAY more than it was when I used a dedicated firewire 400 cable! Now they decide that nobody will ever be away from power so long as to need a spare battery...first off, Apple has ALWAYS overestimated the battery life on it's laptops so why are you guys willing to believe them now and secondly, there are plenty of situations where power availability may not be forthcoming and a second battery would be useful.

Short-sighted.....period!

BT in NYC
Click to expand...

Agreed with everyone else on this thread.

Whats more important to you, being able to switch your batteries, or two inches?
 
BT said:
*snip*
the instances of corrupt files is WAY more than it was when I used a dedicated firewire 400 cableperiod!
*snip*
Click to expand...

I've never heard of this before, is this a bad cable or is the bus not working properly?

If you already carry around 5 batteries, have you thought of switching to a UPS + AC converter when you're on the road? Would that be feasible for you?
 
Seriously though

One of these powerpacks would work fine for you. 28 AMP hours should power your MBP for days.
 
As an Amazon Associate, MacRumors earns a commission from qualifying purchases made through links in this post.
lscangus said:
get two 17" So you dun have to change the battery.
Click to expand...

^^^ This, or, bring a screwdriver and an illegally obtained replacement battery. I actually do this with my MacBook Air, and yes, it is enormously painful and stupid.

This trend of non-interchangeable batteries is really disturbing. In the US nobody cares if you plug in, but in Japan and other countries it is usually faux pas to use the power outlets at a cafe. Talk about cultural insensitivity

Suggestions to buy the old model are a temporary solution at best. If we let Apple get away with this, we're all going to be forced into models without swappable batteries eventually.

And those plug-in power packs are really for the extreme user. Using one battery to charge another is inherently inefficient and heavy.

We know why they did this -- having a hole in the chassis where the battery goes makes it weaker. But other manufacturers have found solutions that work. Those solutions might be patented or whatever, but by taking this underachiever approach to chassis engineering, Apple is just showing the same "Not Invented Here" mentality that got it into trouble in the 90s...
 
skubish said:
Seriously though

One of these powerpacks would work fine for you. 28 AMP hours should power your MBP for days.
Click to expand...

hahahah that thing's huge! And damn heavy I'm sure! But it would seem to be a solution, although 5 batteries would weigh less than it I'm sure.
 
As an Amazon Associate, MacRumors earns a commission from qualifying purchases made through links in this post.
Don't buy it?

Whats wrong with a refurb "old model"?

Better yet, whats wrong with your current computer?
 
sparkie7 said:
Just buy the very last 17MBP before this new 17unibody (or the 15MPB Unibody). Its the best there is, has everything you want and a lot cheaper. FW400 and 800, Upgradable to 6GB RAM, 128SSD, matte screen, DVI Port, 3 USB ports, changeable battery
Click to expand...

That's not really the point of the thread, or his comment.

All he's saying is that these pro laptops don't have pros in mind whatsoever. That's true. I know companies like to maximise profits before anything else, but isn't that something you hate about all corporations? Apple is no exception, and are just as bad. In fact, I'd say Apple is worse than most companies in this regard, as they don't seem to care what their customers think at all. Not one bit.

Anyway, that was his point. Yes, he can still get the older 17" MBP model, but the point is that pros are a complete afterthought in today's Apple world. If he wants a new machine next year, forget about it. Apple forgot about you.


However, yes, you can get an external power pack from some other company may be the only solution if you need a 17" screen with high res screen.

Personally, I'd get the Lenovo W700 if I was a photographer. Far better than a MBP, but a bit heavier. However, anything beyond a mid-level Lenovo is really well-built, and probably sturdier than the 17" MBP.


cookiebunny said:
1. Stop "shooting tethered." Lots of cameras out there now are fast enough, with enough capacity, for you to manage. Heck, back in the day, photographers found ways to take pictures on rolls of film, with nothing but Polaroids to work from, reloading as they went.
Click to expand...

So in order to live in the present with regards to his computer, he has to live in the past with his camera equipment? Great suggestion.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back