News, info, and opinion by Mac users, for Mac users.

January 25, 2008

hardware

Non-replaceable battery easily replaceable

Posted Jan. 25, ’08, 12:39 PM PT by Dan Pourhadi
Category | Hardware

mbaSide1.jpgThere’s a lot of fuss about Apple’s infringement of our Divine and Constitutional Right to replace our own laptop batteries, installing a (supposedly) non-user-replacable battery in the MacBook Air. Because of the complicated internal construction needed to achieve its paper-like thinness, the battery is housed in the case without simple pop-it-out function — an odd compromise, considering the targeted-at-travelers nature of the device.

Well, Gizmodo did the obligatory Apple-product tear-down, and uncovered an interesting little surprise: while you have to actually remove the bottom casing of the Air to get to it, removing the battery itself isn’t an epic endeavor. Undo a few screws and blammo: slides right out.

Now, sure, Apple has said the only way to replace it is to take it to them and pay them for the honor of the task. This implies they won’t be selling the batteries themselves for enterprising screwdriver-weilding weight-watchers fixin’ for a power boost. But the simplicity of the process opens the door for a completely different approach: third-party batteries and battery replacement. There are already great third-party solutions for Apple’s current notebook and iPod lines, ones that offer batteries with even longer lives than Apple’s. MacBook Air easily-installable higher-yeild solutions are inevitable.

Unfortunately, because the MacBook Air Gizmodo pulled apart technically belonged to Apple, they had to pull the photos and video. They said they’ll repost everything when they get their own Air units, so keep checking back.


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