Would applecare/apple ever upgrade people with 1.67 PB to the Macbook?

[coopdog]

I just bought (less than a month ago ) a 1.67 PB and my battery life is horrible. The only time I can get 5 hour battery life is when the LCD backlight is off (it's unusable)! I wanted the advertised 5.5 hour or close to it so I could get through all my classes everyday, but with 1.5-2.5 hour average I can barely get through one class!

The final selling point between an IBM laptop (so I could run all of my current apps) and PB was the battery life. Watching a DVD I get less than 2 hours and same with just surfing the internet with one app open. I can't use the computer on much less than the maximum screen brightness due to eye problems. The macbook pro would be the perfect solution with longer battery life and a brighter screen.

Do you think if I made my case to apple I could pay to upgrade to a macbook pro at the same price?

I'm also screwed on resale value ebay, 15" 1.67 512mb PB went from $1800+on 1-9-06 to $1200-$1500 on 1-10-05!!

Thanks!

 

[Chrispy]

I would imagine Apple will keep a stock of PBs around for some time for people who need replacements. Also, the real world battery life is still fairly unknown for the MacBook. If you really want amazing battery life you should look into the Thinkpad T43 with the extended battery. It is really hard to find laptops with 5+ hours of battery life with the power that the MacBook has.

 

[mrgreen4242]

Is it 14 or 30 days for returns? I thought it was 30 for some reason, with a restocking fee if opened. Might get them to waive the fee if you were buying another laptop AND you were returning due to an issue with hardware quality... Either way they are still selling PowerBooks so they will have them for sale for a long time if I had to guess, meaning the best you can hope for on an AppleCare exchange is a new PB.

But try to return it, if you're still in that window, or maybe even just outside of it.

 

[Chrispy]

Is it 14 or 30 days for returns? I thought it was 30 for some reason, with a restocking fee if opened. Might get them to waive the fee if you were buying another laptop AND you were returning due to an issue with hardware quality... Either way they are still selling PowerBooks so they will have them for sale for a long time if I had to guess, meaning the best you can hope for on an AppleCare exchange is a new PB.

But try to return it, if you're still in that window, or maybe even just outside of it.

This is a good point. Even with a restocking fee you would get more back than selling it on ebay. If you really want a different laptop then go that route. Just keep in mind the MacBook is not shipping until February and knowing Apple that may end up being more like March. I am always changing computers so I know how you must feel. Best of luck in whatever you decide.

 

[chicagdan]

Is it 14 or 30 days for returns?

It's 14 days. I bought an iMac G5 ten days ago and I'm still debating whether to pack it up, pay the restocking fee and walk out with a new Intel iMac.

 

[GaseousPlatypus]

Is energy saver set to highest? That could be shortening your battery life. Besides that, no, Apple will not do an "upgrade" -- the best you could hope for would be a replacement with an identical model, although I doubt that'd happen as there's nothing really wrong with yours.

If you need to get through that many hours of class, I'd suggest you buy an extra battery, they're really not that expensive.