Battery technology holds back the world. If electricity storage capabilities had developed at the same rate as, say, those of data storage or the power of processors, we would all be driving around in electric cars and charging our phones every six months. Sadly, batteries remain the Achilles’ heel of technology.
I was again reminded of battery woes when I read that Pietro Montalcino of Macography.net had replaced his MacBook Pro 15in battery for the second time. That’s three batteries in four years; and at £99 a pop it’s no cheap bit of maintenance. I’ve never kept a laptop that long and tend to move on my MacBooks before the battery is showing signs of depletion. But Pietro raises an interesting point: What happens when he upgrades to a new computer with a non-user-replaceable built-in battery?
My 2010 MacBook Air 11in is now 16 months old and, so far, I have noticed no deterioration in battery performance. According to iStat Pro the battery is still 92% healthy after a suspiciously low 67 recharge cycles. Pietro has logged 400 cycles on all of his batteries, so I still have some way to go. It’s as well.
Either that or iStat Pro is playing silly buggers.
Oh wow, 16 months and still at 92% ? I think Apple has considerably improved its battery's quality. Good news!
Pietro