Replacing a battery on an out-of-warranty iPhone, iPad, or Mac, is going to get a lot more expensive soon.
Noticed by 9to5Mac, Apple announced the price increase on its battery replacement page.
"The current out-of-warranty battery service fee will apply until the end of February 2023. Effective March 1, 2023, the out-of-warranty battery service fee will be increased by $20 for all iPhone models prior to iPhone 14," says a not-very-noticeable notice on the page.
That's the price hike for iPhones, but the prices are going up for other Apple devices, too.
For iPads, Apple says that "effective March 1, 2023, the out-of-warranty battery service fee will be increased by $20 for the following iPad models: iPad Pro 12.9” (5th generation and prior), iPad Pro 11” (3rd generation and prior), iPad Pro 10.5”, iPad Pro 9.7”, iPad mini (6th generation and prior), and iPad Air (5th generation and prior)."
For Macs, the price hike is bigger. "The current out-of-warranty battery service fee will apply until the end of February 2023. Effective March 1, 2023, the out-of-warranty battery service fee will be increased by $30 for all MacBook Air models and by $50 for all MacBook and MacBook Pro models," says Apple.
Mercifully, there appears to be no price hike on battery replacements for the Apple Watch, or the Apple TV remote. Apple's self-service repair store doesn't currently mention a price hike, though it's highly probable that it will happen in March, too.
For owners of Apple devices with a degraded battery looking for a replacement, this means that you should hurry up and request it before March. If you have AppleCare+, you should be able to get a battery replacement at no cost, though as The Verge noted, you're only be eligible if your product's battery holds less than 80 percent of its original capacity.
