3 ms·

This probably goes hand in hand with the unremovable batteries. Back when they had removable batteries you could run it on AC with no battery installed and it w

This probably goes hand in hand with the unremovable batteries. Back when they had removable batteries you could run it on AC with no battery installed and it would work fine.

Polylactic_acid 7y ago
No, thats purely to prevent repair. Its perfectly possible to have a removable battery and to just not boot when one is not inserted. Thats how phones used to work ~2013
- philwelch 7y ago
  I’m not saying one is a requirement for the other, just that you don’t have to worry about the battery-removed state when it doesn’t exist. From the tear downs I’ve seen, it seems like the primary motivation for the non-removable battery is so they can cram it into every spare piece of space.
  - Polylactic_acid 7y ago
    I guess there are also multiple states of removable. 2012 macbooks had the battery in multiple packs in odd spaces like the new ones but they had a screw in bracket holding them in place which made it trivial to remove and put a new one in. The new ones have it glued down so heavily that the battery replacement process is "Take the screen off, put it on a new bottom case, throw out the old bottom half"
- closeparen 7y ago
  A removable battery requires its own protective shell, which costs weight and thickness. When it's not user serviceable, it can just be a bag of acid resting on the main board, piggybacking on the device's own case for the required protection.
  - Polylactic_acid 7y ago
    The protective shell can be only the bottom side which replaces the bottom of the case. The internal laptop batteries are quite safe to handle if you don't use anything sharp on them. We let people handle phone batteries for ages and they weren't nearly as protected as those old laptop battery tubes.
    - rjvs 7y ago
      The phone batteries that people handled did store a lot less energy though.
    - lloeki 7y ago
      They were certainly more protected than the almost naked ones I see right now which I can singlehandedly bend (but won't given the fire hazard). And not LiPol batteries too, which are super nasty in that regard: the more energy-dense the battery is, the more of a hazard.
  - xorcist 7y ago
    Non-removable just means it's soldered down. Open a phone and you will see that the batteries certainly have just the kind of plastic shell that they always had.
    - serf 7y ago
      most phones and tablets i've worked on recently certainly do not have any plastic shell on non-removable batteries; unless you consider shrink tubing a shell. They are usually constructed of layers of battery material, wrapped in kapton tape or an equivalent, with the entire package shrink-tubed and a pigtail coming out the side for the device interface. One could easily crush the unit by hand, the construction offers little to no protection from physical forces.
sschueller 7y ago
Someone remind me why the batteries are no longer removable? Macbooks aren't water tight. Oh right, the laptop looks pretty and the battery can't be fitted in one area without adding some thickness. Im so sick over this form over function crap that everyone copies.
- fsflover 7y ago
  Purism Librem 15 is also pretty thin, but the battery is easily removable.
- emilecantin 7y ago
  Having opened both my 2008 Macbook (with removable battery) and my current 2015 Macbook Pro (with non-removable battery), it's easy to see why: the 2015's battery is actually 4 different batteries of varying sizes & shapes. It's taking most of the space inside the computer that isn't taken by the motherboard (about half, actually). Making stuff removable is a lot more work; you have to build a way to hold the thing while it's on, you have to put in connectors, etc. With non-removable batteries they can just glue them on & solder the wires. Not really saying it's a good thing, but I understand the decision.
stinos 7y ago
and it would work fine. Though in practice, the magsafe connector wasn't cat- or human proof meaning when one of those gets as much as near the cable it's byebye unsaved work and in worst case byebye boot because of a messed up system. I ended up taping the connector to the laptop to avoid that. As to why I'd run without a battery: it was swollen.
Hamuko 7y ago
Do new MacBooks not power on with just AC if you take out the battery?
- wrs 7y ago
  Well, I don't really want to destroy my MacBook to find out.

This probably goes hand in hand with the unremovable batteries. Back when they had removable batteries you could run it on AC with no battery installed and it would work fine.

Polylactic_acid 7y ago

No, thats purely to prevent repair. Its perfectly possible to have a removable battery and to just not boot when one is not inserted. Thats how phones used to work ~2013

philwelch 7y ago
I’m not saying one is a requirement for the other, just that you don’t have to worry about the battery-removed state when it doesn’t exist. From the tear downs I’ve seen, it seems like the primary motivation for the non-removable battery is so they can cram it into every spare piece of space.
- Polylactic_acid 7y ago
  I guess there are also multiple states of removable. 2012 macbooks had the battery in multiple packs in odd spaces like the new ones but they had a screw in bracket holding them in place which made it trivial to remove and put a new one in. The new ones have it glued down so heavily that the battery replacement process is "Take the screen off, put it on a new bottom case, throw out the old bottom half"
closeparen 7y ago
A removable battery requires its own protective shell, which costs weight and thickness. When it's not user serviceable, it can just be a bag of acid resting on the main board, piggybacking on the device's own case for the required protection.
- Polylactic_acid 7y ago
  The protective shell can be only the bottom side which replaces the bottom of the case. The internal laptop batteries are quite safe to handle if you don't use anything sharp on them. We let people handle phone batteries for ages and they weren't nearly as protected as those old laptop battery tubes.
  - rjvs 7y ago
    The phone batteries that people handled did store a lot less energy though.
  - lloeki 7y ago
    They were certainly more protected than the almost naked ones I see right now which I can singlehandedly bend (but won't given the fire hazard). And not LiPol batteries too, which are super nasty in that regard: the more energy-dense the battery is, the more of a hazard.
- xorcist 7y ago
  Non-removable just means it's soldered down. Open a phone and you will see that the batteries certainly have just the kind of plastic shell that they always had.
  - serf 7y ago
    most phones and tablets i've worked on recently certainly do not have any plastic shell on non-removable batteries; unless you consider shrink tubing a shell. They are usually constructed of layers of battery material, wrapped in kapton tape or an equivalent, with the entire package shrink-tubed and a pigtail coming out the side for the device interface. One could easily crush the unit by hand, the construction offers little to no protection from physical forces.

sschueller 7y ago

Someone remind me why the batteries are no longer removable? Macbooks aren't water tight. Oh right, the laptop looks pretty and the battery can't be fitted in one area without adding some thickness. Im so sick over this form over function crap that everyone copies.

fsflover 7y ago
Purism Librem 15 is also pretty thin, but the battery is easily removable.
emilecantin 7y ago
Having opened both my 2008 Macbook (with removable battery) and my current 2015 Macbook Pro (with non-removable battery), it's easy to see why: the 2015's battery is actually 4 different batteries of varying sizes & shapes. It's taking most of the space inside the computer that isn't taken by the motherboard (about half, actually). Making stuff removable is a lot more work; you have to build a way to hold the thing while it's on, you have to put in connectors, etc. With non-removable batteries they can just glue them on & solder the wires. Not really saying it's a good thing, but I understand the decision.

stinos 7y ago

and it would work fine. Though in practice, the magsafe connector wasn't cat- or human proof meaning when one of those gets as much as near the cable it's byebye unsaved work and in worst case byebye boot because of a messed up system. I ended up taping the connector to the laptop to avoid that. As to why I'd run without a battery: it was swollen.

Hamuko 7y ago

Do new MacBooks not power on with just AC if you take out the battery?

wrs 7y ago
Well, I don't really want to destroy my MacBook to find out.