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NO user replaceable battery for MacBook Air...sorry yall
- Thread starter MovieCutter
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Forget the slower processor, the smaller hard drive. Nevermind the lack of an optical drive, multiple USB ports, or stereo speakers. The biggest drawback to the MBA (besides price) has got to be the battery issue. The idea of buying a laptop whose battery can't be replaced without returning the laptop is just...strange.
I hear ya. It's an AMAZING device. If I were doing all my post-production on a desktop exclusively, this would be a no brainer....until I saw this. Makes me think twice now.
Wow, that has got to be one of the biggest Apple mis-steps in a very long time. How can you have a laptop without a battery that you can replace? I know Apple is arrogant when it comes to their hardware, but seriously that is too much. iPods are one thing, a laptop is something completely different.
It really is just pointless.....what happens when you are past the 1 year for the battery and you need to get a new one?? Is that covered under AppleCare? Probably not. I wonder how much that will cost...a new battery should be $129 then add all the other crap for out of warranty and you just dug yourself a nice hole in your pocket!
Especially since there doesn't seem to be a compelling design reason to make it that way.
I've become accustomed to being able to swap in a fresh battery when one dies on a flight, and that's a serious limitation if it no longer exists.
It really is just pointless.....what happens when you are past the 1 year for the battery and you need to get a new one?? Is that covered under AppleCare? Probably not. I wonder how much that will cost...a new battery should be $129 then add all the other crap for out of warranty and you just dug yourself a nice hole in your pocket!
Batteries aren't covered under Applecare at all unless they're deemed "defective"...which running down your charge over a normal amount of time wouldn't be.
Yup...your right. But what about the charge to do it. The battery isnt user replaceable so you would have to send it to Apple for repair. Pay for the battery, shipping, repair, and tax you could spend over $200...on a battery. This seems like an iPod all over again!
Oh, you mean the product that saved the company?
But in all seriousness, it was pretty stupid not to include a removable battery.
No swappable battery eliminates a significant portion of one of the biggest markets I thought this was being aimed at - business people.
The MB Air has almost all the ingredients to make it a killer machine for every type of business person, from the independent traveling salesman all the way up to the Fortune 500 CEO. However, I imagine that the one thing every business person absolutely needs as one of their unchangeable criteria in a laptop is the ability to make sure that their machine will work all the time, every time they need it.
I think this seemingly minor detail might actually have eliminated a huge swath of the market that this product would've otherwise appealed to. Ouch. And it seems like such a stupid thing to do since the size, weight and cost of this feature would've been practically nill.
What on earth could've been Apple's reason for this omission?
The MB Air has almost all the ingredients to make it a killer machine for every type of business person, from the independent traveling salesman all the way up to the Fortune 500 CEO. However, I imagine that the one thing every business person absolutely needs as one of their unchangeable criteria in a laptop is the ability to make sure that their machine will work all the time, every time they need it.
I think this seemingly minor detail might actually have eliminated a huge swath of the market that this product would've otherwise appealed to. Ouch. And it seems like such a stupid thing to do since the size, weight and cost of this feature would've been practically nill.
What on earth could've been Apple's reason for this omission?
Sure it's user replaceable, I have had mine apart just to see what it would be like. Where there is a will there is a way, and the hardest part is getting a battery, replacing it is easy.
I personally like the no removeable battery. I never take my battery out ever unless Im wokring with the hardware.
Being an owner of an MBA for the second time, I haven't even begun to worry about the replacement of the battery.
Every work machine (usually Dell) has come with a replacement battery, I have a pile of them in the bottom of my desk drawer and have never used them.
I travel alot, >500,000 miles a year and am very happy to give up the weight and bulk of the typical Dell (d630) + the enormous power adapter for my MBA (no I do not carry an external DVD drive, I use a USB stick). Fortunately my employer has recently become Mac friendly although the IT admin had a really confused look on his face when I gave my Dell back to him:
IT Guy: "Do you want a new one?"
Me: "No, I will be using my personal Mac."
IT Guy: "Are you quitting the company?"
Me: "No, I am quitting Windows."
IT Guy: "Why?"
Me: "Because any time something goes wrong you spend a day re-imaging it and have done that 2x in the last 12 months."
IT Guy: "Well re-imaging is more efficient for me."
Me: "Well a Mac is more efficient for me....."
I travel alot, >500,000 miles a year and am very happy to give up the weight and bulk of the typical Dell (d630) + the enormous power adapter for my MBA (no I do not carry an external DVD drive, I use a USB stick). Fortunately my employer has recently become Mac friendly although the IT admin had a really confused look on his face when I gave my Dell back to him:
IT Guy: "Do you want a new one?"
Me: "No, I will be using my personal Mac."
IT Guy: "Are you quitting the company?"
Me: "No, I am quitting Windows."
IT Guy: "Why?"
Me: "Because any time something goes wrong you spend a day re-imaging it and have done that 2x in the last 12 months."
IT Guy: "Well re-imaging is more efficient for me."
Me: "Well a Mac is more efficient for me....."
Every work machine (usually Dell) has come with a replacement battery, I have a pile of them in the bottom of my desk drawer and have never used them.
I travel alot, >500,000 miles a year and am very happy to give up the weight and bulk of the typical Dell (d630) + the enormous power adapter for my MBA (no I do not carry an external DVD drive, I use a USB stick). Fortunately my employer has recently become Mac friendly although the IT admin had a really confused look on his face when I gave my Dell back to him:
IT Guy: "Do you want a new one?"
Me: "No, I will be using my personal Mac."
IT Guy: "Are you quitting the company?"
Me: "No, I am quitting Windows."
IT Guy: "Why?"
Me: "Because any time something goes wrong you spend a day re-imaging it and have done that 2x in the last 12 months."
IT Guy: "Well re-imaging is more efficient for me."
Me: "Well a Mac is more efficient for me....."
Lol. So true. Any problems with windows, its re-imaging. Any problems with OSX... well, I hardly see any but in the rare occassion, time machine restores everything to within an hour of fault/problems instead of restoring the system to a few months ago.
To be fair, Windows System Restore has saved my bacon on multiple occasions, and far faster and easier than anything available on Mac. Each OS has its good points, I just wish each would learn from the other and give us the best of both worlds. For example: You can easily restore something in the trash to its original location with Windows, but with OS X you must remember on your own where it was and manually move it back. Another example: Mac OS X can easily be cloned and booted from the clone; why can't Windows (or even Linux) do this?
this is probably the most important feature that keeps me on a mac (well aside of it being a nicer system). i wish i had that for my windows machine.
I agree, same here. I work regularly with Linux server machines every day at work, and would love to have a similar feature for them.
