Customer Reviews and Ratings

2.0 out of 5 stars

Based on 1029 reviews

  • 3.0 out of 5 stars

    Not the Best

    • Written by from CHAGRIN FALLS

    I got my MacBook Pro in April of 2008, and had no problems with my battery until about September of last year when the Service Battery symbol started to appear in the battery area of the toolbar. I bought a new battery and it has lasted great until now. The service battery symbol is showing up again, which is ridiculous. I cycle the battery everyday and new charge the battery unless it's dead - upon direction of an Apple representative. I don't have the money to keep on replacing these batteries. I wish I would have just waited for the new Macs to come out with their much better batteries.

    17 of 22 people found this useful

  • 1.0 out of 5 stars

    MacBook Pro fine, battery ridiculous

    • Written by from NEW YORK

    On 3rd battery, disappointing situation. Hopefully the unibody macs will be better (but then I have a matte screen at a normal res!) Always having to look for an outlet, fiddling with battery maintainance is absurd.

    IMO Apple ought to have addressed this problem with all of the MBP of this gen, not just a limited set of serial #'s. For a premium product this persistent and widespread issue is pathetic.

    16 of 20 people found this useful

  • 3.0 out of 5 stars

    Prolonged use has killed my battery.

    • Written by from Winnetka

    I've have this laptop and battery for 2 years now. I use it all the time as a computer and as an alarm to get up. I'm in a major in college that requires us to use a laptop all the time and I currently have 509 cycles on the battery. It gets extremely hot, and when it is not plugged in it only has a life of 32 minutes!!!

    I'm really reluctant to buy a new battery for this thing and just ride out the life until im out of school in two more years. After that I'll probably switch to a PC since I need windows for a lot of programs in my profession.

    13 of 19 people found this useful

  • 5.0 out of 5 stars

    Maybe I'm Just Lucky

    • Written by

    I've had my Macbook Pro for 3 years and I still get a little over 2 hours of battery life. Which is still DOUBLE that of a PC. I'm on it all the time and constantly drain my battery down to nothing. As a college student I just shove it into my backpack, drop it, drain the battery down to nothing many times a week doing work in the library. I have to admit I'm pretty rough on this thing and to have my battery last as long as it has and with this quality is pretty good to me.

    I'm sorry those of you who have bad luck with your battery life. Maybe you should drain your battery more often. Mine drains about 3-4 times a week. (Not always on purpose) and I've noticed that the only time I start to lose rapid battery life is when I keep it plugged in for a week or so straight... So, Use it or lose it people!

    19 of 26 people found this useful

  • 1.0 out of 5 stars

    Constant failures

    • Written by from Portland

    Waste of money. I'd actually enjoy my Mac if it wasn't for constant battery and power supply issues. I'm having to buy my second new batter within a year because the old one is no longer recognized by the laptop. My wife's Toshiba laptop which cost 3 times less has NEVER had to have the battery replaced and it's been in service as long as my MBP. Perhaps I'd actually have money to spend on new Apple products if I didn't have to constantly waste it on keeping my existing MBP working.

    27 of 38 people found this useful

  • 1.0 out of 5 stars

    Apple's downfall

    • Written by from Rathdrum

    Apple's biggest downfall is the battery. The notebooks are great, but the batteries are absolutely horrific. Even the new advertised (8-10 hour batteries) are NOT GIVING YOU the advertised hours. Apple needs to complete revolutionize there batteries. If this continues, the lot of us are not going to buy Macintosh Laptops (buying a PC with linux is perhaps a better alternative)

    27 of 45 people found this useful

  • 2.0 out of 5 stars

    Had laptop for 1.5 years, battery suddenly works poorly

    • Written by from Hampstead

    My battery life for my macbook pro used to last around 3-5 hours depending on what I was doing. Just a couple weeks ago, when fully charged, it only lasts an hour and rapidly dies. I've only had this battery for 1.5 years and feel this is ridiculous to die so soon.

    39 of 44 people found this useful

  • 2.0 out of 5 stars

    Not what I'd hoped for

    • Written by from EDINBURGH

    Battery for 15" MacBook Pro 2008

    My original battery gave up the ghost after a year but more importantly it appeared to happen after I'd installed Snow Leopard.

    The replacement from this site is now running down v quickly as well but not as before which was almost immediately, but I'm only getting 3-4 hours from light web browsing/email usage.

    If I knew about the battery in the 2008 MBP range I wouldn't have bought it.

    19 of 20 people found this useful

  • 1.0 out of 5 stars

    Bulging battery/dead battery

    • Written by from Jenison

    Having purchased my first & only 15" MPB in December 2006, I'm just about to purchase my 3rd battery. After I heard about the exploding Mac batteries, I looked at my battery. There was a bulge in the middle of it. With a phone call to Apple, I was sent a replacement ... my #2 battery. (Had to send the original back to Apple.) This replacement battery has never performed optimally. For one thing, it seems like the cycle count hasn't been recorded accurately. Awaiting its death pronouncement, it currently never gets back up to 100%, loses that within seconds of disconnection from power, and shuts the computer down within a couple of minutes. I'm wondering if off brand replacement batteries work any better than these.

    19 of 21 people found this useful

  • 1.0 out of 5 stars

    Gets very hot.

    • Written by from Idaho Falls

    Replaced my Macbook Pro battery just 8 months ago and the new one stinks! When I started to type this review it was at 97% life and now it is already at 87% in just about a min. I hate spending $125 for a battery that doesn't last a year. Besides the new macbooks come with a battery that lasts 10 hours? Can't Apple make something for older gen macbook pro's that will at least do half of that? Down to 76% now.

    23 of 24 people found this useful

  • 1.0 out of 5 stars

    bad-dery

    • Written by from port saint lucie

    I have gone through two batts on my 2008 mbpro in two years. Very dissappointed...

    15 of 18 people found this useful

  • 1.0 out of 5 stars

    Worst Life ever

    • Written by from vancouver

    I have been through 2 batteries in 4 years. They have never lasted more than 300 cycles. They just get unreliable very fast. But apparently the new Macbook Pro has a great battery. Too bad for us who have the older model!

    14 of 14 people found this useful

  • 1.0 out of 5 stars

    Dysfunctional Battery

    • Written by from Washington

    I've owned my MBP since Oct 2008 and love it dearly. However, the battery is another issue. I never realized how my bad my battery has become until I upgraded to Snow Leopard; it always says "Service Battery." My battery straightened up the week I was going to the Apple store (the week before my warranty expired). Unfortunately, not very long. It started acting up again the following week. I downloaded iStat so I can monitor my battery's life. Currently, my battery health is at 33% with 261 cycles and won't go above 95% charge. It's been like this for a week now. The usage time fluctuates from 30 min to 3 min in a second. Sometimes, my MBP goes on standby while I'm writing an email because the battery is suddenly dead. Now, I can only use my laptop for 30 min max before I have to plug it in again. :(

    13 of 13 people found this useful

  • 3.0 out of 5 stars

    Surprised By the Lack Of Battery Life

    • Written by from Kailua

    I bought my macbook pro about a year and half ago. just before the new ones came out. and i was suprised to find out the other day that of the charger i'm only getting an hour and a half of battery life!!! My dad said that if you keep charging something when its not at its lowest that it starts sucking the life out of it like thats what happend to my ipod. so i'm not too sure aobut his new battery

    18 of 23 people found this useful

  • 5.0 out of 5 stars

    no problems whatsoever

    • Written by from oxford

    i have had the same macbook pro for nearly four years and just this month the battery condition went from "normal" to "replace soon." i don't plan on replacing it until it changes to "replace now," and i must say that i am very impressed with how long it has lasted. i just recently noticed that it isn't holding a charge as well as it used to. as i said before, i am very impressed with the battery. not one complaint here! some people say that this battery will only last a year; but if you take care of it, it will last a long long time!

    14 of 22 people found this useful

  • 2.0 out of 5 stars

    Battery Explodes

    • Written by from Ellensburg

    My battery died a few months back, but I kept it plugged in to keep power as my mac is what I use to make a living. While working, my power cord got unplugged... I plugged it back in, and to my surprise my computer would not boot back up. I turn my computer over, and my battery had EXPLODED!!! It had doubled it's size.. and miraculously at the same exact time my hard drive had failed. Out of warranty and out of luck! After spending the nearly $400 to fix my hard drive I am reluctant to buy a battery for $140.

    30 of 38 people found this useful

  • 4.0 out of 5 stars

    Cycling DOES work!!

    • Written by from SAN DIEGO

    I just bought a new battery and decided to try the cycle idea. It works! So far, I get approximately 5 hrs of use. It is NOT false advertising! You just need to follow the suggestion! I am very happy with my purchase.

    34 of 42 people found this useful

  • 1.0 out of 5 stars

    Dead Battery

    • Written by from Boise

    I bought my macbook pro almost exactly a year ago. The day my warranty expired the battery was dead!!! 1 year for a rechargeable battery is not acceptable I have never gotten more than 2.5 hours battery life under any condition. I regret buying a macbook pro I have had several problems that were fixed until the day my warranty expired.

    12 of 17 people found this useful

  • 1.0 out of 5 stars

    Low Lifespan, False Advertising

    • Written by from OAKLAND

    Battery was advertised to provide up to 5 hours of charge under certain conditions (mild web browsing, low screen brightness, bluetooth off, wifi ON). My first battery couldnt even get 4 hours with screen at lowest brightness and wifi OFF, with the charge capacity dwindling to 2.5 hours after maybe 8 months....

    I got a new battery that lived up to the 5-hour charm for about 4 months, then began dwindling heavily...after 8 months, the computer shuts off without warning and barely provides 1.5 hours of use.

    this is a terrible terrible completely unreliable product.

    30 of 37 people found this useful

  • 3.0 out of 5 stars

    2007 15" macbook pro battery

    • Written by from New York

    Summer 2007 15 inch MBP. I love this computer but dislike the battery. The first one died within ten months and the second one nine months after that. On the third one which is holding charge well as of five months of average usage. Always followed cycling recommendations (more or less). Poor battery but decent Apple support (no charge for the two replacements). Highly recommend extended warranty. Currently own two last gen MBP 13" with better batt life. Going to buy a new MBP 15" even though the reviews for the battery are pretty much the same (poor to mediocre) as the last gen. Suspicious of the five star rating reviews but better than one star.

    14 of 18 people found this useful