Hacker News Reader

Comment by dpedu | Hacker News Reader

> A [macbook] battery replacement involves carefully prying out a glued component.

Can't speak to every model, but it's not always like this. I just swapped the battery on my 2020 M1 Macbook Air, and it's much easier now. The battery is glued to a metal tray that unscrews and lifts out of the laptop. It is discarded with the old battery. The tray is also held down with pull-tab adhesive strips, but they are trivial to remove - similar to what "command hooks" have.

https://www.ifixit.com/Guide/MacBook+Air+13-Inch+Late+2020+B...

I've also done a battery swap on a 2015 Macbook Pro 15" - much harder. Each individual battery cell is glued directly to the chassis, and removing each one involves a lot of prying and praying it doesn't puncture or decide to detonate.

Back to the macbook air, I've also replaced the screen and USB-C ports. It's not that bad.

View on HN

The way 99.95% of customers would replace a macbook battery is to take it to the Apple Store and have them do it for a fixed charge while you wait. It's a great service. Apple will still replace the battery in your 2013 MacBook Air. By contrast there hasn't been a first-party battery pack for the T400 in many years.

These "fragility" arguments always, as in the case of the OP, ignore the actual experience of owning and using the thing. People will adopt an ancient smartphone because they are locked into the idea that removable battery and removable SD cards are morally superior, and then blindly ignore the fact that the battery life sucks, the only batteries available are random chinese junk, the backs are easy to break and lose, SD cards are unreliable and easy to lose, and so forth. There is a reason that the market overwhlemingly prefers phones and laptops with fixed storage and integrated battery packs.

> the only batteries available are random chinese junk

Unlike the awesome iPhone batteries that are made in Cupertino, right?

Apple sources batteries mostly outside of China and generally has avoided the Chinese batteries (which are almost uniformly garbage) preferring Samsung and TDK production in Japan, S. Korea, and India.

There is an absolutely insane amount of fraud in the Chinese component industry and for a high-risk item like a phone battery the risk simply is not worth it. Google sources Pixel batteries in China, and they also have a reputation for shipping problematic batteries.

While the battery is glued down with adhesive, you can just soak it in some 91-99% isopropyl and that adhesive dissolves quite rapidly and the battery can be pulled right out. I had no issues doing this on my 2016.

What replacement battery did you get for the 2020 M1 air?

No specific brand, I had just searched ebay for "2020 macbook air m1 battery" and picked a seller with good ratings. Cost about $40. It's not even advertised as being a genuine apple one.

Does it have similar efficiency as the original?

I remember I had to take the whole MB out just to replace speaker on my Macbook pro 2015. It does not help that there were multiple different screw type

That's great to hear, as I recommended this model recently to a relative but was worried about its repairability.

I've only ever swapped the battery on a late 2011 MacBook and it was kept in place by three tri-wing screws - really simple procedure and reportedly the device is still in use. I would not attempt the same on a 2015 or 2019 model due to the glue situation.

The USB-C ports are relatively easy to swap thankfully. What scares me is that on non Apple laptops they are sometimes soldered onto the motherboard which is asinine for such a high wear item. I heard it's prevalent in modern ThinkPads but I am not sure if it has changed recently

Reply on news.ycombinator.com