Harris answers his own question, “Removable batteries are a kludge, not a feature. The only reason you want a removable battery is that a single battery’s life is too short. Apple says that they were able to expand battery size by 40% by making it non-removable. Battery size translates directly into battery life.”
“An 8 hour battery life totally changes the user experience: instead of counting minutes and looking for outlets, your notebook is always ready when you are,” Harris writes. “A few hours doesn’t seem like much, but in practice the difference is huge.”
“The reliable Mac OS X sleep mode and an 8 hour battery life will be all most professionals need to get them through the day without rebooting or plugging in,” Harris writes. “Good products serve; great products surprise. For a generation that has never known more than 4 hours battery life, the new 17″ MacBook Pro will be a revelation.”
Full article, which also explains why “you won’t see [advanced batteries and battery technologies like Apple’s] on your $500 Wintel notebook any time soon,” here.
Standing in line….
Apple is always ahead of the curve…
sometimes a bit too far ahead. newton, apple IIc, but ahead nonetheless
I wish they would make this an option on the 15inch pro, just because i really don’t need to lug around a 17″. yes when you’re on the road and need the power the 2″ makes a difference(please no “that’s what she said” jokes)
I wish My New 15″ MacBook Pro had the new battery tech
Given that a reliable replacement battery costs, what, $120 or thereabouts for the MacBook Pro 17″ right now, $175 to replace it five years from now (FIVE YEARS!!) is amazing (and more than a little economical, IMHO).
Holding my breath until it ships.
Once they can increase the energy density of batteries for 15″ laptops, I’m sure Apple *will* switch to a non-removable battery in those products. Right now, though, they probably can’t get enough juice to run one for 8 hours. And if you can’t get close to a full day’s work out of it, it kind of defeats the purpose.
All that being said, I’d be kind of pissed if I were a business traveler flying between the CONUS and Europe, or from the CONUS to Asia on any kind of regular basis. Better hope you can get a seat with a power outlet, ’cause you can’t switch batteries to keep using your laptop on flights that long! I’m sure those folks are a very small population as far as Apple is concerned, though, so probably no real loss in sales.
Is this the product that apple announced that the competitor wouldn’t be able to match? Because this is great, but almost all the products from apple does not have match for them in the PC world. The iLife suite for the 09 is also a very great announcement.
you don’t have to fly out of conus for a problem. just get stuck on an aircraft on the taxiway waiting to take off, then have to orbit somewhere before landing. and then have to rush through terminals to the next plane with no chance to recharge. if all you are doing is non-cpu intensive then maybe you are ok. also, this new battery must lose some effectiveness over time too. if not, then this is something they would have bragged about even more than the initial supposed usable time. it doesn’t take five years for 8 hours to degrade into 5 hours or less, and doing cpu-intensive tasks will use up an 8 hour battery in a lot less than 8 hours. i simply can’t take that chance. maybe i am less than 1% of the people using a 17″ laptop, and apple can “safely” ignore me, but i have seen arrogance on the part of quark, lightspeed c/symantec, codewarrior, etc. over time erode the customer base to the point where they never get their customers back again. little things by themselves, such as only glossy screens, forced to have a camera in the computer, other physical security issues, no firewire, no removable batteries, etc. over time add up to big things and change peoples’ attitudes. and it is usually a non-reversible process. i would hate to see it happen to apple.
“The new 17″ MacBook Pro has a non-removable, 8 hour battery that Apple claims can recharge 3x more times than standard batteries and has a 5 year life”
Somebody should tell Robin Harris of ZD NET that the X in 3X is there so that he doesn’t have to say times.
Fool.
Hope they fit it to MBP 15-inchers by the time mine’s up for renewal alter this year!
Does anyone know where to get a decent battry for the old macbook pro 15″ because i dont think its from apple.