Is a "user serviceable battery" important to you in a laptop?

[techs]

http://www.tomshardware.com/picturestory/606-windows-8-inspiron-dell-duo.html

Dell: No more "user serviceable batteries" in laptops

None of the company's 2012 models have user-serviceable batteries, though, in deference to a desire for more anorexic figures across the board.



wtf? That's a deal breaker for me

 

[SunnyD]

I'm sure it's still "user serviceable"... with a screwdriver and soldering iron.

 

[ghost recon88]

Dell is going the way of Apple?

 

[rivan]

I like swappable batteries. While I don't need it very often, I've got a spare battery for my laptop to swap out when I'm not near power that has been a figurative lifesaver.

 

[vi edit]

If we were still rocking 1999 battery tech, sure. But we aren't. We now have potent, high tech batteries combined with streamlined hardware that offer runtimes that were nothing but a fairy tale 10 years ago. Apples laptops for example will do close to 1000 cycles before dropping below 80%. That's still 3-5 hours of life. They have a normal lifespan of around 5 years with typical use which is likely beyond how long the average person keeps a laptop anyway.

Plus if you really need it replaced it's $130. Not exactly robbery.

Not really seeing the rage here.

 

[Juddog]

I like swappable batteries. While I don't need it very often, I've got a spare battery for my laptop to swap out when I'm not near power that has been a figurative lifesaver.

Also that laptop batteries tend to be one of the first parts to go bad in my experience. Swapping the battery with a new one is super easy compared to almost any other computer part.

 

[Juddog]

If we were still rocking 1999 battery tech, sure. But we aren't. We now have potent, high tech batteries combined with streamlined hardware that offer runtimes that were nothing but a fairy tale 10 years ago. Apples laptops for example will do close to 1000 cycles before dropping below 80%. That's still 3-5 hours of life. They have a normal lifespan of around 5 years with typical use which is likely beyond how long the average person keeps a laptop anyway.

Plus if you really need it replaced it's $130. Not exactly robbery.

Not really seeing the rage here.

If the average lifespan was truly 5 years, then I don't think that most manufacturers would limit their battery warranty to 1 year by default. When I was doing laptop repair work, we'd see batteries go bad all the time but it was the easiest part to service since you could just send a new one straight to the user.

 

[darkewaffle]

SFFNBPBBPCs ->

 

[amdhunter]

I just like the ability to change it myself. It can be "sealed", like in a MacBook Air, but as long as I know it's physically possible to change it, I am happy.

 

[AMDZen]

Dell is going the way of Apple?

Maybe if you're a moron. You can change the battery in any Apple device very easily, took 5 minutes on my iPhone 4.

 

[TwiceOver]

I think the longest I've had a laptop was 9 months. So no, not worried at all.

 

[Exterous]

Not a fan of this. I've had laptops that would not turn on until the battery was removed, you waited 30 seconds, and then put the battery back in. Also - what if I wanted a second battery so I could quickly swap one out if I started running low on power after a long trip or something. Or I decide that I want a higher capacity one later?

Seems like a lot of potential downsides for no upside

 

[techs]

Not a fan of this. I've had laptops that would not turn on until the battery was removed, you waited 30 seconds, and then put the battery back in. Also - what if I wanted a second battery so I could quickly swap one out if I started running low on power after a long trip or something. Or I decide that I want a higher capacity one later?

Seems like a lot of potential downsides for no upside

I'm guessing they will sell an external battery you can plug in to extend the life if you need it.

 

[DesiPower]

Deal breaker for sure, I like to be able to buy extra battery primarily used on long road trips, or buy a 9-cell aftermarket... bye bye Dell, I never liked Dell anyways, very cheap and unreliable IMHO. I like Lenovo the the best, all my laptops are Lenovo or HP.

 

[pelov]

Maybe if you're a moron. You can change the battery in any Apple device very easily, took 5 minutes on my iPhone 4.

No.

Not a fan of this. I've had laptops that would not turn on until the battery was removed, you waited 30 seconds, and then put the battery back in. Also - what if I wanted a second battery so I could quickly swap one out if I started running low on power after a long trip or something. Or I decide that I want a higher capacity one later?

Seems like a lot of potential downsides for no upside

They're using Li-Polymer batteries which allow for thinner designs but they're also more expensive to replace. You can't put in a high capacity one in at all, as the size and design dictate that only a single battery type, the one inside, can be used.

I'm okay with Li-Polymer, but the damn prices are too high. If you want to replace one you're looking at >$100 aftermarket whereas an equivalent Li-Ion battery would run you ~$60.

 

[iamwiz82]

I do not see any Latitudes, so only the consumer side is getting this?

 

[mikeymikec]

http://www.tomshardware.com/picturestory/606-windows-8-inspiron-dell-duo.html

Dell: No more "user serviceable batteries" in laptops

None of the company's 2012 models have user-serviceable batteries, though, in deference to a desire for more anorexic figures across the board.

wtf? That's a deal breaker for me

Yep, deal breaker. But then, the last two times I tried to buy Dell laptops constituted a deal breaker too. The last time involved the phone sales rep saying that the date I required the laptop wasn't a problem, I confirmed that another three times in separate conversations with him (no uncertain wording involved), that day comes, no laptop and of course the sales rep is suddenly unavailable for the first time. Customer service then informed me that there would be no chance that the laptop would be with me at any time soon because of a battery shortage. I was also informed that as I was a business customer I was not allowed to cancel the order. WTF?

I immediately wrote a letter of complaint basically asking "I refuse to believe that the sales reps don't know about serious stock shortages, so the question is, is this company policy for sales reps to try and screw customers like this or not?". The response was that I would get the laptop within the week (rather than the three week wait the customer service reps mentioned), and that there must have been "some sort of misunderstanding".

Yeah, a misunderstanding. "Will the laptop be here by <insert date here>?", "Yes". I can see a lot of room for misunderstandings there.

Back to the topic though, batteries going faulty is a common enough occurrence for laptops. Dell try to gouge customers for spare parts costs as well, I can almost guarantee that if I pick a Dell laptop, find the genuine Dell battery cost with a supplier I know (say £30), the Dell price will be about £150.

I would trust Dell as far as I could throw them.

I could potentially understand a non-user-removable battery in a super-thin laptop where available space is at an absolute premium, but considering that every phone I've had has a removable battery, I'm not sure how much latitude I would give a laptop manufacturer on this topic.

 

[killster1]

hahah wow i must be sleepy.. for some reason i thought this was a thread on batterys that i can take apart and fix to be new so im obviously on the easy remove battery team. Batterys go bad all the time, this seems to me like company just wants easy $$ increase since average joe doesnt want to get out his screw driver and poke around inside his 1000$ laptop

+1 for serviceable bats..

 

[purbeast0]

dell batteries are the fucking worst. everyone i know who has a dell laptop can't use it for more than 5 minutes unplugged after like a year.

 

[Juddog]

Dell went to crap ever since they shifted their manufacturing to Mexico.

 

[mikeymikec]

Dell went to crap ever since they shifted their manufacturing to Mexico.

Yeah, I have the feeling that their product quality dropped like a stone, maybe starting 2005-6? I still have a Dell laptop from 2001, a Latitude C400. I hardly ever use it, but it's a nice light laptop of about netbook performance with a decent size screen, keyboard and touchpad. It was just shy of £2k UKP then though.

 

[AMDZen]

No.

Did you read the "iFixit" article linked to that? They stripped the whole laptop apart with a screwdriver only. And the battery looks to be very easily replaced

http://www.ifixit.com/Teardown/MacBook-Pro-with-Retina-Display-Teardown/9462/1

IS it as easy? No. You have to take out a few screws and lift up a few "warning" labels and then slide the battery out. Ohhhhh nooooo. You mean, I have to do 2-5 minutes of actual work rather then sliding a battery out and a new one in? The horror.

Granted, its not something you can easily do on the go, and I understand that. But in a time when your old battery has actually gone bad, its a trivial matter to put in a new one even on the most compact devices.

Which is why this is occurring people, consumers are more concerned with how compact and small the device can be, which compromises the ease of serviceability - but it certainly doesn't throw it out the window unless you are a pussy thats too afraid to open your device up

 

[Juddog]

Did you read the "iFixit" article linked to that? They stripped the whole laptop apart with a screwdriver only. And the battery looks to be very easily replaced

http://www.ifixit.com/Teardown/MacBook-Pro-with-Retina-Display-Teardown/9462/1

IS it as easy? No. You have to take out a few screws and lift up a few "warning" labels and then slide the battery out. Ohhhhh nooooo. You mean, I have to do 2-5 minutes of actual work rather then sliding a battery out and a new one in? The horror.

Granted, its not something you can easily do on the go, and I understand that. But in a time when your old battery has actually gone bad, its a trivial matter to put in a new one even on the most compact devices.

Which is why this is occurring people, consumers are more concerned with how compact and small the device can be, which compromises the ease of serviceability - but it certainly doesn't throw it out the window unless you are a pussy thats too afraid to open your device up

When you're in an airport and your battery is close to dying, if you have another you can just power down, swap it out, and you're back up and running. I know plenty of consultants who do this. Ask these same people to open their case, pull the battery out that is glued in and replace it? Not gonna happen. You might think it's super easy because you're knowledgeable in the tech field but for end users it's a different story.

 

[Red Storm]

Not a deal breaker for me. I don't keep my gadgets for more than a year, I sell them while they still have value and use that money towards upgrades.

 

[mmntech]

The battery in my MacBook went less than a year after I bought it, so yes, definitely. It's a late 2008 unibody so the battery was insanely easy to swap out and replace.

Repairability makes gadgets last longer, keeping them out of landfills. It also keeps people who repair tech employed domestically. I won't buy any laptop that doesn't let me replace my own hard drive/SSD, battery, or memory at minimum.