17-Inch MacBook Pro Battery Is Easily Removed

During the Macworld 2009 keynote address, Apple revealed that the new 17-inch MacBook Pro would ship with a huge, built-in battery pack, that offered its user eight full hours of work time. Apple called this a true breakthrough in battery-life.

The company later decided to let everyone in on how it did it and released a making-of video for the new 17-inch MacBook Pro, with an emphasis on the system's battery. In the video, Bob Mansfield, SVP of Mac hardware, explains that the 17-inch Pro features a revolutionary new, built-in battery that delivers up to eight hours of use, and up to 1,000 recharges for more than three times the lifespan of conventional notebook batteries.

To achieve all this, Apple had to do without some of the parts that allow the user to remove the battery, thus compromising on this feature. However, the results should be more than satisfactory, Apple believes, as the system allegedly runs much more on a single charge than other laptops. Moreover, the battery's entire lifespan is of about five years – long enough to consider getting a new notebook, so replacing the battery is certainly out of the question for the power user. BUT, should that power user ever need to do it without asking Apple's help to do it, iFixit says it's possible.

The tech-savvy folks took apart the 17-inch unibody MacBook Pro the instant they received it, and, “ignoring all manufacturer warnings,” removed the “non-removable battery.” The steps that followed are described as such:

- There are three tri-wing screws holding the battery to the Unibody case. (A tri-wing screwdriver is showed in the second photo.)
- Apple did this to intimidate people out of swapping the battery, but a small flathead screwdriver (2mm or so) works fine to remove the screws.
- Removed the battery! That was pretty easy.

The team threw in a note saying "It's only a matter of time until you'll be able to buy this battery online from companies like us." The process continues with...

- Removing the battery in the 17" is reminiscent of the MacBook Air - several screws to remove the lower case, a few screws on the battery, and it's free.
- The battery is Apple model #A1309, 7.3V 95Wh (12820 mAh).
- Tree huggers everywhere will be relieved to know that it "contains no Mercury (Hg)."
- The battery weighs 20.1 ounces (1.25 pounds or 570 grams).

According to the site, the battery is 20% of the computer's weight.

Naturally, the team didn't just take apart the 17-inch Pro to have a look at the battery alone, but the other components making up the notebook as well. Check out all their findings by visiting the web site.