Comments on: Is the World Ready For Sealed Notebook Batteries? Are You?

By: John

John — Sun, 07 Jun 2009 17:57:05 +0000

@sng you can hold down the power button for about 5 seconds, and this forces the machine to reboot.

By: sng

sng — Sun, 07 Jun 2009 09:20:20 +0000

The primary reason being removed i.e. the life span of the battery becomes a non-issue. I’d be upgrading every 3-4 years anyway.

My issue is the reboot factor. When I get the beach ball of death i automatically undo and remove the battery.

How would i do that now?? Or do we have to wait until the power completely drains?

By: Foreign Exchange School

Foreign Exchange School — Sat, 17 Jan 2009 21:46:59 +0000

I loved reading your story…

By: blissapp

blissapp — Sat, 10 Jan 2009 21:04:10 +0000

Oh and another thing… my current (main) laptop is a late 2007 17″ mbp, so it willbe a while before I need to care about this anyway! It’s health is currently sitting at 96%

By: blissapp

blissapp — Sat, 10 Jan 2009 21:02:26 +0000

I’ve changed a battery in an iPod, another Apple device that has an “unchangeable” battery. I’ve also owned half a dozen or so laptops, I’ve always upgraded before the battery life became an issue. I think I’ve got a P3 laptop in the cellar whose battery is now dead, a replacement battery is probably more than the laptop is worth. If there truly is 8 hours (even the 5 that is more likely), then a 5 year lifespan is perfectly fine, I mean, 5 years ago I was using that P3 laptop… It’s a long time.

By: John

John — Sat, 10 Jan 2009 06:17:08 +0000

s/it’s/its

By: John

John — Sat, 10 Jan 2009 06:16:18 +0000

Here’s the thing-

A laptop battery lasts for 2-3 years. I think for 90% of users, during those three years, the sealed battery, with it’s longer life and fancy chemicals, are a Good Thing.

But Apple hasn’t given us any information on how much it will cost to replace it. Similar to the cost of a new battery today? A little more? x3? No information.

THAT’S the problem with this — 90% of users don’t care about swapping out to backup batteries, but they WILL care about the cost (money AND time) of replacing the battery in 2-3 years.

By: Jeff

Jeff — Fri, 09 Jan 2009 11:54:08 +0000

I’d rather use a sealed Apple laptop than a laptop with a removable battery that ran Windows.

By: Jared

Jared — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 17:53:49 +0000

Cool case coming out by these guys (who are local, which is nice):
http://www.sfbags.com/products/sleevecases/sleevecases.htm

By: Arnold

Arnold — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 08:25:29 +0000

“I don’t like it. With an expensive piece of hardware, you want to be able to replace what makes it run, if you need to.”

On a computer, just about *every* part is something that “makes it run”. :-) You can’t replace the motherboard yourself, either. Many/most laptop parts that used to be separate are now completely integrated; how would you replace the sound chip or optical drive controller, even if you knew which one it was?

“If you someone tried to sell a car that had sealed on tires, I don’t think that would be so good either.”

(Uh-oh, car analogies.) But tires can fail catastrophically through no fault of the user or manufacturer. A better analogy would be, say, the battery on your car: it recharges during normal use, and gradually wears out, just like your laptop battery.

Would you buy a car whose battery you couldn’t change? (I don’t know how to change the battery in my car; those crazy Europeans have some kind of special cradle I can never remember how to open.) How about if you knew the battery was spec’d to last the entire useful life of the car? I don’t remember the last time I’ve seen somebody change their own car battery. Or changed their own oil, either — that also frequently requires special equipment, these days.