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I didn't have any wear issues with the battery retention on my Motorola Droid A855. The designers of modern phones were willing to accept a reduction in batter

I didn't have any wear issues with the battery retention on my Motorola Droid A855. The designers of modern phones were willing to accept a reduction in battery capacity in the name of thinness. I am willing to accept a minor reduction in capacity to get back replaceable batteries.

tosc 4y ago
Nobody is saying that every phone with a replaceable battery will break.
olliej 4y ago
> I didn't have any wear issues with the battery retention on my Motorola Droid A855. I've never had any issues with batteries dying in any phone I've had this decade, and those have chemically/physically determine lifetimes. I assume that they have decayed (because physics/chemistry), but that the decay is not enough for me to think anything is wrong. OTOH we know that enough batteries were decaying that apple included software that down clocked older phones to avoid browning out the SoC (an at best questionable "solution"). The issue is not "all things do X" but "X is the most common failure", historically the most common failure were the battery cover/shell clips, and modern "non-removable battery" powered phones simply do not have that failure mode at all. > The designers of modern phones were willing to accept a reduction in battery capacity in the name of thinness. Something they were able to do due to the capacity gains from not having the paraphernalia to support hot swappable batteries. I'd also question whether the existing chassis of high end phones has physical space needed to support any kind of latching, or whether that alone necessitates making the phone thicker, before even considering the battery changes. > I am willing to accept a minor reduction in capacity to get back replaceable batteries. We know there are people who want trivially replaceable batteries, but we also know that in general most people don't: there were android phones with hand replaceable batteries in the early days, and it turns out that people would rather have a single battery that lasts longer, than potentially needing to carry additional batteries with them solely due to the loss of capacity that came with supporting the ability to swap batteries.
- terribleperson 4y ago
  I've definitely experienced battery life reduction, but I buy 2 year old flagship phones and keep them for 4+ years.

tosc 4y ago

Nobody is saying that every phone with a replaceable battery will break.

olliej 4y ago

> I didn't have any wear issues with the battery retention on my Motorola Droid A855. I've never had any issues with batteries dying in any phone I've had this decade, and those have chemically/physically determine lifetimes. I assume that they have decayed (because physics/chemistry), but that the decay is not enough for me to think anything is wrong. OTOH we know that enough batteries were decaying that apple included software that down clocked older phones to avoid browning out the SoC (an at best questionable "solution"). The issue is not "all things do X" but "X is the most common failure", historically the most common failure were the battery cover/shell clips, and modern "non-removable battery" powered phones simply do not have that failure mode at all. > The designers of modern phones were willing to accept a reduction in battery capacity in the name of thinness. Something they were able to do due to the capacity gains from not having the paraphernalia to support hot swappable batteries. I'd also question whether the existing chassis of high end phones has physical space needed to support any kind of latching, or whether that alone necessitates making the phone thicker, before even considering the battery changes. > I am willing to accept a minor reduction in capacity to get back replaceable batteries. We know there are people who want trivially replaceable batteries, but we also know that in general most people don't: there were android phones with hand replaceable batteries in the early days, and it turns out that people would rather have a single battery that lasts longer, than potentially needing to carry additional batteries with them solely due to the loss of capacity that came with supporting the ability to swap batteries.

terribleperson 4y ago
I've definitely experienced battery life reduction, but I buy 2 year old flagship phones and keep them for 4+ years.