Review: FastMac’s extended-life battery for
15″ MacBook Pro
Who remembers the PowerBook 5300?
We do.
That was the first time Apple introduced a laptop that utilized lithium ion battery technology and there were some bumps in the road, to say the least. A couple of batteries caught fire just as Apple was shipping units to consumers. Only a few made it to endusers’ hands and none caught fire. But Apple was forced to recall the entire line and replace the li-ion batteries with older nickel metal hydride technology. The 5300 line never really recovered from this PR nightmare and it’s generally regarded as one of the worst PowerBooks ever shipped by Apple.
Moral of the story? Batteries are a boring, but hugely important part of mobile technology. And when they fail, bad headlines follow. Witness the deja vu experience of last year’s 1.8 million unit recall of Apple-branded batteries using Sony-sourced technology (the 5300’s units were also Sony-made, ironically). While just a handful of units were known to cause difficulty, it still prompted a massive and costly recall, highlighting how much these pretty and powerful machines are dependent on little chunks of high-density chemicals to provide the juice to keep them running.
We were never impressed with the battery life of the first MacBook Pro battery we had, or the one that Apple sent to replace it. So when FastMac sent their TruePower battery for the 15″ MacBook Pro, we were interested to see if it did last longer than Apple’s stock battery.
There’s not much to a review of a battery. What everyone wants to know is “did it last awhile?” And we’re happy to report that while we couldn’t figure out the right combination of settings to achieve FastMac’s “up to 68% more” claim, we did note a healthy bump in battery life between the two models while doing roughly the same activities on the machine.
Next question: does it look as good as the original battery? The very short answer to that is yes. It looks more or less identical to the OEM battery from Apple, with the silver finish and usual LED indicators. FastMac also uses the “interior” side of the battery to advertise their other products (iPod batteries and processor upgrades), but they balance this with some amusing warning labels (”do not use as camping firewood” and “this battery includes no Mercury, Mars, or Venus). Also, this would be a good spot to point out that this battery doesn’t use Sony technology.
And last, and really, most importantly, price. If you’re in the market for a additional battery, Apple will set you back $129.99. The TruePower is $99.95. Since the appearance is identical and the performance is superior, the choice is pretty clear when making a decision on which battery to buy.
While we can’t vouch for all the rest of their line of batteries for Apple’s portables from the last five years with a hands-on opinion, the price advantage is similarly attractive. Overall, we’re pleased to see a third-party vendor challenging Apple’s pricing and performance on a necessary component and providing a quality alternative for MacBook Pro users.
Filed under: Reviews, MacBook Pro News
“Since the appearance is identical and the performance is superior…”
What basis do you have to state that the performance is superior?
my fastmac battery does not seat perfectly in the battery bay ~ leaving a noticeable hairline edge around the bottom of the case.
out of the box on first charge, coconut battery app reported 5427mAh capacity ~ after following fastmac’s recommended power cycle conditioning procedure it came up to 5527mAh. 2 weeks later and 19 power cycles its already down to 5468mAh.
subjectively i saw no difference at all in battery life.
[…] At $30 less than a replacement battery from Apple and with 10-percent greater capacity, Fastmac’s battery is a good alternative. The MacBook TruePower battery is $100 and available for pre-order now from the FastMac website and will ship in 30 days. If you want to see what we thought of the MacBook Pro incarnation of the battery, check out our own review. […]
I have two FastMac Truepower batteries for MBP 15.4″ and they are, in comparison to the original Apple battery, really a “low-performer”. While my Apple original battery, which after 7 months is both older and have done more battery-load-cycles, still shows 5448 mAh (5500 mAh being the max value), my Truepower batterys are showing 3400 mAh and 4300 mAh. Both Truepower batteries have fewer battery-load-cycles. Now, is this 78% more capacity?
More over, both FastMac batteries makes my MBP go to shut down without any warning when the battery indicator shows around 30 min remaining battery time. From what I heard, this is a common issue with defective batteries?
Nevermore FastMac Truepower for me…
I got this assuming that at least I would get an equivalent, if not better, battery than Apple’s for $30 less. First of all, Apple has free shipping and shipping for the FastMac battery was $15. So I only saved $15. Second, the battery life is much worse than my previous Apple one. I only get about 2 hours per charge, when before I got around 3 hours 30 minutes.
Not a great product!
I received a TruePower battery from FastMac, May 15, 2008, for my 2 year old Macbook Pro 15″, to replace the original battery that came originally with the unit. I paid $99.95, no tax, shipping was $8.95 the same amount that the tax would have been here in Seattle, WA. Therefore an original savings of $30 was realized.
Could someone tell me how to measure the mAh output and or capacity of this new battery so that I can compare it with the standard Macbook pro 15″ battery from Apple.
I will keep anyone that is interested posted as to how this battery compares with the Apple version of the same battery.
Yes, Rick, please let us know how things work out with the TruePower battery.
I bought the fastmac battery for my Macbook Pro after 2 replacement batteries from Apple and a handful of headaches. I am happy to report I get almost 4 hrs of use on the fastmac battery per charge and after 30 cycles the current capacity is 5924. The original capacity of the battery was 5500 when I bought it. If you follow Apple’s battery maintenance and fully charge and discharge the battery once per month, you should get the same results.
Review: FastMac’s extended-life battery for 15″ MacBook Pro - Extended Life Battery For Macbook ♦ Apple MacBook and MacBook Pro News…
[…] Doug made an excellent post today on their site […]……
I’ve had a Fastmac battery for my MacBook Pro since March ‘08. Up to now (August) it has worked beautifully well. I started having issues waking up my MBP and had to crash the system by removing the battery in order to get it started again … Since this issue my Fastmac battery will only charge up to 80% and the light on the AC adapter is green. The battery indicator says “(Not Charging)” when it hits around 80%.
I’m not really sure what to do about it and I have a horrible feeling that I’m in for more issues. Any ideas?
Found this page via googling, hopefully someone might find it and have an answer. My situation is not dissimilar to Aftaab. I got this a Fastmac for my Macbook Pro in February or March, and it had been working fine until recently. I noticed that the battery capacity was beginning to drain, but this had happened with the several Apple batteries that I had to go through.
But in the past month, things have gotten really bad. I would frequently have the computer either shut down or restart on wake from sleep, and now it has gotten to the point where it sometimes shuts down at random when on battery, even when almost fully charged. Like Aftaab, sometimes I have to remove the battery, and sometimes (like now) the computer will only start up when plugged in.
If anyone has any suggestions, I would be very grateful. At first I thought this was a larger power issue, and was considering sending it in to Apple, but now I’m pretty sure it’s the battery, and I don’t want to send it to Apple only to have them tell me that I shouldn’t have bought a Fastmac battery.
Don’t waste your money on the FastMac TruPower batteries. I bought one three months ago and got a damaged one. It took until now to finally get a replacement. They advertise them to have up to 68% more capacity but I barely got 2 hours which is 1 hour less than my OEM battery. They ignored my emails and now stuck with this product.
Just don’t want someone to go through the same experience and money loss I did.
My Fastmac battery worked great for about a year. It lasted lots longer than the Apple battery. But then the cover began to separate from the battery case, and now it holds only about half the charge.
I have had similar problems with my Fastmac battery and Macbook pro 15″. After about 2 weeks, I was already seeing it hold only about 1:30 of charge. I’ve asked for a warranty replacement about 3 months ago and still ahve not seen the new battery. Hopefully they’ll come through when their, “new California production facility comes online”
Stay away from Fastmac and just spend the extra $$$ on an OEM battery. You won’t regret it,.
Don’t waste your money on this crappy battery. Just like all the other reviews say, Stay away from this battery, spend the money on an Apple battery.
Fast Mac Battery is crap dont buy the crap.
I too have had VERY poor experiance with the battery. The first one I ordered started to bulge badly after a couple months and they replaced it with an “updated” version. The new one is not showing any of the swelling after one years use, but it only provides about 45 minutes of run time. And I very rarely use my laptop unplugged. I only have 42 cycles. I will NOT be buying any Fastmac products again.
I’ve had serious problems dealing with Fastmac and would recommend avoiding them.
I bought one of their replacement Macbook Pro batteries. After only a few charge / discharge cycles (about 30) it was only lasting about half an hour. At first they tried to tell me this was ‘normal’, but after speaking to their technical department they eventually admitted the battery was faulty.
I returned the battery to them and they posted out a replacement to the *wrong address*. Fortunately the recipient turned the delivery away - but Fastmac won’t talk to me about it at all and I still don’t have my battery. They now haven’t responded to my emails for over ten days.
After reading bad reviews about Fastmac’s batteries and customer service, I was scared to buy from them. I sent them an email letting them know where I stood. I got an email back an hour later. In the email, I was insured that all their batteries are now made in the USA, and they hired new people to help with customer service. The girl gave me her direct contact information that way if I had any problems with my order I could have someone to work with directly. I ordered came and I haven’t had any problems!