The new battery design is the best innovation announced today. It really doesn't make sense to carry around the extra casing material for a battery that I never remove from my laptop anyway. I don't think any of my non-techie friends or family have ever used their laptops without the battery, or replaced the battery, ever.
I think this battery design would be copied by more manufacturers if they had trustworthy retail centers like Apple does. I would take my Mac to the Apple store to replace the battery without any hesitation but I'd never take my ThinkPad to Geek Squad to do the same, and I'm not going to go laptop-less for days while UPS drop-kicks it to Lenovo's service center.
User-serviceability of computers is going to decrease as part of cost-cutting, size-reduction, and bullet-proofing by manufacturers. If Lenovo could make my laptop significantly smaller, lighter, more reliable, and cheaper than it is now, I would gladly give up the ability to easily take it apart or to easily swap out the battery.
Isn't it better when you can upgrade yourself as better components come out? It would be far better for Apple to come out with a 8 hour battery upgrade for current owners. You don't need a whole new platform to upgrade a battery, or a disk, or a video processor.
I agree on the service centers though, they are a huge apple advantage. I don't think I would ever want to go to one and waste my time. One hour at the store plus commute costs me almost the price of a battery.I prefer to click it on line and spend 30 seconds popping a new battery in.
I think this battery design would be copied by more manufacturers if they had trustworthy retail centers like Apple does. I would take my Mac to the Apple store to replace the battery without any hesitation but I'd never take my ThinkPad to Geek Squad to do the same, and I'm not going to go laptop-less for days while UPS drop-kicks it to Lenovo's service center.
User-serviceability of computers is going to decrease as part of cost-cutting, size-reduction, and bullet-proofing by manufacturers. If Lenovo could make my laptop significantly smaller, lighter, more reliable, and cheaper than it is now, I would gladly give up the ability to easily take it apart or to easily swap out the battery.