Back in the day this was even better:
Original Galaxy S battery was getting weak? Order a new battery from Amazon for 13€. Battery arrives, pop the back of the phone off, pull battery out (just like that, no soldering), push new battery in. Push the back of the phone back on, done.
New battery in and it had more mAh than the original one. Despite overclocking that phone it ran a day longer after the replacement.
If the EU has its way we might all get this.
One can hope.
People can babble about water proofing, etc. There is no legitimate engineering problem.
The battery could power the device wirelessly at this point.
They could even claim they’re saving the environment by not including the battery after a couple release cycles.
Oof i didn’t think of them selling the battery separate possibly with an upcharge. monkeys paw curls
You probably also didn’t think about them no longer making the battery two years after releasing the phone.
The battery could power the device wirelessly at this point.
That’s not a thing. Wireless charging is horribly inefficient and produces lots of heat, reducing performance and battery life.
People can babble about water proofing, etc. There is no legitimate engineering problem.
Even if it was a legitimate problem, it’s sad that only about half of the phones are certified waterproof even if almost all are sealed.
Why is that sad? I can understand why companies don’t want to pay just to get a certification when the phone itself is up to standards regardless
I think the proposal went through. The Deadline is 2027 though. But hopefully, manufacturers will change in preparation of this rule so we maybe see the effects earlier like we saw with usb c? Officially, obligatory usb c usage starts in at the end of 2024, but I think everyone but Apple has already switched and Apple said they’re planning to comply within the time frame.
So my consumer preference for a sealed phone with a specific form factor simply doesn’t matter I guess?
Do you mean your consumer preference as it is currently dictated by companies?
just like that, no soldering
There’s never any soldering involved when replacing batteries tho?
Did they make a Fairphone Fold yet? If not then I’m not leaving my Z Fold 3 anytime soon. I regret not waiting for the Pixel Fold…
I don’t think they will, any time yet anyway.
Looking at how my FP3 and the newer FP4 is assembled, I don’t think they can make a foldable and easily repairable device right now (didn’t stop them releasing those unrepairable Earbuds, but oh well)
There’s also the software aspect too
Fairphone sounds great but currently has a poor price to performance ratio
You pay extra because the materials were sourced through moral means and not sweatshops.
I for one like that feature.
Thanks for reminding me of how I used to never worry about battery life cause the moment one got low, I’d just pop a spare out of my backpack and continue on with my day. Batteries were so freaking cheap!
I have an Anker powerbank for that, if my phone ever gets low I just plug it in in my bag.
Though it never got this far to be honest, my Galaxy S22 lasts for 2+ days (so charging it in the evening for half an hour is usually enough to never worry about battery).
Bought the powerbank 6 years ago to play Pokemon Go (go figure), but then they removed the steps feature (showing you how far away you are from the Pokemon, leading to people actually hunting them down instead of sitting around in one spot) and I stopped playing (:
Still, plugging in for an hour or more vs just popping a new battery in n having a full charge instantly is not comparable.
great for you, doesn’t spund great for the environment, I like the push for replaceable batteries, but surely battery banks are a better solution since they are universal
Charging the internal battery from an external one loses a lot of energy, battery charging is very far from 100% efficient A phone might not use enough energy for this to make much of a difference, but you need to build and carry beefier battery banks compared to internal batteries, and I’m not sure whether you’ll see a net benifit
Lol this post reads like grandma telling her kids about how phones were in her day!
“When I was young, we’d just pop the back off the phone and replace the battery ourselves.”
“Yea yea grandma. Let’s get you to bed.”
I mean they’re not wrong tho. This isn’t a I walked up hill both ways to school story. Its meant to convey how crappy companies have become with planned obsolescence.
New Fairphones still have that feature.
But those were also made with repair in mind.
You can literally replace your usb-c port for 15€ with original parts by yourself, by spending 15 minutes with a screwdriver.
And the parts of a Fairphone 2 are still available, nearly 8 years after it launched.
The batteries are not soldered even in the newest Samsung phones. Everything you’d want to replace is modular. Not sure about Apple.
My pixel 4a battery isn’t soldered but I needed to spend 45 minutes taking it apart and it’s definitely not something the average phone user would be comfortable doing. We need to pass (in the US) some sort of legislation that makes it simple to replace phone batteries.
There was an even bigger benefit that most people maybe didn’t realise at that time or even now, but when the phone fell that energy got distributed into the parts flying apart, which used to reduce the damage the phone took
Oh god, yeah. My original Galaxy S was dropped a few times and the plastic back cover and the battery flew apart. But the screen never got a scratch, just the plastic had a few small scratches.
But in general the new glass on phone screen sucks ass. My Galaxy S22 has small scratches from normal use, just being in my pocket. The OnePlus 5 I had before that? Not a single scratch.
They are making the glass softer now so it doesn’t crack as easily, but at the same time it starts to scratch more. Instead of going with really hard glass that doesn’t scratch and just telling customers to put a case on :-/
I did the same with my HTC Thunderbolt. That phone had so many features that these newer “better” phones don’t. Removable battery, expandable storage, IR blaster. That generation was peak for smartphones. Now I just get pixel A’s because they are all the same trash, and at least it’s cheap.
My Galaxy SIII took soo much abuse before it finally died, when I got it, a friend of mine had already installed CyanogenMod onto it. Best rooted phone I ever owned.
It was bulletproof in more ways than one, by the time I finally laid it to rest the charging port was broken and I had to charge it by touching wires to the 2 pins meant for a wireless charger, and the phone wouldn’t charge unless it was turned off.
Or, better yet, you should be able to hot swap the battery, which means that you can change one half of the battery, then the second half and the phone won’t shut down at all. Foldables make it easier since they already use 2 batteries, 1 for each half. Just wire them up in parallel and the voltage won’t drop when one is taken out for replacement by the user.