So FYI, as a rant, this is not in the humorous vein. Well, I hope it’s not in the humorous vein, though you never can tell. Consider yourself warned.
I’ve got a Lenovo W530 laptop. It is what I usually write the riffs and whatnot on, not to mention a key tool for my work. I’ve had it for about 3 years and the battery finally decided to crap out on me.
“No problem”, I think, “I’ll just get a replacement.”
So I did my research, found a replacement at a local store and brought it home. I swapped out the batteries, plugged in the AC adapter, and booted it up. So far so good.
Then I noticed the alert icon in the status bar.
Since the battery was not a Lenovo battery, it would not charge while hooked up to the laptop. Turns out that Lenovo has a chip in their official batteries. If a battery does not have the chip it can’t recharge. As a result, a replacement battery that can actually recharge while installed in my laptop it’ll run me about $70 more than what I had paid (and thankfully was able to get refunded).
I understand the need for the concept of proprietary knowledge and limitations. This should have limits, however. For a computer manufacturer to require a battery for the laptops they produce to come from them exceeds those bounds in my opinion. Especially when their official battery has an average rating of 2 out of 5 stars.
If you are going to limit your customers’ choices, you damn well better be offering top quality. That does not appear to be the case here. And it is disappointing to say the least.
It’s not like Lenovo will cover any issues resulting from the use of non-Lenovo parts, including batteries. They say as much on their site. As such, since the results and consequences of using non-Lenovo parts are all the burden of the end user, placing limitations on using said parts seems somewhat petty. Honestly, I cannot see a valid reason for it, though I will also say there may be something more to it than I am aware.
Bottom line is I am not a happy camper. Not that I would take my laptop camping … that kind of goes against the entire idea of camping. It just burns me that I am beholden to one company for a replacement battery, who’s main focus is not batteries, rather than run with a brand that I trust with batteries (Duracell). And to top it off their batteries come with a 1 year warranty (which, according to the reviews for the battery, shortly after that one year mark is when the battery starts to crap out) compared to the 2 year warranty the Duracell would have had.
<sigh>
It could be worse, I suppose. There could be no battery options and I could have to look for a new laptop. Here’s to seriously hoping I do not need to shop for a new laptop for at least another couple years.