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I dunno, this seems like a sane thing to want AND think that this is what your users might want. And yet repetitively we dont get those products. Like this tr

I dunno, this seems like a sane thing to want AND think that this is what your users might want. And yet repetitively we dont get those products. Like this trend with protruding cameras out of phone's body. Just make the body that bit thicker and slap bigger battery on it. And you can boast in ads that it last 2 days instead 5hrs. Maybe we are wrong? Or there is some kind of nonobvious business logic behind it.

Normal_gaussian 6y ago
Protruding camera and 2 days battery life is pretty common now. 5000mAh and 30W charging for just over £200: https://www.gsmarena.com/motorola_moto_g9_plus-10432.php https://www.gsmarena.com/motorola_moto_g9_plus-10432.php There are a couple of dozen now https://www.productchart.co.uk/smartphones/ https://www.productchart.co.uk/smartphones/
- me_me_me 6y ago
  Thats great but almost 7inches I would need a handbag to carry it xD
  - Normal_gaussian 6y ago
    There are five phones with >=5000mAh and less than 6" screens on the productchart link
    - me_me_me 6y ago
      That's actually an amazing tool to find a smartphone, thanks!
sushisource 6y ago
I've thought about this a fair amount and come to the conclusion that HN readers as a group just cannot wrap their heads around why the majority of consumers are so enamored by thin stuff - but they are, and that's why these companies keep doing this. It seems wildly stupid, and it is in some objective sense, but people make bad purchasing decisions. See: Cars in the united states continuing to get bigger and bigger.
- dingaling 6y ago
  Are they really enamoured with it, or is it just that when they go to upgrade their (phone|laptop|fridge) the mainstream store only has a choice of the 10 best-advertised products? I searched for weeks to find a phone matching my SO's requirements and in the end had to order it from China . Few 'majority consumers' have the time or patience for that, so they just put up with thin batteries and camera bumps.
Delk 6y ago
> dunno, this seems like a sane thing to want AND think that this is what your users might want. I don't think most people care about RAM upgrades. Non-technical people will probably either just put up with their computer becoming somewhat slower if software requirements change over time, or they don't have use cases where they'd run out of RAM in the first place. A nice and "modern" looking form factor is probably a greater factor for most people even if they did care about the upgradability to some extent. I don't really get the trend towards non-replaceable batteries, though, at least not from a customer perspective. Batteries often begin to degrade much earlier than a decent laptop would otherwise show any age, so it makes almost no sense whatsoever (except perhaps some kind of a small improvement in size due to simpler construction) to not be able to replace those. Maybe people get their batteries replaced at a shop or they just put up with degraded batteries, too. I agree it replacements and upgrades should be doable, and that it would be responsible, and I'd appreciate it if at least models marketed towards developers, engineers and other technical professionals would have that. Most people probably just won't care enough, though.
- novok 6y ago
  Most people would rather live with a bad battery than do a replacement. And the battery issue is long after sales and warranty has expired.
adkadskhj 6y ago
> Like this trend with protruding cameras out of phone's body. Just make the body that bit thicker and slap bigger battery on it. I had always assumed they did this for case reasons. A smaller phone means room the case could occupy. Fairly logical imo, though it feels like crap if you don't have a case. As it is my iPhone 10, a fairly small phone (not a large model, i forget which) feels huge with a case. Cases make it weird.

Normal_gaussian 6y ago

Protruding camera and 2 days battery life is pretty common now. 5000mAh and 30W charging for just over £200: https://www.gsmarena.com/motorola_moto_g9_plus-10432.php https://www.gsmarena.com/motorola_moto_g9_plus-10432.php There are a couple of dozen now https://www.productchart.co.uk/smartphones/ https://www.productchart.co.uk/smartphones/

me_me_me 6y ago
Thats great but almost 7inches I would need a handbag to carry it xD
- Normal_gaussian 6y ago
  There are five phones with >=5000mAh and less than 6" screens on the productchart link
  - me_me_me 6y ago
    That's actually an amazing tool to find a smartphone, thanks!

sushisource 6y ago

I've thought about this a fair amount and come to the conclusion that HN readers as a group just cannot wrap their heads around why the majority of consumers are so enamored by thin stuff - but they are, and that's why these companies keep doing this. It seems wildly stupid, and it is in some objective sense, but people make bad purchasing decisions. See: Cars in the united states continuing to get bigger and bigger.

dingaling 6y ago
Are they really enamoured with it, or is it just that when they go to upgrade their (phone|laptop|fridge) the mainstream store only has a choice of the 10 best-advertised products? I searched for weeks to find a phone matching my SO's requirements and in the end had to order it from China . Few 'majority consumers' have the time or patience for that, so they just put up with thin batteries and camera bumps.

Delk 6y ago

> dunno, this seems like a sane thing to want AND think that this is what your users might want. I don't think most people care about RAM upgrades. Non-technical people will probably either just put up with their computer becoming somewhat slower if software requirements change over time, or they don't have use cases where they'd run out of RAM in the first place. A nice and "modern" looking form factor is probably a greater factor for most people even if they did care about the upgradability to some extent. I don't really get the trend towards non-replaceable batteries, though, at least not from a customer perspective. Batteries often begin to degrade much earlier than a decent laptop would otherwise show any age, so it makes almost no sense whatsoever (except perhaps some kind of a small improvement in size due to simpler construction) to not be able to replace those. Maybe people get their batteries replaced at a shop or they just put up with degraded batteries, too. I agree it replacements and upgrades should be doable, and that it would be responsible, and I'd appreciate it if at least models marketed towards developers, engineers and other technical professionals would have that. Most people probably just won't care enough, though.

novok 6y ago
Most people would rather live with a bad battery than do a replacement. And the battery issue is long after sales and warranty has expired.

adkadskhj 6y ago

> Like this trend with protruding cameras out of phone's body. Just make the body that bit thicker and slap bigger battery on it. I had always assumed they did this for case reasons. A smaller phone means room the case could occupy. Fairly logical imo, though it feels like crap if you don't have a case. As it is my iPhone 10, a fairly small phone (not a large model, i forget which) feels huge with a case. Cases make it weird.