Comments on: The Apple Macbook Battery Swindle

By: Jess

Jess — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 12:33:59 +0000

Thank you all for that! Particularly the heads up about the iPod touch…

By: Peter

Peter — Sun, 22 Jun 2008 11:32:51 +0000

Yeah, Karan’s had an unlucky run with his MacBook and isn’t typical usually. In terms of battery, as aforementioned, battery warranties are pretty short (~1 year) and Apples, in my experience, have some of the most long lasting on the market.

I’m thinking about buying an older model PowerBook because they are still reliable and I just want a second smaller laptop. Anyway, just wanted to give my two-cents. :) hehe

By: karan

karan — Sat, 21 Jun 2008 23:47:03 +0000

Jess, I guess this is probably giving a really bad impression of Apple, but don’t get me wrong – Apples are still the some of the best laptops out there! I’m still going to buy Apple to replace my current one, and I think I’ve just had a bit of bad luck.

To give a counter-example, a co-worker has had her MacBook for 4 years now and hasn’t had any issues. And from what I hear around the net, they have addressed some of the issues out there – I guess just “buyer beware” in the case of out of warranty repairs.

The other thing at the moment is that if you buy a Macbook using an education discount, you can get an iPod Touch for free (via rebate) with it. If I was still in college and could still take advantage of that deal, I’d jump on it!

By: Jess

Jess — Sat, 21 Jun 2008 15:41:24 +0000

I don’t even know how I randomly stumbled upon this very cool blog, but here I am. I’m heading off to college next year and I was hands down going to buy the MacBook but now I’m not sure (much of that decision was purely aesthetics, unfortunately). Does anyone have advice on which laptop to purchase? I really did like the Mac but if it’s going to die within a year…

By: karan

karan — Wed, 28 May 2008 05:21:37 +0000

I wouldn’t be so disappointed if the battery hadn’t been running perfectly fine up until that point – health was around 98% and I’d taken care to occasionally exercise it fully to make sure it kept up. It was within the space of a day that it went from 98% (morning) to 42% (evening) to nothing (night), and that’s what’s got me annoyed.

Dell’s got the standard one year limited warranty. My sister’s Acer has the same, don’t know about Lenovo. I’m not suggesting that they extend warranties, but to have the gall to suggest that 1 year is a typical lifespan is astounding.

By: Jack

Jack — Tue, 27 May 2008 19:04:51 +0000

I think Apple hardware in general follows a consumable, disposable philosophy. I know a lot of power users that will always buy a spare battery with their Apple laptops and rotate between the two so that they’ll have twice the available power and won’t need to replace them as quickly.

I personally don’t find failure after 13 months too offensive because mobile phone batteries have similarly awful guarantees of reliability and I’ve not dealt with other laptop manufacturers. (That being said, if a Macbook Air battery died after 13 months then it’s time to get out the pitchforks and fire.)

Out of curiosity, what’s the warranty period for Dell batteries? And Lenovo?

By: karan

karan — Mon, 26 May 2008 20:47:54 +0000

Neither Apple nor Dell build their own components, but they do create the design specifications for the supplier to match, and that has to affect the quality of the end product. I’ve not heard nearly as many complaints from owners of other laptops, but three other people I know with MacBooks have had to have theirs replaced within the warranty period.

Apple Support’s view that batteries are consumables and shouldn’t last more than a year is galling and reflective of the fact that they want to avoid responsibility for something which is a chronic issue with the MacBook battery.

By: Jack

Jack — Mon, 26 May 2008 15:10:53 +0000

The battery in my Powerbook was still going strong after two years and then I qualified for some battery replacement program so I got a free replacement.

As noted by the laptop combustion scandal, Apple and Dell get their batteries from Sony. At least, at that point in time they did. Don’t know who their suppliers are now. Assuming that any laptop maker would always rely on a third party to build their batteries, what improvements could they make?