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

should i get an extra battery?

E

emangali

macrumors newbie
Original poster
hi all. not a mac newbie but a pb newbie. just bought a refurb 12" 1.33ghz pb with superdrive from apple. should be here in a couple days. my question is should i buy an extra battery now since the original will eventually lose its charge?
 
Wait until you get the powerbook and install capacity meter. It will give you the status of your battery and you can decide then.

Batteries cost about $130.00.

The battery doesn't go bad overnight so you will have plenty of time to get a new battery if you are unhappy with the battery life.
 
I bought a "refreshed" battery for my 12" PB at my local Apple store. I bought it because it was so cheap ($60!) but now that I have it I use it a lot! Definitely a good purchase. 🙂
 
i have a 15 inch pb (1.25ghz) and it sure sucks battery - regular use for me, i get no more than 1.5 hours, 2 if i'm lucky. but i haven't bought an extra battery and have been able to use it just fine. i think the 12 inch pb's might get bettery battery life so you might be okay. a second battery is nice but there's no stand to charge it on, you have to plug it into your pb and charge it within
 
and even though you dont use your battery it drains its battery life, therefore better to get one when you really need it ;P
but if you want to have a backup battery on a trip or something you should definetly get it.
 
I use my spare battery all the time on planes and outdoors location photo shoots. Your usage will depend on the need. Most people don't need 2 batteries.
 
Ive brought two for my ibook but I find that I only use the one.

Out of interest though, is there an easier way to swap them over without needing an entire reboot? This is perhaps the main reason why I just don't use the spare. Anyone wanna buy a used battery?? 😉
 
My suggestion is yes. The battaries while lasting a good while if you pamper them 4-5 hours, really do detoriate. Getting two means they deteriate half as fast. So, its not the 8-9 hour charge you should want, its the 3-4 hour batteyr in a year which is the neccesity. For me my laptop which is a 1.5 Ghz PB with SD is almost never plugged in and if the battery deterioated into a 2 hour abtteyr in a year, it would render me useless as a couch potato.

I would love to see a way to charge the other battery though. I really woul dlike to have both batteries charge over night simultaneously, since I have two Power Adaptors.
 
Maxiseller said:
Ive brought two for my ibook but I find that I only use the one.

Out of interest though, is there an easier way to swap them over without needing an entire reboot? This is perhaps the main reason why I just don't use the spare. Anyone wanna buy a used battery?? 😉
Click to expand...

You can hot-swap them on the Powerbooks. At least I know that you can do with without turning anything off on the 15 and 17 inchers, but I'm not sure about the 12.
 
debroglie said:
You can hot-swap them on the Powerbooks. At least I know that you can do with without turning anything off on the 15 and 17 inchers, but I'm not sure about the 12.
Click to expand...
Really, I didn't know this. I'll have to check out Apple's site to see if you can on the 12 inch. Now that would solve a huge problem of mine.
 
debroglie said:
You can hot-swap them on the Powerbooks. At least I know that you can do with without turning anything off on the 15 and 17 inchers, but I'm not sure about the 12.
Click to expand...
I've read here on MR that hot swapping only works on 15" and 17" PBs but not on the 12" PB and not on the iBooks.
 
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