Is buying a Magic Trackpad 2 an bad investment - battery wise?

[Jumme_Cph]

Hello,

Is there any way to check the remaining battery health (NOT the charge) on rechargeable devices?

I'm considering buying a Magic Trackpad 2, second hand locally, but if there's no way to check the remaining capacity of the battery itself, I might end up with an virtually unusable device (the TP2 being glued together thus battery being non replaceable).

What's your take on this?

(A second hand TP2 is approx. half price of a new, where I live.)

 

[Kebabselector]

I doubt many will have such large battery cycles so you'd probably be safe. I probably charge mine maybe once every 6 weeks or so. It functions fine plugged in though - unless Apple has a mechanism to cripple the device if the battery dies?

 

[Jumme_Cph]

I doubt many will have such large battery cycles so you'd probably be safe. I probably charge mine maybe once every 6 weeks or so. It functions fine plugged in though - unless Apple has a mechanism to cripple the device if the battery dies?

Yeah, come to think of it, what creeped me was that the TP2 uses an iPhone battery, and those normally shows sign of wear within 4-5 years.

But. Most people charge their iPhone every or every second night, and the drain on the trackpad couldn’t be anywhere near that.
Even if the Trackpad was 5 years old, it should be able to function for a period of years.

Im getting one. Thanks for the help.

 

[soloact]

If you want, you can use your Magic Trackpad 2 forever with no more battery waste. You may need to remove the battery. My battery swelled up and pushed apart the top & bottom. It was was either ending up in a landfill or goodwill, followed by a landfill, so this is what I did:

I pried the case open (see details below), snipped the circuit board off the battery (there was a spark & battery heated up, but all OK), removed the battery, scraped off the silicone adhesive on the glass top case and the force sensor bars on the bottom case so tape could stick to the adhesive areas, used some 3M 300 LSE double-sided tape, reassembled, and it works exactly the same as before but only when the cable is plugged in.

As you pry open the case, look for those for force sensor bars sticking to the top case - that's silicone adhesive. They're the only thing holding the top & bottom together. The silicone only comes off if you cut through it with something long and flat. Once cut through, the top & bottom separate.

CAREFULLY separate until you see the ribbon cable. It's held down with a little adhesive. With tweezers and being careful, you can unplug one side, so can fully separate top & bottom. Once you've scrapped off the silicone and installed some double-side adhesive, carefully use the tweezers to push the ribbon cable back in.

Once you get the ribbon cable pushed in all the way, press down on the ribbon cable adhesive to keep it in place and push the top/bottom together, making sure the glass and edge are aligned all the way around.

If you get the ribbon cable in correctly, it'll power up and work fine. Mine did.

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/54627903447_4be4a9fa56_c.jpg

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/54628977844_fd00c6b5e4_b.jpg