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Shouldn’t be very expensive. I run a chain of independent repair shops — most iPhone batteries are $49-$59 to replace and take about 20 minutes. Apple Store cha

Shouldn’t be very expensive. I run a chain of independent repair shops — most iPhone batteries are $49-$59 to replace and take about 20 minutes. Apple Store charges $79 for most iPhones.

w-ll 9y ago
A friend of mine went to a repair shop to fix their battery, it was half the cost of Apples repair. But the issues that ensues were whenever they went to speaker phone massive amounts of static seamed to be sent to the mic. If you where on the other end of the call it would be very annoying. To the point we joked about being 'Brain Hacked' Mobile phones have vastly changed in the last few years from once you could replace a battery very easily, to today where it seams you needing $100k equipment to do it properly. My current phone is the 6 SE which up till the last few months has been able to give me a solid 48hrs on a charge, but I've been diligent with making sure I get a full battery cycle. Coupled with no touch ID and only face ID on iphones im a little lost. The pixel doesn't seam like its for me. Maybe I will go back to Motorola, at least they have new expansion slots which remind me of my Compaq Windows CE phone with a PCIe slot. I don't know what im going to do when it starts to crap out. I'm gonna give an official battery replacement a try before I buy something new. But still I feel we have peaked and are tracing back down in mobile phone quality.
- jonknee 9y ago
  > I don't know what im going to do when it starts to crap out. I'm gonna give an official battery replacement a try before I buy something new. You could just buy another SE, they haven't gone anywhere...
  - w-ll 9y ago
    Yea I could. I hear rumors of a new CE coming out. I feel like I can deal for another 6 months and pray we get an 8 SE. But still official repair vs buying new is a big difference in price.
- starky 9y ago
  >but I've been diligent with making sure I get a full battery cycle Do you mean that you ensure that the battery fully discharges down to zero every time? Because if so, that is one of the worst things an average consumer can do to a Li-ion or Li-poly cell over the long term life of their device.
  - w-ll 9y ago
    Im not an EE but i've always heard that full battery cycles are best to preserve its life. If not going from 100% to 0% and then charging fully to 100% is the best behavior please inform me.
    - wtallis 9y ago
      Fully discharging a battery was only necessary with nickel-cadmium cells that suffered from a severe memory effect. Nickel metal hydride cells didn't, but could be affected reversibly by a minor drop in voltage from repeated partial discharges. Most rechargeable battery technologies in use today are significantly harmed or completely destroyed by a complete discharge. Devices using lithium ion cells all turn themselves off long before the cell is completely empty, as a protective measure.
      - w-ll 9y ago
        Again, I'm not versed on the chemistry behind this, but friends who got new phones around the same time and plug them in to charge every chance they get have had their batteries fail earlier than me. I guess my data is anecdotal, but doing full cycles has allowed me to get 40+ hour standby with 10+ hour screen over the last one and half years. Where my friends cant even get more than 10 hour standby.
        owenversteeg 9y ago
        As someone who builds battery systems (yes, I'm "that battery guy" that shows up in HN battery threads) wtallis is correct: full discharges harm modern batteries, although every battery protection circuit has a cut-off voltage set to prevent discharging them too far (at which point your phone will turn off.) The practical applications of those two facts, however, are much more nuanced. Ultimately, the biggest killer of batteries is heat. Charging your phone and using it battery-intensively (max brightness/lots of processing stuff) are the biggest heat-causing things that come to mind. Another thing that can happen is heat buildup: you might not be using it very intensively, but if you use it for hours on end the heat can eventually build up and the phone will get hotter over time. It's entirely possible that your method of using your phone actually does cause less stress on the battery. However, this is 100% dependent on what you and your friends do with your phones, before and while they charge, as well as the kind of phone, its charging circuitry and a million other factors. At the end of the day, all I can say is "batteries are basically magic, use less power, and don't let your phone get too hot." The only universal recommendation that will guarantee better battery lifetime - with every battery chemistry - is to draw less current from the battery (on a phone: turn down your brightness, turn off things you're not using, etc etc.)
- zaroth 9y ago
  Last week I replaced the battery in my 6S. Today I replaced the battery in my 2011 MacBook Air 13”. In both cases it was a breeze and both devices seem to have a new lease on life with fresh batteries and being freshly wiped. I’ve had the 6S in airplane mode on the counter for 7 days now and it’s at 47% charge since the first time I charged it. Obviously it’s just sitting in ultra/standby super low power system constantly but I’m still impressed. $100k equipment is absolutely not needed. $10 screwdrivers and maybe some experience with anything electrical but it’s certainly not advanced! The MacBook Air battery in particular was super easy to swap out. About 10 screws which all came out easily and the metal back pops off incredibly cleanly fully exposing the battery. It’s a beautiful design and case was a pleasure to work with. Putting it back together took 2 minutes and everything lined up perfectly. The only mistake was slightly over-torquing one of the screws holding in the battery, with no ill effect.
  - w-ll 9y ago
    2011 was the last good year for Apple products that are repair/upgradeable, atleast for computers. When people ask if they should buy a new iMac to build games with Unity I always tell them to get a cheap 2011-2012 MacMini and upgrade the ram and disk. But thats a 7 year old device, you're stuck with a dataed CPU (which can get the job done,) but def not my every day.
    - charlesdm 9y ago
      If you want to get a desktop device and save on hardware, the best option these days is probably to go Hackintosh (though I've read it can sometimes be a bit annoying to upgrade the OS). iMacs generally are surprisingly good value though.
      - mantas 9y ago
        Hackintosh user for 4? years there. Stick to verified specs and you'll be fine. Haven't had any problems since setting everything up. Although I do keep hot backups just-in-case... But I'd do that using OEM iMac too, so not much of a disadvantage.
- djrogers 9y ago
  > Coupled with no touch ID and only face ID on iphones im a little lost. You do realize that Apple released 2 iPhones with the same performance and capacities as the iPhone X that do have touchID, right? That said, faceID is marvelous, and I would want to go back...
matt_wulfeck 9y ago
How do you know when it’s time to replace the battery?
- randcraw 9y ago
  The free app "Battery Life" will report the percentage loss of your battery and advise how soon yours needs replacement. It reported that my 5S has lost 39% of its life and should be replaced immediately. The phone works fine, but loses all its charge in 48 hours, even if it isn't used. BTW, Linpack (free app) reports the same speed score when connected to the battery charger vs not, so obviously iOS isn't throttling due to its weak battery.

Shouldn’t be very expensive. I run a chain of independent repair shops — most iPhone batteries are $49-$59 to replace and take about 20 minutes. Apple Store charges $79 for most iPhones.

w-ll 9y ago

A friend of mine went to a repair shop to fix their battery, it was half the cost of Apples repair. But the issues that ensues were whenever they went to speaker phone massive amounts of static seamed to be sent to the mic. If you where on the other end of the call it would be very annoying. To the point we joked about being 'Brain Hacked' Mobile phones have vastly changed in the last few years from once you could replace a battery very easily, to today where it seams you needing $100k equipment to do it properly. My current phone is the 6 SE which up till the last few months has been able to give me a solid 48hrs on a charge, but I've been diligent with making sure I get a full battery cycle. Coupled with no touch ID and only face ID on iphones im a little lost. The pixel doesn't seam like its for me. Maybe I will go back to Motorola, at least they have new expansion slots which remind me of my Compaq Windows CE phone with a PCIe slot. I don't know what im going to do when it starts to crap out. I'm gonna give an official battery replacement a try before I buy something new. But still I feel we have peaked and are tracing back down in mobile phone quality.

jonknee 9y ago
> I don't know what im going to do when it starts to crap out. I'm gonna give an official battery replacement a try before I buy something new. You could just buy another SE, they haven't gone anywhere...
- w-ll 9y ago
  Yea I could. I hear rumors of a new CE coming out. I feel like I can deal for another 6 months and pray we get an 8 SE. But still official repair vs buying new is a big difference in price.
starky 9y ago
>but I've been diligent with making sure I get a full battery cycle Do you mean that you ensure that the battery fully discharges down to zero every time? Because if so, that is one of the worst things an average consumer can do to a Li-ion or Li-poly cell over the long term life of their device.
- w-ll 9y ago
  Im not an EE but i've always heard that full battery cycles are best to preserve its life. If not going from 100% to 0% and then charging fully to 100% is the best behavior please inform me.
  - wtallis 9y ago
    Fully discharging a battery was only necessary with nickel-cadmium cells that suffered from a severe memory effect. Nickel metal hydride cells didn't, but could be affected reversibly by a minor drop in voltage from repeated partial discharges. Most rechargeable battery technologies in use today are significantly harmed or completely destroyed by a complete discharge. Devices using lithium ion cells all turn themselves off long before the cell is completely empty, as a protective measure.
    - w-ll 9y ago
      Again, I'm not versed on the chemistry behind this, but friends who got new phones around the same time and plug them in to charge every chance they get have had their batteries fail earlier than me. I guess my data is anecdotal, but doing full cycles has allowed me to get 40+ hour standby with 10+ hour screen over the last one and half years. Where my friends cant even get more than 10 hour standby.
      - owenversteeg 9y ago
        As someone who builds battery systems (yes, I'm "that battery guy" that shows up in HN battery threads) wtallis is correct: full discharges harm modern batteries, although every battery protection circuit has a cut-off voltage set to prevent discharging them too far (at which point your phone will turn off.) The practical applications of those two facts, however, are much more nuanced. Ultimately, the biggest killer of batteries is heat. Charging your phone and using it battery-intensively (max brightness/lots of processing stuff) are the biggest heat-causing things that come to mind. Another thing that can happen is heat buildup: you might not be using it very intensively, but if you use it for hours on end the heat can eventually build up and the phone will get hotter over time. It's entirely possible that your method of using your phone actually does cause less stress on the battery. However, this is 100% dependent on what you and your friends do with your phones, before and while they charge, as well as the kind of phone, its charging circuitry and a million other factors. At the end of the day, all I can say is "batteries are basically magic, use less power, and don't let your phone get too hot." The only universal recommendation that will guarantee better battery lifetime - with every battery chemistry - is to draw less current from the battery (on a phone: turn down your brightness, turn off things you're not using, etc etc.)
zaroth 9y ago
Last week I replaced the battery in my 6S. Today I replaced the battery in my 2011 MacBook Air 13”. In both cases it was a breeze and both devices seem to have a new lease on life with fresh batteries and being freshly wiped. I’ve had the 6S in airplane mode on the counter for 7 days now and it’s at 47% charge since the first time I charged it. Obviously it’s just sitting in ultra/standby super low power system constantly but I’m still impressed. $100k equipment is absolutely not needed. $10 screwdrivers and maybe some experience with anything electrical but it’s certainly not advanced! The MacBook Air battery in particular was super easy to swap out. About 10 screws which all came out easily and the metal back pops off incredibly cleanly fully exposing the battery. It’s a beautiful design and case was a pleasure to work with. Putting it back together took 2 minutes and everything lined up perfectly. The only mistake was slightly over-torquing one of the screws holding in the battery, with no ill effect.
- w-ll 9y ago
  2011 was the last good year for Apple products that are repair/upgradeable, atleast for computers. When people ask if they should buy a new iMac to build games with Unity I always tell them to get a cheap 2011-2012 MacMini and upgrade the ram and disk. But thats a 7 year old device, you're stuck with a dataed CPU (which can get the job done,) but def not my every day.
  - charlesdm 9y ago
    If you want to get a desktop device and save on hardware, the best option these days is probably to go Hackintosh (though I've read it can sometimes be a bit annoying to upgrade the OS). iMacs generally are surprisingly good value though.
    - mantas 9y ago
      Hackintosh user for 4? years there. Stick to verified specs and you'll be fine. Haven't had any problems since setting everything up. Although I do keep hot backups just-in-case... But I'd do that using OEM iMac too, so not much of a disadvantage.
djrogers 9y ago
> Coupled with no touch ID and only face ID on iphones im a little lost. You do realize that Apple released 2 iPhones with the same performance and capacities as the iPhone X that do have touchID, right? That said, faceID is marvelous, and I would want to go back...

matt_wulfeck 9y ago

How do you know when it’s time to replace the battery?

randcraw 9y ago
The free app "Battery Life" will report the percentage loss of your battery and advise how soon yours needs replacement. It reported that my 5S has lost 39% of its life and should be replaced immediately. The phone works fine, but loses all its charge in 48 hours, even if it isn't used. BTW, Linpack (free app) reports the same speed score when connected to the battery charger vs not, so obviously iOS isn't throttling due to its weak battery.