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Comment by tummybug | Hacker News Reader

The battery being a LiPo (lithium polymer) could be a concern (they are quite unstable and explode on contact with water) and IIRC are not allowed to be brought on planes. They can also be permanently damaged if you allow the voltage per cell to get too low and do not have a huge amount of recharge cycles.

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Macbook Pro laptops have been using LiPo batteries for at least the last few years[1], so this isn't anything new. I don't know of anyone being prevented from flying because of a MBP, so I doubt this will be a problem.

[1] http://arstechnica.com/apple/2012/07/recyclers-disagree-on-i...

I couldn't find any indication that there is any difference in terms of regulations between lithium polymer and lithium ion batteries. Are you sure?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lithium_polymer_battery#Safety

http://www.airsafe.com/issues/baggage/batteries.htm

Never underestimate the ability of manufacturers to screw up a perfectly good label...

There are two types of "Lithium Polymer" batteries:

> Originally, "lithium polymer" stood for a developing technology using a polymer electrolyte instead of the more common liquid electrolyte.

> The second meaning appeared when some manufacturers started applying the "polymer" denomination to lithium-ion cells in pouch format.

The first one (polymer bag around a lithium ion battery) is currently used in many devices, but the second (polymer electrolyte) is not commonly used and seems to be an active area of research.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lithium_polymer_battery

The (common) Lithium Polymer batteries are, according to the Wikipedia page, as safe (or unsafe) as Lithium Ion batteries.

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