MBP battery
 

Did I hear correctly? You can't swap out batteries in the new Mac Book Pro?
They CLAIM up to 8 hours of run time. UP TO. Well, for editing that will probably be more like 6 hours...when the battery is new. A year later and you'll have 4 hours of run time before the need to recharge. That seems odd. They give a 5 year life to the battery; then what?

Yeah that's pretty much the deal. So what's this got to do with editing? :)

-Noah

On the 17" models only, yes this is true.

Apple claims that it gets 3X as many cycles as a normal battery, so it should be able to last the useful life of the laptop without seeing any significant reduction in battery life.

If you ever want a fresh new battery, Apple charges $175 to open it up and replace it. There will probably be 3rd party replacements for around $60-100 but it will void your warranty.

Ed,

Read between the lines with the 17" inch battery performance; Apple is claiming the extra-long run times *only* for non-CPU intensive work such as web-browsing and email. Expect just over 1.5 hours of work for anything that's heavy-duty such as FCP or Photoshop.

As I mentioned in a previous thread I would not recommend the unibody 17" inch MBP under any circumstances; your best bet is the 15" inch - that is if you can live with the glossy-only screen.

I have been carrying laptops around the world for 15+ years & only very occasionally have I found myself without access to a power outlet for more than a few hours. I even carried spare batteries in my bag until I realised that I never used them. As long as it's good for 2-3 hours I am more than happy. It's not like the battery life is akin to that of a mobile phone & measured in days.

BTW there is no way that I would downgrade from the 1920x1200 resolution of a 17" MacBook Pro.

Cheers

Nigel

The title of this forum is "editing on the MAC"

Last time I looked, the MacBookPro is a MAC.


Robert
It's worse than I thought...1.5 hours?? Granted, 90% of my use would be plugged into A/C but it's nice to have the ability to use the battery. What will that 1.5 hours look like in 2 years? Probably 1/2 hour. And to get it replaced costs $175...and how much time?

I'm not suprised at the run time but I am suprised at the inability to swap it out. Why didn't they just omit the battery altogether and use the space for memory or something else?

Well maybe a little more than 1.5 hours depending on the codec you are editing with, maybe less. HDV will certainly kill a battery quicker than DV or ProRes. And editing programs don't let the hard drive rest, further draining the battery.

It would behoove people to use this issue to convince Apple to license their "MagSafe" power connector to third party vendors who could then make external battery rigs for those who choose to edit in the wild.

Are you sure that is the issue? It's easy to find 3rd-party MacBook chargers all with Magsafe connectors. I think it's just that nobody has bothered to make an external battery with a MagSafe connector although you can buy an adaptor with MagSafe connector that runs off a 12V car cigar lighter so you could presumably connect to any 12V battery.

Cheers

Nigel

Perhaps in France but here in the US you have to purchase your AC adapters directly from Apple. Or at least that's my experience.

Non-Apple power adaptors appear to be available worldwide. There are plenty from US suppliers on eBay macbook magsafe, Computers Networking, Electronics items on eBay.com

Cheers

Nigel

Well, there's certainly a lot of Apple made MagSafe AC adapters on eBay. A couple that I looked at were of questionable origin, certainly not from the major third party accessory companies here in the US.

I especially was amused by the adapter that comes with a free kung fu DVD!

wait a minute... i thought ALL adapters came with kung fu DVDs!!!????

From my eBay link the overwhelming majority of MacBook adaptors for sale are non-Apple. The clue is in the wording of an adaptor 'for' an Apple MacBook. The original Apple ones are labelled as such. One 3rd-party that I picke at random even boasts " The manufacturer uses the actual Magsafe connector from Apple’s AC adapter."

Cheers

Nigel

Since I am from the United States your link takes me to a different eBay search so no non-Apple MagSafe for me.

Are there any MagSafe battery extenders in Europe?

I don't know why you should be seeing a different page than that to which I linked as I deliberately chose eBay.com i.e. the US site. You can do the search for yourself on eBay - New & used electronics, cars, apparel, collectibles, sporting goods & more at low prices, just enter "macbook magsafe" without the quotation marks. The vast majority of adaptors for sale are non-Apple parts. When you read the description it will refer to being a replacement for the Apple charger. There are some Apple chargers but these are clearly listed as "Genuine" or "Original". The other clue is in the price as genuine Apple parts are $79 in the Apple store, somewhat cheaper on eBay but nowhere near the $24.99 that some replacements go for.

Both the genuine & 3rd-party adapros are probably all made in the same factory in China anyway:-)

Not that I've seen. Perhaps there is a opportunity for some entrepreneur here?

Cheers

Nigel