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> If this was true, phones with replaceable batteries would be impossible. They're thicker to account for a solid plastics barrier between the battery compartm

> If this was true, phones with replaceable batteries would be impossible. They're thicker to account for a solid plastics barrier between the battery compartment and the display backside to protect the display from the user during battery replacement. Glueing the battery to the phone backplate allows the manufacturer to skip the .5mm of plastic.

al_borland 2y ago
Would anyone care if their phone was .5mm thicker? I realize if this logic was applied to everything the phone could double in thickness, but for a consumable part like a battery, it seems worth the sacrifice to make the repair trivial for the average user armed with nothing but a small screw driver.
- mschuster91 2y ago
  > Would anyone care if their phone was .5mm thicker? People not, but marketing people do.
  - brookst 2y ago
    I don’t understand the mindset that marketing people somehow trick millions of users. Most of marketing is figuring out what people want and convincing them your product meets those needs. There isn’t really a marketing strategy of “nobody values this but we will fight to the death to get the product designed that way so we can spend a ton of money convincing consumers to want something they don’t”. Or, let me rephrase that, there is no sustainable marketing strategy like that. People do try (see: New Coke, Humane AI pin).
    - mschuster91 2y ago
      Marketing people love some metric they can use to differentiate from competition. A phone gets thinner, lighter and survives more fall height or water depth. A PC gets a faster CPU (anyone thinking back to the megahertz wars [1] or the gigahertz wars [2]?), a bigger SSD or more RAM. [1] https://collections.museumsvictoria.com.au/articles/1538 https://collections.museumsvictoria.com.au/articles/1538 [2] https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2024/03/intel-revives-the-mhz-race-with-6-2-ghz-power-guzzling-core-i9-14900ks/ https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2024/03/intel-revives-the-mh...
    - cubefox 2y ago
      Phones with replaceable batteries use plastic, and people really hate plastic (they use "cheap plastic" as a synonym for "plastic"). So they rather buy a phone that is a little bit slimmer and has a glass back. (Manufacturers probably also like phones that have to be replaced in a few years due to battery age.)
- dotnet00 2y ago
  Most people already put their expensive thin phones in thick cases, so, no, besides dumb teenagers, I doubt anyone would care. But simultaneously, I don't know if that many people would consider it to be selling point either nowadays. Battery capacities don't seem to shrink as quickly anymore, such that the phone probably gets damaged/stops receiving updates/is replaced anyway by the time the battery would need swapping. Although perhaps that'll change now that the changes between even 2-3 year models are getting pretty small and software support periods are increasing.
- yreg 2y ago
  It would be a lot more than .5mm and yes, I would care. I will rather pay the extra 50€ in case I need to change the battery in a few years.
  - fsflover 2y ago
    Except with a replaceable battery you can also have two batteries for emergency and get 100% charge in a minute when needed. This is what I do.
- rangestransform 2y ago
  Because the volume it takes up could always just be used for more battery instead

al_borland 2y ago

Would anyone care if their phone was .5mm thicker? I realize if this logic was applied to everything the phone could double in thickness, but for a consumable part like a battery, it seems worth the sacrifice to make the repair trivial for the average user armed with nothing but a small screw driver.

mschuster91 2y ago
> Would anyone care if their phone was .5mm thicker? People not, but marketing people do.
- brookst 2y ago
  I don’t understand the mindset that marketing people somehow trick millions of users. Most of marketing is figuring out what people want and convincing them your product meets those needs. There isn’t really a marketing strategy of “nobody values this but we will fight to the death to get the product designed that way so we can spend a ton of money convincing consumers to want something they don’t”. Or, let me rephrase that, there is no sustainable marketing strategy like that. People do try (see: New Coke, Humane AI pin).
  - mschuster91 2y ago
    Marketing people love some metric they can use to differentiate from competition. A phone gets thinner, lighter and survives more fall height or water depth. A PC gets a faster CPU (anyone thinking back to the megahertz wars [1] or the gigahertz wars [2]?), a bigger SSD or more RAM. [1] https://collections.museumsvictoria.com.au/articles/1538 https://collections.museumsvictoria.com.au/articles/1538 [2] https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2024/03/intel-revives-the-mhz-race-with-6-2-ghz-power-guzzling-core-i9-14900ks/ https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2024/03/intel-revives-the-mh...
  - cubefox 2y ago
    Phones with replaceable batteries use plastic, and people really hate plastic (they use "cheap plastic" as a synonym for "plastic"). So they rather buy a phone that is a little bit slimmer and has a glass back. (Manufacturers probably also like phones that have to be replaced in a few years due to battery age.)
dotnet00 2y ago
Most people already put their expensive thin phones in thick cases, so, no, besides dumb teenagers, I doubt anyone would care. But simultaneously, I don't know if that many people would consider it to be selling point either nowadays. Battery capacities don't seem to shrink as quickly anymore, such that the phone probably gets damaged/stops receiving updates/is replaced anyway by the time the battery would need swapping. Although perhaps that'll change now that the changes between even 2-3 year models are getting pretty small and software support periods are increasing.
yreg 2y ago
It would be a lot more than .5mm and yes, I would care. I will rather pay the extra 50€ in case I need to change the battery in a few years.
- fsflover 2y ago
  Except with a replaceable battery you can also have two batteries for emergency and get 100% charge in a minute when needed. This is what I do.
rangestransform 2y ago
Because the volume it takes up could always just be used for more battery instead