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I can't help but wonder if this PCWorld writer, Mr. Ionescu, is being sarcastic in his phrasing. He opens the story with "...is not only very difficult to repair, but will also cost you 54 percent more to replace the battery." But the headline says it "sports" a higher cost, and later on he writes "the Retina MacBook Pro features a higher price."

As much as I'd like to believe this usage of "sports" and "features" is just a journalistic bad habit that's hard to break, it seems much more likely to be sarcastic humor, given the PCWorld affiliation. We don't usually see those terms applied to negative traits. Imagine Ford advertising that it's new truck "features poor gas mileage" and "sports a brief warranty period". Yes, it's got to be sarcasm. Too bad it slipped into Macworld.

I'm all for banishing the overused terminology completely.

This post has been edited by TeaEarleGreyHot: 18 June 2012 - 07:58 AM

This would imply that Apple's repair staff can find out how many times the battery was recharged. Is that possible? What if one keeps the MacBook Pro connected most of the time. Could the warranty then run for well over three years?

"... depending on how frequently you run through a full charge"

Last I looked, the technology of Lithium batteries does not like full discharge. This is very different from Nickel-based batteries where full discharge is recommended before recharging.

Lithium batteries are a little like a car battery in this sense, they should be kept charged, and discharged as little as possible. Running them to zero reduces their lifetime, sometimes considerably.

The above makes me wonder how does Apple know how many recharge cycles your computer has been through? I can guess, but does anyone know the answer?

Maybe it's just me, but I've *NEVER* had a battery last 1000 cycles. Not even close. And I'm on my *THIRD* battery for a Late-'08 MBP. This doesn't reassure me much.

sevyangapmac, on 18 June 2012 - 08:04 AM, said:

I believe the base warranty is one year (90 days telephone support) and that AppleCare extends that to three years. I doubt the battery is warranted separately for 1000 cycles. Merely that Apple gives 1000 cycles as a base performance during that first year (or three).

As the new MBP seems to have a larger battery it shouldn't come as a surprise that this battery will cost more to replace than a smaller one.
So what is the point of this article?

wlunscher, on 18 June 2012 - 08:08 AM, said:

System Profiler shows battery health and charge condition. There's also third party apps that make it easier to check that information for end users than opening up System Profiler all the time.

gpelpel, on 18 June 2012 - 08:12 AM, said:

The point of this article, to me, seems to be to point out that user servicability is increasingly a thing of the past in Apple products. I think the benchmark might be the polycarbonite MacBooks, which had a user-replacable battery and even a hard drive that could be switched out in about a minute. The compactness of the new design comes at a price. If you're buying a new Mac and using AppleCare, this doesn't impact you much. But think ahead to five years from now, when used Macs will not be able to be kept running without expensive trips to the Apple Store. It's hard not to see this as Apple looking to keep as much service work to themselves as possible.

sevyangapmac, on 18 June 2012 - 08:04 AM, said:

Look under About this Mac, Hardware, Power. This shows cycle count and health information. If you keep your MBP connected most of the time, your battery will not last as long as if you allow it to be exercised (run on batteries a couple times a week, then connect it to be recharged). Apple has a page that discusses proper battery usage, http://www.apple.com.../notebooks.html

lookatthisguy, on 18 June 2012 - 08:08 AM, said:

That battery was rated at either 300 or 500 cycles. Only the built in batteries are rated at 1,000.

I think it might be OK for a work laptop, but not a personal one. Work laptop are only meant to work for a predefined while. If they work longer, fine, but if they fail after this predefined span, too bad, just get it replaced.

Nonetheless I must say I do not like the throwaway mentality. In this day and age, laptops do not age as fast as they used to. I have a 1st gen 2006 personal MBP for which I have changed the battery multiple time, that works very well. I plan to keep that one for as long as possible. I also use a work MBP from 2008 which I'm not thinking of changing anytime soon, for which I have upgraded the RAM and the HD. I've also upgraded my mum's MB HD and RAM.

It's OK to have a sealed MBA for instance, since the form factor is so tiny and they are not as expensive, the compromise might be OK, but I'm not so sure about at MBP. I think that in 4 years time 16GB will be too little and so will be the 256GB SSD.

It is very easy to find out how many times the battery has been recharged, the battery itself keeps count.

Go to Apple menu -> About this Mac -> More info button -> Power

and there on the right you can find the cycle count.

sevyangapmac, on 18 June 2012 - 08:04 AM, said:

lookatthisguy, on 18 June 2012 - 08:08 AM, said:

My understanding of this situation is that when Apple introduced the non-replaceable MacBook Pro batteries they seriously upped the specifications. I don't recall exactly but I think the 2008-era batteries were good for about 250-300 full charge-discharge cycles, while the new ones are good for 1000. For heavy users of the older MBP models with easily replaceable external batteries a third replacement doesn't seem too bad. We won't know the actual facts about Apple's 1000 cycle claims for a year or two, but I suspect they wouldn't make such a claim without some kind of substantial lab testing results to back up their claims. It was the 1000 cycle claim that helped make the non-removeable-by-customer battery change totally acceptable to me as the new owner of a refurbished Feb 2011 MacBook Pro.