Sadly this is not possible with a modern MacBook. When I have had to send a MacBook to Apple (or a service partner) for repair I was instructed to wipe the machine (along with ensuring I log out of iCloud to disable Activation Lock and disable Find My). While it is good to ensure my personal data is not compromised it isn't user friendly at all to have to wipe my whole machine for a battery replacement :(
For the ThinkPad, it's a 5 minute task which many people can do themselves -- certainly anyone who works in IT.
We've had less strict restrictions than France, but a couple of my colleagues replaced the batteries on their HP laptops. I sent videos, and they saw how easy it was -- less painful than a Covid test.
Which is still a step backwards. On my ThinkPad I can remove the battery in seconds without looking. Mainly because sometimes I had to disconnect it to reset it completely. If that would take 5 minutes or any kind of tool that's already hard to justify imho. What do we gain from integrated batteries? Nothing that makes up for easy replacement or, in the case of ThinkPads, the option to upgrade the capacity before the purchase.
Battery replacement is a once-in-a-few-years operation and it's OK for it to take 5 minutes.
Weight difference is minimal, size difference is minimal. Yes, there is a difference, but I don't notice it really. And I'm someone who actually lugs the laptop around, on buses and trains and while riding a bike. Most people don't even really carry their laptops, maybe from car to office and that's it.
As a person who actually carries their laptop around, I appreciate the swappable battery. Train rides are much less anxious, no need to find a seat with a plug nearby, because I know I have an extra battery.
The T14 is definitely less portable. There's less ports as well, which is quite annoying. The only downside of the T470 is the screen - I like to work outside and a higher brightness screen is crucial. If I could have the T470 with a better screen and AMD CPU, I wouldn't bother buying a new Thinkpad.
I don't know why they call ultraportables ultraportables. Are they marketed for people who sometimes lift their laptop off the table and who are bothered by the "extra weight"?
The newest T14 is more expensive than my Thinkpad from the same series was - as extra thin, hard to repair notebooks usually are. It is a bit slimmer, but in the display part, not the base with the battery. It is a bit lighter, I'm guessing because of a plastic case? I'm not sure, but the case material is noticeably absent from marketing material and the datasheet, while in the case of mine both mentioned the magnesium case and internal metal cage.
Of course that's just a surface-level comparison. But after my really bad time with the Surface Pro I am absolutely not going to buy a laptop with integrated battery as long as I can avoid it. It's just not worth the pain if something goes wrong.
Unfortunately it's becoming more and more difficult to find removable battery equipped laptops, what current model lines do have that still?
Personally, having backup batteries is a requirement for the places I work.
Laptop being thinner is a trade off you're willing to make, I am not.
Charging a battery with another battery is extremely inefficient.
Lugging around laptop batteries is exactly the same thing as lugging around power banks, except laptop batteries don't require a dongle and a cable to tether you to a table.
Laptop batteries mean you laptop can continue to in fact work from your lap.
A powerbank for the same price will probably have a higher capacity, and be able to charge any USB-C device.
All this is not a reason for integrated batteries, but Powerbanks using a universal interface are clearly more practical.
as to "What do we gain", they claim they can make them thinner and lighter, but the T14 seems to be the same Thinkness and a T450/T460 so.......
"Keep Your Drive" is now a non-free (but not that expensive) "service upgrade". Disks are still removable on most models and it's not hard, but you still have to open the bottom of the laptop. (For ThinkPads, through ultra thin models like the X1 or "unusual" models like the ThinkPad Yoga might be more problematic.)
EDIT: Through it also depends on you service/guarantee contract. If you normally have a service contract where a technician will come to you but for some reasons that currently don't work you probably can keep your drive anyway etc. Also KYD extends to some other cases.
It's almost more of a donation in my experience. Don't pay it, remove the disk, no consequence. It's also a good idea to put the OEM ram back in the machine if youve upgraded. One of the few things they may balk at and return it unfixed.
I am not sure how it easy to damage something when removing a NVMe drive, it is trivial to remove the drive and should not even come close to damaging anything
YES. THIS. I am in vehement disagreement with Apple soldering SSDs to motherboards for partially this reason (among others, including making data recovery much harder, and lack of user upgradeability).
Apple fanboys all over the world will hate on me every single time saying "What if I told you that Apple just makes the best PC". Fuck that. I want a removeable SSD so repair technicians don't need the SSD to repair other parts of the PC.
Apologies for the confusion. I should have said "Macbook" in my original comment.
And as someone who has recently had a MacBook Pro repaired, they swapped virtually everything. Keyboard, Mboard, Touch Bar, etc. the only original thing now is the screen. I would have had to restore from backup anyway. As a plus, my SSD is now brand new so any wear on it after 2.9 years of service is gone :)
How is a customer suppose to backup and wipe their devices?
Yes, it was fine. If you are in a hurry you can even boot from a Time Machine backup.
> Apple customers would have a hard time
I took it to be implicit to the wish that hard drives be owner-serviceable.
And now my 2019 work MacBook requires taking out non-standard pentalobe screws, then using a suction cup to pry the lid open slightly in order to cram a wedge tool in-between to pop it open and then you need to slide it out in order to actually get it out.
It really makes me sad Apple gave up this environment-friendly policy and started to aggressively glue everything preventing upgrades.
Edit: This was during the times when even a layman could do it because drives were in a slot secured by a single screw. These days it might be more complex.