apple laptops

vintagegirl

Will be looking to get a new apple laptop and wanted some advice

I have a 6 year old white mac book and the battery is completely not working, you can only use it while the charger is plugged in, the minute you take it out, it switches itself off.
The apple batteries however are £101 so i have seen some on amazon that would fit, i think for £16. Anyone know if these are any good, are these likely to be ok

Also i was looking for opinions on what would be better for music and movie editing etc,
a mac book pro or a Mac book Air.
thanks

knightstyle

First take the Macbook into an official Apple store or Genius Bar to get it checked out. Could just be a bad connection. My 5 year old Macbook battery is fine, 89% 770 cycles.
If you go for a replacement look at the refurbished ones but again go to a store to look and ask specific questions before buying, I find them very helpful.

almillar

I'd like to see that £16 one!
To see the cycles your battery has been through as above, click on the Apple logo top left, then 'About this Mac' then 'More Info' or similar, and you should be able to find it under 'Power' or something down the side. If it's below 300 cycles, that's generally unacceptable, and you may get a replacement at an Apple Store (book an appointment), but at 6yrs old, I doubt it.
Anyway Air vs Pro - air sacrifices power for portability, Pro sacrifices portability for power. Which do you want? I'd take the Pro as movie editing especially, is very tough on the processor, and uses loads of space (limited in the Air).

fishybusiness

I've tried a couple of non Apple batteries, one in a Macbook Pro, and one in my current 13" Macbook.

Waste of time.....even the more expensive ones start to loose their ability to run a laptop for the full quoted time.

My current one should last 5 hours it does ok at about 3 1/2 hours busy use, the cheapies start at the 3 1/2 hours and quickly drop off to 1 1/2 hours. Oh and I have had one that didn't charge properly and at the time I changed the laptop charging board - no change.

It was the naff battery.

Apple ones, if needed are well worth their cash.