Great news, now for the future of high end modular smart phones and laptops! More technician repair jobs and more freedom and money for the handset manufacturers
I always thought removable batteries were clearly a good thing, until I watched this YouTube video: Techquickie - Why Removable Batteries Are NEVER Coming Back
While acknowleding the pro side, it also gives some arguments for the con side:
- phone cases are easier to make water proof if they are not meant to be opened
- sturdier battery case for safe and easy handling makes the phone heavier and bulkier
- customers favor metal/glass phone cases, but those tend to break when frequently opened
- non-rectangular batteries allow for more compact hardware design
The video is 4 years old and I haven’t followed the topic too hard. I just found it interesting to have some fairly reasonable counter points for a nuanced discussion.
I owned a Kyocera DuraXT for a while. Lovely waterproof phone I frequently launched into walls and concrete whenever the iPhone crowd asked me why. Battery easily removable and replaceable. Flip phone. Able to make calls while drowning up to 5 metres underwater.
Only reason I don’t use it anymore is I moved back to a country that doesn’t support CDMA. Would get another one immediately if it supports Signal.
Lovely waterproof phone I frequently launched into walls and concrete whenever the iPhone crowd asked me why. Battery easily removable and replaceable. Flip phone.
I understand it is possible to make. From my general understanding of physics and engineering, I assume it requires more effort to achieve both (replacable and resistant) than to just achieve one.
So while I approve to have the option to have a replacable battery, I’m a bit worried forcing manufacturers to include that feature would raise the price, even for customers who don’t need it.
My DuraXT cost me like USD70. It’s been done before with older stuff for dirt cheap. Plus waterproofing is not necessarily covering all ingress points. It includes a coating on the parts as well.
That’s how I can read on my Kobo ereader, spill curry on it, and clean it off at the sink.
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Lets just hope cost of production for 2 separate models is going to cost them more than just a single model.
Apple is already doing that for the USB port or lack of it. So certainly possible, but it does mean that a to enter one of the largest markets in the world, you have to offer it, which should make it much more common in the rest of the world. So for Android users, this should give everybody in the world access to decent removable battery phones.
