
Apple charges $199 (54% more) for battery replacement on Retina MacBook Pro - ValentineC
http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9228158/Apple_charges_54_more_to_replace_Retina_MacBook_Pro_s_battery
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kaiuhl
Apple charges 54% more for replacing a 90% larger battery than the Macbook
Air. More news at it comes.

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twiceaday
I think a better point is "Apple charges $200 for a major repair of a $2200
item".

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joenathan
Replacing a battery being deemed a major repair is a good headline.

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m104
"Admittedly, the battery in the MacBook Pro is more powerful than the Air's:
Apple rated the former at 95 watt-hours (Whr), meaning that it can produce one
watt of power for 95 hours, or, say, 5 watts of power for 19 hours. The 13-in.
MacBook Air's battery, on the other hand, is rated at 50 Whr."

Not that a 90% increase in battery capacity should have any impact on the
replacement cost or anything...

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codemac
Battery capacity is not the defining factor in battery cost, manufacturing is.
I'd bet that they have almost identical manufacturing costs per laptop with
either battery.

How much does Apple pay for the battery, and how much do they mark it up? If
they only pay 10% more for the bigger battery, then they are gouging your 44%,
etc.

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m104
Right, I doubt that it scales linearly like that either. My comparison was
just as absurd as the article's comparison in the other direction. Really, we
don't have a clue how much Apple is making or losing by replacing these
batteries. My guess is that Apple's battery replacement charge is based
largely on the price point of the original product.

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Osiris
I had to replace a Dell laptop battery a while back and it was $140 just for
the battery with self-install (notably much easier). So... I'm not sure that
$199 is an _outrageous_ price, given that they install it for you.

However, I'm more concerned about the turn-around time. Can they fix it while
you wait at an Apple store or do they have to keep it for a day or more and
return it later?

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callmevlad
Turn-around time has been really bad for me for two distinct problems with my
MacBook. First, the LCD backlight went out, and the local Apple Store had to
ship it to a service center, which resulted in a 4 day wait to get it back in
my hands. Then I had several keys mysteriously stop working - they couldn't
figure it out at the store, so it was another week waiting for it to come
back.

Another upside for Apple with these ultra-portables is that AppleCare sales
will probably increase significantly.

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wattjustin
I recall the 15" non-Unibody MBP batteries costing $149. So for $50 more you
get a better battery, and because of a design that makes it a non-user
replaceable battery, but also one of the thinnest laptops in the world with
this kind of power, this story is getting voted up? Replacing batteries isn't
a monthly ordeal, it's likely needed only once, possibly twice in the lifespan
of the laptops usage.

As an example, here is a 12 cell HP laptop battery:
[http://www.hp.com/canada/products/landing/consumer-
accessori...](http://www.hp.com/canada/products/landing/consumer-
accessories/12_cell_battery.html). Price, $159. User installed. I can
understand people being annoyed they can't physically change the batteries
themselves, but the pricing is not a scandal.

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jaems33
Different parts get better and cheaper (RAM, hard drives, processors), why
wouldn't a battery? (serious question)

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wattjustin
In my university years I worked at Best Buy part time and the HP rep who
visited always openly acknowledged (and joked about) batteries as being
overpriced as it's easier for people to justify a new laptop when the battery
is approaching 1/4 of the price of a new one. Granted, this laptop we're
speaking of is worth a lot more than $200 x4 but I think the point is clear.

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grecy
"If the notebook is charged once each day, its capability will have dropped by
a fifth after two years and nine months."

For a machine with non-upgradable RAM and currently no SSD upgrade path, who
thinks they'll still be actively using one in > 3 years?

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jaems33
Well I'm still using an early-2008 white Macbook for
Photoshop/Illustrator/Lightroom/browsing/coding without too much of a hiccup.

Considering that the MBP Retina can also play Diablo 3 and Starcraft 2
comfortably, I could see myself using it for at least three years, if not more
if I hand it down to a family member.

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MartinCron
If it can play Diablo 3, I can see myself using it for twelve years.

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mullingitover
I got the last good macbook--the first 13-inch unibody, with a trivially
replaceable battery and hard drive. Wish Apple would've kept that design
around, it's fantastic.

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guywithabike
How often do you replace the battery and hard drive?

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jufo
I have a six-year-old 15" MacBook Pro, which is now on its third battery. A
year or so ago the original 120GB hard drive started making ticking sounds,
and I replaced it with a 500GB drive (not SSD - at today's prices I would have
gone for a 256GB SSD). It's still a perfectly capable machine - a bit
constrained by being limited to 3GB of RAM, but otherwise fine.

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sunkencity
I've had to replace battery at least once and buy a new power adapter for each
mac laptop I've had since and including the tibook, which is a white macbook
and a 15" mbp. The 5 or so different powerbooks I had never needed replacement
anything, but maybe I used them less hours/day.

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spacestation
for over a decade, I've never kept a apple notebook longer than 3 years. It is
best to not just upgrade some of the components, but to upgrade the whole unit
to the latest technology. period.

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baq
glue's expensive

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tonyarkles
Well, at least, removing the glue is time consuming :)

