It has become harder to replace the battery of laptops. More than half of the devices currently sold don't allow the battery to replaced by users themselves, according to the Dutch consumer organisation "Consumentenbond".
(image by Intel Free Press (c) Creative Commons)
Five years ago the battery of 77% of the laptops could be replaced, this year that has number decreased to 42%.The organisation researched how easy it was to replace the battery of more than 600 laptops and found big differences between computer brands.
Apple is at the bottom of the list with a score of 3.0, the company's MacBook Pro and Air models have a battery that is completely stuck to the inside of the laptop. Acer and Asus score a little better with 5.5 and 6.0 respectively. They are followed by HP that scores a 7.1 and Peaq, Mediamarkt's own brand with a score of 7.6.
Toshiba and Lenovo score the highest with a 8.7 and 9.6 respectively. Most of the laptops of these brands have a battery that can be easily unclipped.
It's much cheaper for users to be able to replace the battery themselves. The price of a battery is €40-80 ($42-85) while having it replaced by the manufacturer costs between €150 ($160) and €200 ($215).
