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I would welcome some additional thickness in my iphone for a better battery life. The end goal should not be a paperthin phone; it should be a phone that has a

I would welcome some additional thickness in my iphone for a better battery life. The end goal should not be a paperthin phone; it should be a phone that has a long charge time and fits reasonably into your pocket / hand. Phones are pretty important to people and it's silly something so important is so needy of recharging. It's not technology so much that is the problem, it is design principles and priorities.

ekianjo 12y ago
I agree but there are issues with having bigger batteries as well: they add a lot of weight and could result in more wrist/arm pain for those using their phones for extended time. You certainly don't want your phone to be as heavy as a brick.
- coldtea 12y ago
  >* they add a lot of weight and could result in more wrist/arm pain for those using their phones for extended time.* Seriously? I think we somehow survived the nineties, early '00s without such issues. >* You certainly don't want your phone to be as heavy as a brick.* It's been at least 5-10 years that we've been very far away from that situation...
  - ekianjo 12y ago
    > Seriously? I think we somehow survived the nineties, early '00s without such issues. Smartphones were not mainstream in the early '00s. All the "normal" phones were very light and very portable.
    - jacquesm 12y ago
      For about 100 years or so the handset was a lot heavier than todays smartphones and nobody thought anything of it. My grandmom had one of those old black bakelite jobs, it must have weighed at least 2 pounds and could be used as a means of self defense.
      - mikeash 12y ago
        Even if weight were a problem, a hands free headset trivially solves it.
        mgkimsal 12y ago
        I thought that, but it only solves the voice/audio portion - doesn't solve anything about holding the device to interact with the screen.
        mikeash 12y ago
        Good point. I got to thinking about a remote screen attachment, sort of the touchscreen version of a headset, then realized you just do that now by using an external battery pack and a smartphone with a decently long cable between them.
      - arrrg 12y ago
        But no one was tapping on the screen and looking at it to interact with it … I would personally argue that I’m unsure about the connection between weight and comfortableness and the tolerances. Would 200g be ok? I really don’t know. However … making phone calls is not the main use case for smartphones. You just cannot design them with that in mind as something to optimise for. That’s non-sensical, weird, and a total non-sequitur. Your comparison makes zero sense in that regard. It just doesn’t even apply, so it’s not a valid argument in any way, shape or form.
        jacquesm 12y ago
        > making phone calls is not the main use case for smartphones Try marketing a smart phone that can't make phone calls and see how it goes. > You just cannot design them with that in mind as something to optimise for. Every smartphone has been primarly a phone, secondary a camera and thirdly something that runs apps. It's essentially a computer with a telephony interface but that telephony bit is absolutely essential and not an afterthought.
kolinko 12y ago
Well, either this, or instant recharging (think: super capacitors). You're out of juice? Find a wall outlet, connect your phone for a minute and you're completely recharged.
- sophacles 12y ago
  Fast charge plus an actual, real standard for connecting my devices to charge would be great. Seriously, the world has come a long way - there's now only a few options... iphone 30pin, iphone lightning, micro-usb and "wierdo". But what I really really want is a standard way to plug in my devices (including laptops!) and be done with it. We've had the same interface to wall current since forever - and it just works. I want the same for my devices. These things should be commodities and exist everywhere, for every device, basically for free. Right now I keep usb wall warts all over my house, and a box of cables in a central location, so guests can just charge as needed. It sure would be nice to just have each of those wall warts be something else... with a retractable "the one cable". It would reduce a small but persistent issue go away.
  - eropple 12y ago
    > Right now I keep usb wall warts all over my house That's my current strategy, but now that USB 3 is finalized I think my next place (which I'll be buying) will have integrated USB power in the outlet plates. Doesn't solve the cable problem, but gets rid of a lot of wall warts!
  - wampus 12y ago
    The Lumia 920 I bought over two years ago has wireless charging (via the Qi standard) that I consider so convenient and revolutionary, I was stumped when Nokia released subsequent models without this killer feature. If I need to charge it, I just set it on a pad. I want this so badly in portable devices, including laptops, for everyone in my household. Whenever Apple creates yet another "new and improved" charging port that requires a proprietary "smart" cable, I cry a little.
    - mgkimsal 12y ago
bane 12y ago
I would happily buy a phone twice as thick as my current one in order to fit twice as much battery in it.

ekianjo 12y ago

I agree but there are issues with having bigger batteries as well: they add a lot of weight and could result in more wrist/arm pain for those using their phones for extended time. You certainly don't want your phone to be as heavy as a brick.

coldtea 12y ago
>* they add a lot of weight and could result in more wrist/arm pain for those using their phones for extended time.* Seriously? I think we somehow survived the nineties, early '00s without such issues. >* You certainly don't want your phone to be as heavy as a brick.* It's been at least 5-10 years that we've been very far away from that situation...
- ekianjo 12y ago
  > Seriously? I think we somehow survived the nineties, early '00s without such issues. Smartphones were not mainstream in the early '00s. All the "normal" phones were very light and very portable.
  - jacquesm 12y ago
    For about 100 years or so the handset was a lot heavier than todays smartphones and nobody thought anything of it. My grandmom had one of those old black bakelite jobs, it must have weighed at least 2 pounds and could be used as a means of self defense.
    - mikeash 12y ago
      Even if weight were a problem, a hands free headset trivially solves it.
      - mgkimsal 12y ago
        I thought that, but it only solves the voice/audio portion - doesn't solve anything about holding the device to interact with the screen.
        mikeash 12y ago
        Good point. I got to thinking about a remote screen attachment, sort of the touchscreen version of a headset, then realized you just do that now by using an external battery pack and a smartphone with a decently long cable between them.
    - arrrg 12y ago
      But no one was tapping on the screen and looking at it to interact with it … I would personally argue that I’m unsure about the connection between weight and comfortableness and the tolerances. Would 200g be ok? I really don’t know. However … making phone calls is not the main use case for smartphones. You just cannot design them with that in mind as something to optimise for. That’s non-sensical, weird, and a total non-sequitur. Your comparison makes zero sense in that regard. It just doesn’t even apply, so it’s not a valid argument in any way, shape or form.
      - jacquesm 12y ago
        > making phone calls is not the main use case for smartphones Try marketing a smart phone that can't make phone calls and see how it goes. > You just cannot design them with that in mind as something to optimise for. Every smartphone has been primarly a phone, secondary a camera and thirdly something that runs apps. It's essentially a computer with a telephony interface but that telephony bit is absolutely essential and not an afterthought.

kolinko 12y ago

Well, either this, or instant recharging (think: super capacitors). You're out of juice? Find a wall outlet, connect your phone for a minute and you're completely recharged.

sophacles 12y ago
Fast charge plus an actual, real standard for connecting my devices to charge would be great. Seriously, the world has come a long way - there's now only a few options... iphone 30pin, iphone lightning, micro-usb and "wierdo". But what I really really want is a standard way to plug in my devices (including laptops!) and be done with it. We've had the same interface to wall current since forever - and it just works. I want the same for my devices. These things should be commodities and exist everywhere, for every device, basically for free. Right now I keep usb wall warts all over my house, and a box of cables in a central location, so guests can just charge as needed. It sure would be nice to just have each of those wall warts be something else... with a retractable "the one cable". It would reduce a small but persistent issue go away.
- eropple 12y ago
  > Right now I keep usb wall warts all over my house That's my current strategy, but now that USB 3 is finalized I think my next place (which I'll be buying) will have integrated USB power in the outlet plates. Doesn't solve the cable problem, but gets rid of a lot of wall warts!
- wampus 12y ago
  The Lumia 920 I bought over two years ago has wireless charging (via the Qi standard) that I consider so convenient and revolutionary, I was stumped when Nokia released subsequent models without this killer feature. If I need to charge it, I just set it on a pad. I want this so badly in portable devices, including laptops, for everyone in my household. Whenever Apple creates yet another "new and improved" charging port that requires a proprietary "smart" cable, I cry a little.
  - mgkimsal 12y ago

bane 12y ago

I would happily buy a phone twice as thick as my current one in order to fit twice as much battery in it.