$199 for the battery? geez... I thought laptop batteries were in the $129 range back when they were removable. I bet this is mostly labor and profit
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Retina MacBook Teardown Reveals iPad-Like Battery Connector, Details Force Touch Trackpad
- Thread starter MacRumors
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
$199 for the battery? geez... I thought laptop batteries were in the $129 range back when they were removable. I bet this is mostly labor and profit
Having upgraded many Macs to extend their lives, I agree that it is annoying that these options are no longer available (Just like my favorite 17" MBP configuration.)
It makes the initial purchase price higher when buying new or one has to accept that it will no longer last as long (in usefulness) as upgradable products. 16GB max memory for MBPs will not be enough within say 2 to 3 years.
So, my plan is now to shop for a used base model with maxed out memory and the smallest SSD , which I will then upgrade (They still let you do that on the models I want)
Apple has decided that the majority of users are not tinkering around in their machines and want carefree use. Not so wrong BTW.
That leaves us tinkerers out, but I'll deal with it when I replace my 17" 2008 MBP. (Sniff
PS: Pentalobe , shmentalobe. Anybody working on their machines has small special screwdrivers etc.
so, we'll by another tool. Spending a few bucks when the Macs cost thousands of dollars isn't really worth complaining.
I tend to think of Apple laptops, even my 2014 top-of-the-line 15" MBP, as a throwaway device. Not because I have money to burn, but more just because that's what it is. You buy a MacBook, AppleCare, and when the AppleCare is about to run out you flip it and repeat the process.
I kinda think that's the model Apple is aiming for.
I kinda think that's the model Apple is aiming for.
Garbage? I disagree. I was quite impressed with it (albeit, it was only five minutes). It may be overpriced to you, but I may be priced right for other folks.
HobeSoundDarryl
macrumors G5
Sorry to hear that 2 laptops from Apple have "1" (lowest) scores for repairability. My first laptop from Apple was engineered to make it easy for me to add ram & storage as needed and replace the battery. Even the screws were not proprietary. Nobody griped about that being the wrong way to engineer Apple hardware back then. I wonder if the engineering team was motivated to still make laptops like those, if they could hit their "thinnest & lightest" and other targets WHILE using non-proprietary screws and more serviceable parts? Surely Apple could do it if they wanted to do so.
So are people here frowning on the Surface Pro 3 which also scored a 1/10 from iFixit?
https://www.ifixit.com/Teardown/Microsoft+Surface+Pro+3+Teardown/26595
https://www.ifixit.com/Teardown/Microsoft+Surface+Pro+3+Teardown/26595
This is progress. Manufacturing more efficiently. Happening across all of the world with just about all products. A lot of whining going on about repairability. While I agree I would like to save some money doing repairs myself, when was the last time a person could change spark plugs in their cars? Hell, I can't even find them any more. Just something you can live with or stress over. Your call. If Apple were the only offenders I'd be jumping up and down too. But this is not shocking.
HobeSoundDarryl
macrumors G5
I would if I was a long-time Microsoft hardware buyer noticing the trend from relatively easily repairable and upgradable to soldered and glued and proprietary.
Yes, those were the days when laptops were an inch or more thick and weighed six pounds, and the batteries were only good for three or four hours on a charge. I don't miss those days .
HobeSoundDarryl
macrumors G5
So are you trying to imply that if Apple decided to still aim for concepts like easily upgradable and serviceable (like they used to), the ONLY way it could be done in 2015 would be by still making their laptops "an inch or more thick", 6 lbs and good for only 3-4 hours on a charge? Is the price of "modernization" such that an iFixit repairability score of "1" is the ONLY way it could be done? Even by Apple?
Really, which machines did you own? The iBook, Powerbook and the early Macbook Pros had easy to detach batteries, but that was about it. What else could a customer do (in terms of fixes) with an Apple Laptop (other than replace the battery) that was considered a "common repair"?
HobeSoundDarryl
macrumors G5
RAM? Powerbooks made RAM upgrades very easy. 4 (non-proprietary) screws, buy the memory from any source (at prices generally lower-to-much-lower than Apple), and slip it into a jack that would only take it one (the right) way. Easy.
And i (personally) found replacing the hard drive only a little harder, though certainly not as simple as battery or RAM.
From the perspective of total cost of ownership or lifetime value, I consider that kind of engineering "more genius" than where the trend is going.
And i (personally) found replacing the hard drive only a little harder, though certainly not as simple as battery or RAM.
From the perspective of total cost of ownership or lifetime value, I consider that kind of engineering "more genius" than where the trend is going.
Last edited:
And they lasted for 400 charges. Now you have 9 or 10 hours and 1,000 charges. So from 1,600 hours up to 10,000 hours battery lifetime. Most people will never need a new battery.
A few posts back I said that the 199 price is reasonable, but I did say some people would probably disagree.
My reasoning is that the old $130 battery packs like the one in my iBook G3 were no where near the quality of today's batteries. They are now ultra thin, light weight, charge quicker, and last a lot longer.
All that and it includes the price to install the new battery, which sounds like from the article is not that easy or quick.
Plus the $130 for the old battery packs was based off of the value of a dollar from 10-15 years ago.
I am not saying that it is a great price, but I do think it is reasonable.
----------
On my iBook G3, the last model before they went to G4s, I was able to replace the RAM, and Airport card pretty easily. Although removing the keyboard almost always would cause a key or two from the keyboard to fly off.
I did replace the hard disk, but that was pretty time consuming if I remember correctly.
And of coarse the battery was super easy.
Yeah, I actually forgot about the ram and at least for the iBook and early Macbook it was easy to switch out the hard drive. Wow, I honestly forgot how great it was back in the day. Well it's obvious Apple is interested in making more money with less customer convenience. Understandable, but it doesn't make people feel any better.
----------
Yep, I forgot about how easy it was to replace the Airport card too. Yep, sucks those days are gone. I can't even do anything with my 27" iMac. The original flat screen iMacs were super easy to open up and replace almost everything. Apple doesn't want us to do that anymore, perhaps in fear of only aftermarket parts companies making money and they don't.
HobeSoundDarryl
macrumors G5
Why not? Look through this and similar threads. You can see plenty of fellow consumers rationalizing it as "genus" and "the future", etc. or because it's described as difficult by ifixit, it seems reasonable that it should cost more to change the battery or make other repairs/upgrades. That sounds good (even logical) but the products are made (that way) to be more difficult. It's a choice rather than the only way to make things... just as it was a choice by the same company to make former laptops so that they were fairly easily serviceable and upgradable.
I'm confident that if Apple wanted to engineer these modern laptops to score better than "1", they could do so. I won't believe anyone posting here that a "1" is the ONLY way to build these things comparable to what is delivered in 2015.
I'm confident that if Apple wanted to engineer these modern laptops to score better than "1", they could do so. I won't believe anyone posting here that a "1" is the ONLY way to build these things comparable to what is delivered in 2015.
Last edited:
iFixIt, how is this still a thing?
iFixIt is a collection of Luddites who want every transistor and pixel to be replaceable and every chip to be ZIF mounted. They want dumb mother boards with dozens of daughter cards and can't stand progress. Somehow, they want manufacturers to forget about making things inexpensive and usable and focus on replaceability on devices that have failure rates of less than one in a million.
iFixIt is a collection of Luddites who want every transistor and pixel to be replaceable and every chip to be ZIF mounted. They want dumb mother boards with dozens of daughter cards and can't stand progress. Somehow, they want manufacturers to forget about making things inexpensive and usable and focus on replaceability on devices that have failure rates of less than one in a million.
So the new MacPro is dumb then like PC's are?
Should be all soldered onto 1 board and locked down, non upgradable.
I agree if Apple wanted to build laptops to score better than "1" on iFixIt, they probably could do it, though there would be costs in terms of weight, thickness, cost of components, supportability, etc.
After weighing the costs versus the benefits, they came to the conclusion that user-serviceability and upgradeability was not the best course for them.
If it's the best course for you, you have some decisions of your own to make.
Eh, that's all fine and dandy except you'll be singing another tune when your repair bill comes in and a (example) a simple broken cable connector means the whole logic board needs to be replaced for a very lovely sum.
Remember, all integrated/soldered = not repairable. Everything needs to be replaced instead. And for the owner, that typically means more delays and more charges.
So say intentionally rate things hard to fix, then say but ya they are hard to fix without breaking something?