I’ve had my Macbook Pro for quite a while now. It’s a 17-inch unibody model from late 2009. It has a been a trusty companion and I would hate to part with it. The battery had been getting weaker and weaker over time, but it wasn’t until about three weeks ago that it became so bad I just couldn’t take it anymore. We’re talking about 30 minutes on a single charge!
So I started looking around for a Macbook Pro replacement battery. Being as old as it is I figured it might be a hard item to come by and if I did, it would be super expensive. I explored all my options and finally settled on the NuPower Battery from Newertech. The majority of reviews were positive and the price wasn’t going to break my bank account. So I ordered one and awaited its arrival.
The Newertech NuPower battery boasts the following features:
8% increase in capacity.
Meets or exceeds factory specifications.
RoHS certified. Free of mercury, lead, cadmium, PBBs, and PBDE.
1 year limited warranty
Full compatibility with OEM sleep and power reduction modes.
Those all sounded good to me. When the battery arrived it was packaged well. Nice and tidy. It also included a few tools to help with the replacement. One of those tools is the tri-lobe screwdriver that is necessary to remove/install the battery. As Apple chose to use this special type of screw to hold it in.
Installation
I took the cover off my Macbook Pro and pulled the old battery out. I compared the two side-by-side to see if I could see any differences. The only two differences I could see was a slight difference in color and the connector did not have the plastic pull tab that the OEM battery had. Other than that, everything else looked identical. Dimensions, screw holes, etc.
Here are some comparison shots of the OEM battery and the Newertech NuPower battery. In the first picture from the left the Newertech battery is in the front. The middle picture is of the OEM battery connector, and the third picture is of the Newertech NuPower battery connector.
Post Installation
Replacing the battery was a breeze. It went in without any trouble and the dimensions were spot on. The connector plugged right up and the tri-lobe screws aligned perfectly. The cover went back on without a hitch. I had read a few reviews where some users said the battery was a tad thicker and pushed against the trackpad. I did not experience this at all.
I powered up my Macbook Pro and everything started up as usual. I noticed the charge level was around 65%. I used the Coconut battery app to check things out and the design capacity was reporting 14000mAH. Definitely a little more than the original battery! Awesome!
The instructions that came with the battery said that the initial charge needs to be for at least 12 hours uninterrupted no matter what the percentage says. Then it needs a full discharge and then repeat.
So after I powered down. I plugged my charger up and let it go overnight. The next day I used my laptop and ran it down all the way to 0% until the laptop turned off. Then I plugged it back up to the charger and let go overnight again.
After two full load cycles I started to use it as normal. I will say this, the first few times I was doing some video editing my laptop randomly went to sleep. I had read about this issue on a couple of reviews and I immediately got worried. However, after a little Google research it appears that it just needed a few more load cycles on it to “calibrate” it.
True to Google word, I have not experienced that issue since. I now have about 3 weeks of use on the new battery and everything is running smooth as butter.
Is It Worth It?
I researched quite a few batteries before making this purchase. I’m a little leery of third party manufacturers when it comes to replacement parts so I always take my time and research thoroughly. There were other batteries out there, some were more expensive and some were cheaper. But the Newertech NuPower battery had the most reviews and real world usage. There wasn’t much information on the other batteries at all.
The Newertech NuPower battery costs about $120. Shipping was fast and the packaging and included tools were a plus. The included instructions were also a nice touch. The whole package and process as a whole was pleasant and really gives the impression that this company is professional and takes pride in their product.
As a Macbook Pro replacement battery I feel that the Newertech NuPower is definitely worth it. I am quite pleased with it and its performance. I haven’t really put a stopwatch on the runtime, but I would have to say I’m getting about 3 1/2 to 4 hours of runtime depending on what I’m doing.
