Apple battery problems are illustrated here by 2 examples: the iPhone6 and the MacBook Pro.
[1] Failed battery in an iPhone 6. The battery in this less than 2 years old iPhone6 bulged and pushed the screen outwards until the case separated. Looking at the web, this seems to be a common problem with the iPhone6, but Apple refused to recall or even replaced batteries after 3 months. This problem happened with so many iPhone6s that Apple issued a very rare recall for one batch of iPhone6s due to ‘poor quality of the battery’. No such luck with the iPhone6, and it will cost you either $299 for a refurbished iPhone6 or $79 for a new battery if you find a friendly store manager. This is what I paid in December 2017, a few weeks before Apple announced a $29 battery replacement campaign for the iPhone6 following the ‘aging battery slowdown’ fiasco.
[2] Failed Apple A1322 in a MacBook Pro A1278 Unibody featuring a 2x2.4 Intel Core2duo, 8GB DDR3 Ram, 250GB of SATA hard drive and running Mac OSX 10.9.5 Maverick. Out of the 10 A1278 I checked, two failed because the batteries bulged pushing then crushing the trackpads and keyboards. On the pics, you can see that one of the Li-ion Polymer battery (Model 1322, 10.95V at 63.5 Ah) expanded from 13mm to 33mm. Further, after being taken out of the laptop into a fire-proof box, it vented and might have caught fire judging by the soot. Looking at the web, this battery expansion is quite common: Apple replaced a few of these batteries during a very short period of time, and now asks for $129 to provide a spare.
In the MacBookPro examples, Apple refused to recall the batteries, only accepting to replace them on a very limited ‘one of a kind’ scale, while leaving most of the people without help with their battery problem. Most common comment of the Apple ‘Genius’ faced with a bulged battery was ‘you need to upgrade’ !
The story of the bad batteries in the MacBookPro is similar to the ‘bad caps saga’ circa 2005. Defective components due to a bad design found their way into reputable manufacturers end products; these defective components were used into thermally marginal designs. In time, the components will bulge, vent or even explode. The ‘reputable manufacturers’ would deny that there is a problem, then eventually do a very limited recall without recognizing any responsibility. Some like Samsung were publicly wronged, but others like Apple ‘deny, deny, deny’ and got away with it so far.
[1] Failed battery in an iPhone 6. The battery in this less than 2 years old iPhone6 bulged and pushed the screen outwards until the case separated. Looking at the web, this seems to be a common problem with the iPhone6, but Apple refused to recall or even replaced batteries after 3 months. This problem happened with so many iPhone6s that Apple issued a very rare recall for one batch of iPhone6s due to ‘poor quality of the battery’. No such luck with the iPhone6, and it will cost you either $299 for a refurbished iPhone6 or $79 for a new battery if you find a friendly store manager. This is what I paid in December 2017, a few weeks before Apple announced a $29 battery replacement campaign for the iPhone6 following the ‘aging battery slowdown’ fiasco.
[2] Failed Apple A1322 in a MacBook Pro A1278 Unibody featuring a 2x2.4 Intel Core2duo, 8GB DDR3 Ram, 250GB of SATA hard drive and running Mac OSX 10.9.5 Maverick. Out of the 10 A1278 I checked, two failed because the batteries bulged pushing then crushing the trackpads and keyboards. On the pics, you can see that one of the Li-ion Polymer battery (Model 1322, 10.95V at 63.5 Ah) expanded from 13mm to 33mm. Further, after being taken out of the laptop into a fire-proof box, it vented and might have caught fire judging by the soot. Looking at the web, this battery expansion is quite common: Apple replaced a few of these batteries during a very short period of time, and now asks for $129 to provide a spare.
In the MacBookPro examples, Apple refused to recall the batteries, only accepting to replace them on a very limited ‘one of a kind’ scale, while leaving most of the people without help with their battery problem. Most common comment of the Apple ‘Genius’ faced with a bulged battery was ‘you need to upgrade’ !
The story of the bad batteries in the MacBookPro is similar to the ‘bad caps saga’ circa 2005. Defective components due to a bad design found their way into reputable manufacturers end products; these defective components were used into thermally marginal designs. In time, the components will bulge, vent or even explode. The ‘reputable manufacturers’ would deny that there is a problem, then eventually do a very limited recall without recognizing any responsibility. Some like Samsung were publicly wronged, but others like Apple ‘deny, deny, deny’ and got away with it so far.
