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by rlpb 1473 days ago
What level of replaceable battery is acceptable? Like you, I have an XPS 9360 and I replaced the battery recently. I had to remove a bunch of screws and pry open the lid to do it. I don't particular mind this. I'd rather have a thinner laptop than some screwdriver-less battery swap mechanism that I'm only going to use every few years.

For me, the battery was replaceable and dealing with a screwdriver and opening spudgers every few years is fine.
3 comments
bmicraft 1473 days ago
To me any amount of non-security screws is fine as long as none of them are covered by a sticker, or worse a rubber pad that is sure to never stick again
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Ekaros 1473 days ago
Reasonable number of regular screws 4-8 seems fair. If the battery in normal use lasts appropriate time let's say 4-6 hours at minimum. Otherwise yes, it should be toolless and even somewhat swappable in hibernation.
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hakfoo 1472 days ago
I sort of resent when repairability is clearly being used as a gatekeeping feature. Only the premium model is designed to be servicable.

I had an old Thinkpad X230 Tablet where everything was behind clever individual covers, one screw each and flip open, and the battery just slid off the back.

I got a newer E585, and there's a single-piece back panel that requires removal of 8 captive screws and then pry it apart, and the battery's behind it with a direct tether to the mainboard, rather than any sort of "we thought you might want to carry a spare and swap them without doing major surgery" packaging.

This is a bigger, chunkier, clumsier machine in every way, so don't pull the "design" or "thinness" card on me.

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abdusco 1473 days ago
I tried 3 replacement batteries on my XPS13 (2016) before it started charging properly. It straight up refused to charge the first battery (power led flashes amber), stopped charging the second after a few days and required unplug&plug (which screwed up the chassis). I finally found one on Aliexpress that worked.

It was a horrible experience for me as a broke student going through all that trouble in a non-US country, with no way to actually purchase a genuine replacement.

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