As much as it made sense that Apple omitted a few standard features on the MacBook Air to maintain its ultra-thin design, I couldn't get over the fact that the battery is basically sealed inside the device, which I thought would make it very difficult to replace. But according to the The Apple Insider, with a size 0 Phillips head screwdriver, the battery can quickly be replaced in less than three minutes.
Once you unscrew the battery from the chassis, just unplug the battery from the circuit board and give it a tug. Contrary to popular belief, it isn't stuck to the board. Do it yourself or take it to a technician, but just keep in mind that this process could void its warranty. Apple will soon be announcing a MacBook Air out-of-warranty battery replacement program, which is said to cost around $129 and take five business days. Tough call — do the quick and cheap battery replacement and void the warranty, or pay the extra, wait five days and keep the warranty intact?!
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Changing the MacBook Air Battery Is Easier Than Expected
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Laura Scott
I think I'd want to keep the warranty in tact.
1Once the warranty is out...it's DIY baby. Shouldn'y need replacing until then anyway. I'm waiting for the dual processor PowerBook in Feb.
2Question:
3The past two times I have flown with my laptop, I have had to actually take the battery out to go through security. I don't know if this is regulation at all airports, or I just was picked out at random, but they just made me pop out the battery before it went through the x-ray scanner.
Uh, if you can't take out the battery without voiding your warranty, what do you do? I wouldn't buy a laptop that I couldn't travel with. I don't think TSA is going to say "Oh, a MacBook Air? You're exempt. You! With the Dell! Take out that battery!"
Hmm that's a good question julieulie... I've never encountered this problem. It'll be interesting to see what happens with the Air.. "MacBook Air, right this way ma'am" hehe, could you imagine?! What model of Dell do you have?
4I have the Dell 700m which I absolutely love because it is so tiny (the 12" they sadly no longer make)! I have to carry it back and forth to the lab everyday (2 mile walk) so light and small is the way to go. I was originally excited about the MacBook Air because of that (I work in an all-Mac lab, I'm the only PC user but I already had a fairly new laptop when I joined and I refused to shell out another thousand plus for a laptop like they wanted), but the features which have been left out leave it impossible -- I can't work without an optical drive, and I need to connect to the ethernet in the lab. Oh, well.
5Plus, I wouldn't want t get stuck traveling and have to whip out the screwdriver to try to get the battery out, and then be accused of having a screwdriver which I can use to poke someone's eye out or something... yay, TSA!
It's an internal component of your machine now. That would be like them asking you to remove your logic board.
Most machines have internal batteries as well so it was probably just a function of TSA being thorough and not some sort of battery conspiracy.
6Macgirl, the problem is that if the MacBook Air is the only computer that you can't easily remove a battery from (there may be others, but none that I have seen), do you really think TSA is going to give you a valid pass? Most TSA agents I know are not exactly friendly and out to help you out -- they mean business. Like I said, they're not going to make my fiance take out his battery and not make me take out mine if they're doing a thorough job.
7I don't think TSA is going to make you get out tools to remove internal components to your computer. I only do carryon luggage and have traveled on planes with more odd computer equipment than you can even imagine. While I always get delayed in the security check they have never denied me taking something on the plane just because they didn't know what it was. They do the little bomb swipe and call it a day, well after 20 minutes of going through all of my stuff
Luckily no cavity searches to date.
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