I purchased one from a different seller that I had to return, but not this one. I have been using it for a couple of months now.

Rating: 5 / 5

The battery was brand new, came packaged in a very strong box, with the battery completely surrounded by custom foam to keep it safe.

Instructions were very easy, charge with computer off for 24 hours, then drain the battery completely, then charge fully again.

I have been getting about the same battery life as my original battery, I think it says 3. 5 hours once fully charged and depending on usage (internet mostly) I get about 3 hours actual.
Rating: 5 / 5

The first one suddenly died after just six months of use. One day it’s giving 4 hours of charge, the next day it’s 100% dead and completely unusable. It won’t hold a charge for a single second. Apple acknowledged this was a known issue, and it’s well documented on the internet. This was covered by warrantee and they replaced it on the spot – excellent service. If this was the only issue, I’d give it either 4 or 5 stars (assuming it was a total fluke). The problem is, it’s not a fluke and they actually issued a recall for these batteries.

To add insult to injury, a second less severe issue started plaguing this same battery after 3-4 months of use before it actually died. This is the well documented flicker issue. In summary, when using the Macbook on battery power, the battery has trouble maintaining a constant voltage/current which causes your screen brightness to constantly flicker. This gives you a headache, and looks bad. Switch to direct power and it goes away. Switch back to battery and it immediately starts happening. Further proof is if you pop in a new battery it goes away again. The problem is these batteries start to malfunction within the first few months of use. Was this a fluke? Read on.

Well after I got the replacement battery, everything was perfect like new at first. Of course after a few months the flicker issue started to plague this battery too, but at least I could use my Macbook. And it wasn’t as bad as the first battery. If I kept it plugged in, it wouldn’t flicker.

Fast forward a year and a half, and the second battery (which is 1 year old) has suddenly died the same mysterious death. One day it held about a 4 hour charge, the next day it refused to work at all. It died under the most ordinary circumstances of usage.

So I’m going to buy a third battery for my Macbook.

The third strike against this product is that for such a badly designed battery, they’ve decided to charge $[. . . ] retail. A premium price for something that is way below average reliability and performance. The 13″ Macbook battery is notorious for issues, and I’m not the only one who’s had multiple dead batteries.

What’s sad is battery problems plague ipods as well, and among 3 ipods I’ve owned one completely died a similar sudden death, another holds a charge for 1 hour, while the third is okay. So I wonder if this is just Apple’s philosophy because I’ve had battery problems on 4 out of 5 Apple batteries. These were all bought between 2005-2008 so I hope the problems have been corrected since then for new products. I doubt it’s been fixed for this product though, seeing as how my 2nd battery had the exact issues as the 1st but simply lasted 6 months longer.

I’m just reviewing the battery here, which gets 1. 5 to 2 stars. The Macbook gets about 4. 5 stars for being almost perfect.
Rating: 2 / 5