I don't think gluing a battery or laminating the display makes for a more reliable product, but rather allows them to make it thinner. I think prior Macs have shown to be extremely reliable without such tactics.
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Warning to those buying new Apple laptops
- Thread starter Cattywampus_
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I thought the gluing in of the battery allowed them to create oddly-shaped batteries that fit into more nooks and crannies (left open between the internal components). End result was a longer lasting battery, both in terms of "per-charge run time", and number of cycles before it needs to be replaced because it no longer held a useful charge.
Old user-replacable batteries were rated for 300 cycles, then off to the landfill.
New glued-in (non user-replacalbe) batteries are rated for 1000 cycles.
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201585
They'd be able to screw them down in they *really* wanted to. I'd say that screwing them down, would be more expensive.
My Mid 2012 Non Retina Pro battery is also rate at 1000 cycles. These batteries are described as "not meant to be replaced by the user" as in it breaks your warranty, but it is fairly easy to replace. I'd say that with a Haswell CPU the non retina Pro would probably get more like 8-9 hours, as a lot of the battery improvements with the air and retina pro have been CPU based.
If screwing them down is more expensive than the cost of environmentally recycling all of the parts during a repair process, then I think that says more about the environment impact of the repair process than it says about the gluing-the-battery-down process.
A single component that is made and sealed at the factory is inherently more reliable than one made of elements that are separable.
The display assembly as a whole is more sturdy than it was, and it is also thinner. The iMac display assembly, similarly, is a single component now rather than multiple pieces (LCD, glass, frame, mounts, screws) that is both thinner than the separate pieces and more reliable - no more dust issues, and less fragile during fitting and servicing.
Being thinner and being more reliable are not exclusive criteria - Apple's design decisions are meant to improve both.
I've replaced the battery in my 2011 MBP as well as the RAM & SSD (massive speed improvements), the Airport Card (to enable Continuity) and also the optical drive to enable Blu-ray write/read.
IMO, I would prefer to have this updated laptop (which is crazy fast to me anyway) for another 2 years than buy a sealed Retina MBP and then have this laptop sat around not doing much. This laptop is now rated for another 1000 cycles.
Using one product again continuously simply by refurbishing it is surely the best form of recycling. To me that is only one block of aluminium used. I'm also more interested in keeping our planet clean than I am about my laptop being 1.25 cm thinner.
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Screwing them down means you need:
a) mounting points on the battery and on the chassis - takes up space, reduces size of battery
b) requires fitting step and tolerance checks to fit battery into case. Requires a worker to do this for each battery. greatly increases assembly cost.
c) requires sets of screws. Trivial, but not negligible across a large production run. Increases part inventory.
In reality you wouldn't screw a battery into a case, you'd design a captive cage to house a defined tolerance for a battery shape because screwing one in is a labour intensive task that does not make economic sense. Making a captive cage means your battery shape is limited.
The battery capacity would not be that reduced by a few screws, and we're not arguing costs here, more environmental impact.
Both the battery and SSDs in the current Retina MacBook Pros are replaceable, are they not?
SSD is, but very hard to source a replacemnt, but the Battery is not, which is the OP's point. It is glued down. I believe that replacing the SSD probably voids your warranty. For the classic Macbook Pro, you can replace the RAM and HDD without voiding warranty, but replacing the optical drive and battery do.
Yes this is me. I just bought another 2012 Macbook Pro (Non Retina) after the last one got replaced under applecare (long story) and with both this one and the old one, I upgraded the Ram, and HD, and I have an SSD on the way. It also has the optical drive + firewire/ethernet + battery indicator + IR sensor and the traditional trackpad which I prefer.
But doesn't environmental impact have a cost associated with it?
It's very hard to argue that Apple doesn't care about the impact it has on the environment.
So it seems that when it comes to the environmental impact of having to deal with the battery and trackpad being one unit, and the cost thereof, if holding the battery in with screws was cheaper, they'd probably do it.
Personally, I don't think that many people are needing to have either their trackpad or battery replaced, so this likely isn't low-hanging fruit when it comes to Apple and what they can do to have continue to have less of a negative impact on the environment.
In terms of "reusing the one block of aluminum", if you have an issue with a battery in a rMPB, Apple will replace the battery. i.e. you have another another 1,000 battery cycles added to a rMBP, just like a cMBP.
And if they separate the track pad from the battery, and use it as replacement part for a future repair, what's the environment impact of re-using that part instead of having to manufacture an entirely new part for some future repair?
Apple at its heart would not have much care about the environment as caring for the environment properly would cut its profits, but of course they want to appear green. Apple is more green then many other companies, but many of their practices are very non- environmentally friendly.
Gluing together components has a huge impact environmentally, especially the battery. Instead of just replacing the battery (which is a consumable item and will need a replacement at some stage) you have to replace the whole top case. This means more environmental impact from creating the new product, and the recycling also has a greater environmental impact.
At a much higher environmental impact - As it is glued down they replace the whole top case. Same as when the keyboard breaks, or the trackpad which is something that breaks more than you'd think (thought the new one is probably more reliable).
Most of the information you'll find here is anecdotal, of course. That said, the low repairability is not an Apple-only issue. As someone who has repaired Lenovo laptops on the side, they've gone from highly reparable, to more and more of a pain to deal with. I no longer repair Lenovo laptops, unless they're a few years old.
Apple doesn't dump the majority of the parts they take back in. The top case is aluminum and glass and compltely recyclable. In OP's case, the replaced components can be melted down and made into a new trackpad and top cover, or a new iPhone, or a couple watches.
Actually, you COULD buy a USB or wireless mouse/trackpad and call it a day. No, it's not an elegant solution, but it's one that won't cost you £440 and will permit you to use your rMBP again.
Oh I know its not an apple only thing, but that doesn't mean that Apple should blindly follow. Though of course, that is where the money is.
Yes but recycling and creating new parts is not good for the environment (due to the energy used in their melting down and recreated) where it can be avoided, and having to replace an entire top case instead of just a keyboard, just a trackpad or just a battery is a lot worse than replacing one of those items.
What you described can be applicable to many electronic devices, not just Apple.
As I see it, your problem is not Apple's fault. You had the ability to buy an extended warranty and chose not to. You could have researched the upgrade / repair ability on critical aspects of the Mac before purchase, and it appears you didn't do that either. So, now that the repair is going to cost more than you assumed, Apple is now at fault. I don't see Apple at fault. I see someone trying to make a Apple pretzel so he can feel better about not doing what he should have to begin with.
You're missing the point - it's not just the "few screws" it's the fact that you then need mounting points and need to define the shape of the battery more carefully and the materials it is made from. This results in a decrease in capacity.
Apple could have found a way around this if they wanted to, as they have on the Macbook Air.
The Air has a 4 compartment battery with a sizeable thrust frame for the screws that reduces the overall size of the battery.
They could do that for the rMBP but the battery they decided instead to just pack it as tightly as possible - six compartments of varying size. If you were going to screw that into the rMBPr you'd need mounting points between each compartment and around the edges, which would reduce the volume of the cells more than you think.
