MacBook Air 2013 Battery Compatibility?

Hello everyone,

I have a mid-2011 macbook air that requires a battery replacement (it says service battery and its capacity has reduced to about 70%).

Now, its startled me that the new 2013 macbook air, which has a 7150mAh capacity battery is not compatible with the mid-2011 model according to ifixit.com.

I'm just finding it a bit difficult to understand why that may be the case, the capacity of my battery when it was new was 6700mAh and I thought that I would be able to replace it with the 2013 battery which is exactly the same physical size and shape..

What do you guys think? Am I missing something here? Could it be something to do with the CPU current?

Mac1994 said:

I have a mid-2011 macbook air that requires a battery replacement (it says service battery and its capacity has reduced to about 70%).

Click to expand...

My first thought is...do you really need a new battery at this point? Original battery runtime on a full charge was approx. 7 hours.

If your MBA's battery is currently at 70%...that means that you should still be getting around 5 hours of runtime on a single charge (with average computer tasks).

Can you tell us how many cycles are on your battery?

- Nick

pigoo3 said:

My first thought is...do you really need a new battery at this point? Original battery runtime on a full charge was approx. 7 hours.

If your MBA's battery is currently at 70%...that means that you should still be getting around 5 hours of runtime on a single charge (with average computer tasks).

Can you tell us how many cycles are on your battery?

- Nick

Click to expand...

Hi Nick!

I just checked Coconut battery again and it says: 62%, 4129mAh. That means its deteriorated since I last checked about 2 weeks ago. It also says 'service battery' in the power tab at the top.

The Battery has gone through 626 cycles over 2 years.


So any idea why the 2013 macbook air battery may not be compatible with the 2011 one? Or is it and the ifixit website has got it wrong?

So any idea why the 2013 macbook air battery may not be compatible with the 2011 one? Or is it and the ifixit website has got it wrong?

Click to expand...

It's very likely the charging circuitry that's currently utilized in your MacBook Air can't handle the current requirements of the newer longer life battery.

chscag said:

It's very likely the charging circuitry that's currently utilized in your MacBook Air can't handle the current requirements of the newer longer life battery.

Click to expand...

Hi, I've done a little bit more research and it turns out that the new 2013 higher capacity battery has a 7.6V voltage compared to the 2011 7.3V. A small difference of 0.3V is unlikely to cause problems unless the voltage converter can't handle it. Thanks for the help anyway

Mac1994 said:

A small difference of 0.3V is unlikely to cause problems unless the voltage converter can't handle it. Thanks for the help anyway

Click to expand...

Get the 2013 battery...and see what happens! If it works...then you can be one of the first folks to have tried it (as an upgrade)...and you can share your success with the works!

Sometimes someone has to be first!

- Nick

A small difference of 0.3V is unlikely to cause problems unless the voltage converter can't handle it.

Click to expand...

You're correct regarding the voltage difference but that's not the only thing that matters. It's the amount of charging current provided which really matters and if your MagSafe can handle it. But like Nick said... give it a try and let us know what happens. If you experience overheating you can always go back to the original battery requirement.