FTA: "this new MacBook Pro has, at the very least, the first reasonably DIY-friendly battery replacement procedure since 2012."
Pre-unibody I can believe. I had a whitebook and the battery popped off and revealed the disk bay and RAM.
The removable battery in your device wasn’t supporting the device. It’s a design trade off that most OEMs have made.
It’s an argument akin to complaining about unibody cars. For the vast majority of people, like 95%, nobody was replacing laptop batteries on a regular basis.
We historically bought <1000 batteries a year, mostly due to environmental issues like cold and good lifecycle management.
having > 3% of your batteries go puffy though is still significant when you can redesign your machines to be easier to repair.
I’m not running that business anymore, but I’d be interested in changes between 2019 and 2022, as people are running on battery more and using residential electric service.
According to coconut I replaced my battery back in 2017~2018 or so (battery was manufactured in October 2017) and it was a breeze. "New" battery is at 6934/7000mAh (99% capacitity).
"Even better, it appears the battery isn’t trapped under the logic board. That could mean battery swaps without removing all the brains first—a procedure we’ve been dreaming about for a while."
That...seems like a pretty big improvement?
As to expertise: you just need to remove a few screws and then the power connector, its not difficult just tedious.
You don't have to follow each step, but if you don't know any better you should.
taking shortcuts just leads to sloppy outcomes, like any repair method.
This is why I still feel the fishing line method, combined with low quantities of solvent is the least risky option overall.
But I went to check the battery replacement guide for the 2015 and…: https://www.ifixit.com/Guide/MacBook+Pro+15-Inch+Retina+Disp...
> Steps 74
> Time Required 2 - 3 hours
However according to the comments the ifixit people were playing it very safe, most of the steps in the first half are not entirely necessary and the procedure can be completed in about an hour.