Apple MA348LL/A 15-inch MacBook Pro Battery (Retail Packaging)
by Apple Computer
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List Price: Our Price: $126.00 You Save: $3.94 (3%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Buy Used: from $47.99 (click here) Category: CE See more product details |
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Customers in the UK,
Buy this product at amazon.co.uk
for British Pounds
Digital Cameras Photo Reviews of Apple MA348LL/A 15-inch MacBook Pro Battery (Retail Packaging)
Customer Review: Many of these batteries are DEFECTIVE -- Better to buy directly from Manufacturer
Summary: 1 Stars
The battery in my 2006 MacBook Pro swelled up and had to be replaced under warrantee in 2006. About a year ago, the replacement battery which I had used for 2.5 years was down to 45% of its original capacity so I bought this battery from Amazon Prime as a replacement. It seemed to work okay for about 4 months, and then strange things started to happen.
1) My computer would shut off suddenly with no warning with plenty of charge showing on the battery indicator LEDs. Resetting the PMU (following Apple's instructions) seemed to work, though I no longer got the "running on reserve power" warning but rather a shutdown at the low end of the battery charge.
2) Then after a few months the computer would only run for about 1.5 hours on a full charge. The power indicator showed 2:30 of charge, but it would go down to 0:00 in 1.5 hours and then shut down. Again I followed the documented procedure to reset the PMU -- it did not help.
3) As of December 2009, I could barely get 30 minutes out of the battery, even though the battery health monitor said it had 90% of its original capacity.
4) Finally, as of January 2010, one year after it arrived, the battery is completely DEAD. The charge status LEDs do not light up at all when the button on the battery is pressed. It is no longer recognized as being installed so the computer won't charge it, and the computer goes into hard sleep if the power cord is removed. I reinstalled my old battery and it works fine (except for having only 45% of its original capacity). But 45% on a working battery is much better than 90% of a DEFECTIVE BATTERY.
If I had bought the replacement from Apple, they would (with a little complaining) recognize it as obviously defective and replace it, as they did the defective battery that came with the computer originally.
Be aware that Amazon has no provision whatsoever for replacing defective merchandise unless it is within their return "window", which in the case of this battery is ONE MONTH. The defect started to show up 4 months after purchase. There is no place to go on this web site to complain, other than this review!
MORAL: These batteries fail after a period of months so buy them from dealers that will stand behind them, not just for a month replacement window!
Customer Review: Worst battery ever
Summary: 1 Stars
Let me preface by saying that I am a HUGE Apple fan. I had Gateways, Sony Vaios, all kinds of stuff for over a decade, but once I went Apple I decided never to go back. Apple was apparently behind the curve when it came to Sony's standard of quality dropping off a cliff over the last ten years. Sony is going the way of GM or Chrysler, just looking at quarterly earnings reports and have totally floundered when it comes to R&D, quality control, or just keeping their customers in general. Coincidentally Sony has an American CEO for the last few years, but I digress.
Apple thought Sony had a name for quality, so they contracted with them to make the lithium cells in these batteries. After years of battery explosions and sub par quality, forcing Apple to recall batteries several times, Apple finally called it quits with them, that's the good news. The bad news is that these batteries ARE Sony, and don't last worth beans. Mine lost significant battery capacity after about 14 months (conveniently just out of warranty), and now at 20 months is completely worthless (about <20% of original) and it gets really hot. I spent $2,000 for my bottom of the line, but brand new, Macbook Pro in Jan 2008 and it's almost completely worthless to me without the battery. I have babied my computer, I cycled the battery once a week just as the technician advised me to, and still the battery is worthless. It's frustrating to spend 3x as much for a computer that lasts 1/3rd as long as a cheapo Compaq.
Here school is about to start and after trying every Avenue with Apple to get them to fess up that my battery should be replaced at their dime instead of me coughing up another $115+ for a new battery, they refuse, and I have no money for a new one myself.
I would just sell the thing at a discount and get a 13" Macbook Pro, but they don't come with a matte screen option, only glossy, so I pretty much just wanna go postal at my Apple store and take the Lord Geek of the genius bar hostage until Steve Jobs does right by me on my computer that cost me as much as my car.
Customer Review: Be afraid of this battery and of Amazon itself
Summary: 1 Stars
This Apple battery lasted 10 months and Amazon did not stand behind it.
I paid full price for this "Apple" battery Dec 29, 2008 because I did not want to worry about a poor quality clone. Today is Oct 14, 2009, 10 months later, and the battery is dead.
Even though I bought it direct from Amazon (not from one of their secondary stores), Amazon says this is Apple's problem, because it's a defective product. Funny, when I return a defective anything to any other retailer, they give me a refund or replacement without hesitation - they don't say it's not their problem and send me to the manufacturer.
So I go to the Apple website and enter the battery serial number. And the site says "this is not a valid serial number". So now I have to find an Apple store (1-1/2 hours away) and bring the battery there and hope they will give me a non-prorated replacement.
Instead, I called Amazon back, and they gave me the direct 24/7 line to Apple support 800.275.2273 They quickly elevated the situation, and the Apple supervisor granted a one-time exception, sending a replacement overnight. All the time, extremely courtious.
So hooray for Apple. And shame on Amazon.
Again, when I buy direct from Amazon, Amazon is the retailer. When I have a problem with a product I buy from any retailer, I expect the retailer to refund or replace the product. Lowes or Home Depot or Macy's do this. Why shouldn't Amazon?
Finally, I have bought many products from Amazon over many years without regret. But every retailer knows, you hear the customer loudest when you fail him. Amazon, you need to rethink this policy.
Customer Review: Possible quality control issues. I now own 2 defective batteries.
Summary: 1 Stars
Be aware that Apple considers batteries "consumables" and are not covered by any warranty. The warranty is tied to your MacBook Pro. If your laptop is out of warranty, so is your battery. This, sadly, is what I discovered when I called Apple tech support about my defective batteries.
I have 2: one that originally came with my laptop, and one I purchased separately for extra power on the road. Both used minimally and about 2 years old when they started having major problems holding a charge and reporting the wrong remaining charge. With one battery, at 85% remaining, the laptop would just completely and suddenly shut down.
These batteries are supposed to last up to 300 cycles, according to the specs. Mine died way before that. When not on the road, I remove the battery and run on AC power, in order to prolong the battery's lifespan (heat deteriorates the cells). One battery has had 146 charge cycles and the other has had 66, as reported by the System Profiler. The charge capacity is wildly erratic, and both show up as "Check Battery" in Profiler status.
Apple issued a battery recall on this SKU, but unfortunately, mine was not eligible for replacement. Non-recalled batteries like mine still have quality control issues, which Apple will not acknowledge.
You may be fortunate to have a good battery and not have to go through the problems I experienced. Mine are 2/2 defective, so I am frustrated at Apple's lack of support. Just something to be aware of when deciding to purchase this battery as a spare because $110 is not a small chunk of change.
Customer Review: a warning
Summary: 1 Stars
If you're like me, and hoping to resign your MBP to full time desk duty (drawing power from an AC adapter) for the remainder of its life, you'll be disappointed to know that you'll need a working/charging/charged battery to run the laptop at full throttle... regardless of whether or not it's running on AC power.
Apple batteries are notorious for not lasting much longer than a year, even if you condition/cycle them. This will be my third battery for a MBP (non-unibody) purchased in mid 2008. I estimate that my battery died within the past 4 months and I originally opted not to waste another $150 on a new one.
I recently installed Windows 7 (bootcamp) and was alarmed by the poor CPU bench mark it received in Windows' "Experience Index". Sure enough, I ran an Xbench CPU benchmark in Mac OS X and received results equal to roughly half of what they used to be.
There's a full article detailing this little known tidbit at TomsHardware (coincidentally demoing the same model MBP I have).
While on AC:
--Download Xbench
--Run the CPU test and record results
--Pull the battery
--Run Xbench CPU test again, compare results.
I get 170+ with, 75 without.
It's remarkable that the laptop can run full speed using only a battery, yet half speed on only AC. It would be nice if we were made aware of this.
EDIT:
It's now February 15, 2011 and I'm now on my 3rd battery for this laptop. This is too much to pay for something you have to replace every year.