If your MacBook Pro 15″ drains in two hours even when you’re barely doing anything, shuts down unexpectedly before the battery indicator hits zero, or the laptop rocks on your desk like it’s sitting on a marble — you’re not imagining it, and you’re not alone. Many owners of the 2018 and 2019 A1990 models report exactly these frustrations, and in some cases a visibly swollen battery pushing up against the trackpad or bottom case is the underlying cause. The machine hasn’t given up — these are well-known issues with a well-understood fix, and the underlying hardware is still capable of years of reliable use.

At ALVA PC, we replace the battery in your MacBook Pro 15″ 2018–2019 and hand it back to you exactly as it left — same files, same logins, same wallpaper, same everything. We fit the correct A1953 cell for the A1990 chassis and test the result before it leaves the workshop. You don’t get a reconfigured machine or a lecture about upgrade paths; you get your laptop back, lasting a full day again and sitting flat on a desk the way it should.

If you’d like to understand what the service involves before booking, our MacBook battery replacement guide covers the full process. When you’re ready to go ahead, you can secure your slot on our MacBook battery booking page with a £10 reservation.

Good news: a battery replacement is a well-understood service for this MacBook Pro family, and in most cases it makes a real, noticeable difference to how the machine feels day to day. The battery is a single glued-in unit rather than a removable pack, so the job involves proper adhesive removal rather than a simple unscrew-and-swap, and ALVA PC will confirm exactly which battery your specific model needs before any work is agreed — there’s no guesswork on your part about whether your machine qualifies.

This is a hardware service only — it doesn’t involve your storage drive at all, so your documents, photos, and settings stay exactly where they are throughout. You don’t need to worry about choosing the right part, about compatibility, or about anything going wrong in the process; ALVA PC takes care of the technical decisions entirely, and the machine comes back to you ready to use, just as you left it but running the way it should.

The name ‘Apple MacBook Pro 15″ 2018–2019’ covers several configurations that share the same chassis and model number (A1990) but differ in processor, graphics, and build year — so the name alone doesn’t confirm every detail of your exact machine. Before confirming anything, ALVA PC checks your specific model to make sure the assessment and any recommended work is right for your laptop, not just the family in general.

On many MacBook Pro 15″ machines from this era, declining battery health is the most common reason the laptop starts feeling unreliable — shorter runtime between charges, unexpected shutdowns under load, or a “Service Battery” warning in the menu bar. These packs are now several years past their original install date, and owners who kept the machine plugged in most of the time often see the drop-off accelerate, alongside the swelling risk covered elsewhere on this page. Issues are frequently associated with the battery rather than the processor or display, both of which are typically still well up to the demands of everyday work.

The good news is that the rest of the hardware in this family — the display, the chassis, the processing power — holds up well, and many owners report the machine feeling genuinely dependable again once the battery is replaced. The laptop itself is not worn out; it often just needs the one component that has the most impact on day-to-day reliability to be refreshed, and then the familiar machine you already know comes back to life.

Both the 2018 and 2019 15-inch MacBook Pro fall under model number A1990, separated in practice by the EMC number stamped on the bottom of the case: EMC 3215 for 2018, EMC 3359 for 2019. Despite covering several processor and GPU tiers — from the base Core i7 up through the Core i9, and from the Radeon Pro 555X to the Vega 16 and Vega 20 on higher-end configurations — every variant in this family uses exactly one battery unit, part number A1953, rated at 83.6 Wh, 7,336 mAh, and 11.4 V. There are no capacity tiers, no dual-battery layouts, and no configuration-specific parts to sort through. The A1953 is glued into the chassis rather than screwed in, so replacement requires adhesive remover and careful prying; iFixit’s guides for this model walk through the process in detail, and most third-party repair shops stock the part readily.

On the software and performance side, it’s worth knowing a few things before buying into this generation. The 2018 launch was accompanied by a confirmed firmware bug that caused the processors — particularly the Core i9 — to throttle well below their rated clock speeds under sustained load; Apple patched this, but many owners on commonly sold variants still report the machine dropping under base clock during heavy workloads like video export or compilation, tied in part to VRM power limits rather than CPU thermals alone. The butterfly keyboard used across 2018 and 2019 models includes a silicone membrane layer over earlier versions, but debris-related failures are still frequently reported, and Apple’s own repair program for this keyboard generation ended in November 2024. A portion of owners on the 2018 and 2019 models also report the discrete Radeon Pro GPU producing graphical artifacts or causing system instability, which in many cases improves when the machine is forced to use the integrated GPU — suggesting a driver or switching issue rather than a failed GPU in most instances.

Battery swelling is probably the most practically important issue for anyone buying a used example of this generation. Many owners report swelling beginning at relatively low cycle counts, sometimes under 200, which causes the laptop to rock on flat surfaces and in more advanced cases can put pressure on the trackpad and keyboard. For anyone purchasing secondhand, it’s worth checking the current cycle count against Apple’s 1,000-cycle design limit and physically inspecting whether the machine sits flat. Replacement with the A1953 addresses the swelling directly, though real-world battery life on this machine runs noticeably shorter than Apple’s rated figures under demanding workloads — the combination of a high-resolution display, discrete GPU, and thermally active processors draws power aggressively in practice.

Our Apple MacBook Pro 15″ 2018–2019 battery replacement service removes the uncertainty: we check your exact model, confirm the layout, select a suitable route, carry out the work, test the laptop and send video proof before any remaining balance is due. For a wider explanation, visit our main service page.

Common concerns. We’ve written a detailed guide that addresses every one of these worries honestly, with research to back it up.