By Andrew Liszewski
One of the trade-offs to carrying the slim and svelte MacBook Air is that you can’t swap out the battery with a backup if you’re away from a power source. But that doesn’t mean you’re completely out of luck. Looking like something purchased from a Radio Shack back in the 80’s this external power source for the MBA runs on 8 x C-cell batteries. They’re not as easy to find as AA’s in an airport setting or convenience store, but if you manage to find enough they’ll give you an extra 2 hours use of your laptop.
When full the backup weighs in at around 2.2 pounds, so carrying it around as a ‘just in case’ power solution pretty much ends up cancelling out how light the MacBook Air feels. And besides the fairly expensive $247+ price tag, it can only be used with Apple’s MagSafe Airline Adapter, which is an extra $50. So in this case it’s almost cheaper and easier to carry a fully charged netbook to fall back on when your MBA is dead.
[ Bird Electron – MacBook Air External Power ] VIA [ Akihabara News ]
I love my MacBook Air’s battery, I can bring it to school, use it the entire day for all my classes, and still have juice when I get home! 🙂
Very good post on macbook battery thanks for sharing.
I like the idea. But would this back up battery be heavier than the charger? I admit this can be good on several occasions like camping trips where you have no plugs to put the charger on. But I’m having trouble with the weight it can give me.