My counter example anecdote:<p>I also own a 2012 MacBook Air. In July I brought it to an Apple store just two weeks before my Apple Care support ended. I got a brand new battery for free because the three year old one had &quot;only&quot; 70% capacity left.<p>On the other hand the battery in the Dell laptop I had before got really bad after just one year, right after the one-year guarantee ended. 14 months after I bought the laptop I <i>had</i> to buy a new battery because the old one only lasted 10 minutes anymore.<p>Of those two scenarios I really prefer the Apple one. If you don&#x27;t have Apple Care anymore you still don&#x27;t have to bring it to a third-party shop. Apple will replace the batteries for $129 for up to 7 year old laptops: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;support.apple.com&#x2F;kb&#x2F;index?page=servicefaq&amp;geo=United_States&amp;product=Macnotebooks" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;support.apple.com&#x2F;kb&#x2F;index?page=servicefaq&amp;geo=Unite...</a>