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by NotPractical 1726 days ago
The thing is, I don't even know if you're paying Apple 100-200 bucks to replace the battery, or if you're paying them that much to replace the entire top case assembly, along with the battery, since it's so damn difficult to replace just the battery, I don't know if they even try. This is at least what they used to do.[1] I tried to research and find if this is still their practice but it was proving difficult. Very wasteful if so, and all likely just to make it difficult for the user to repair their own machine. (For what it's worth, recent MacBook Airs reportedly have Apple-replaceable batteries.)

[1] https://www.macrumors.com/2018/11/07/2018-macbook-air-batter...
1 comments
Grustaf 1726 days ago
Whatever else, I can guarantee you that they are not doing it on purpose in order to make it harder to repair them. They have just been prioritizing thinness.

> or if you're paying them that much to replace the entire top case assembly

The link says that "previous" MBAs had replacable batteries, and I know that 2012-2014 had it, so I don't think it was ever the case.

> For comparison, the previous-generation MacBook Air has a screwed-down battery that can be removed and replaced by Apple and its service providers without a top case replacement, in line with other non-Retina notebooks.

link
NotPractical 1726 days ago
Why can you guarantee that?

Also, this article was written in November 2018, and here's what it says:

> the battery can be individually replaced in the new MacBook Air [...] In all other MacBook and MacBook Pro models with a Retina display released since 2012, when a customer has required a battery replacement, Apple has replaced the entire top case enclosure, including the keyboard and trackpad.

This implies that, at least from 2016-2019, they were replacing the entire top case assembly in MBP. I have no reason to doubt they still are. The article is mainly about the MBA so it is a little confusing, to be fair.

link