Would you buy a phone with no removable battery?

[Blanky]

Yes. The batteries seem to last the device's lifespan and if you don't want a new battery you could get a case with a built in battery.

 

[Eug]

Eug has tons of problems with his Apple devices. He has constantly harped about RAM issues and such that I've never experienced. I have had an iPhone since they official came off AT&T, and had one early on on TMobile (minus the 3G speed). I have yet had a RAM issue with any of them.

Anand already pointed out some the issues with 1 GB RAM in iOS, but I guess you don't believe him either.

http://www.anandtech.com/show/7460/apple-ipad-air-review/9

Just because your usage pattern doesn't allow you to see the issue doesn't mean it doesn't exist. It seems you just don't know any better. I own a 2 GB iOS device, and I can tell you, tabbed browsing works much better on iOS with 2 GB RAM.

 

[IronWing]

No, I would not buy a phone w/o removable battery. I wouldn't have anything to play with during meetings.

 

[Ns1]

Why the fuck would you want a phone with removable batteries? Don't you know how harmful battery production is to the environment? We should be making less batteries, not more!

 

[IronWing]

Why the fuck would you want a phone with removable batteries? Don't you know how harmful battery production is to the environment? We should be making less batteries, not more!

I had a hand cranked charger for my StarTAC.

 

[ControlD]

Why the fuck would you want a phone with removable batteries? Don't you know how harmful battery production is to the environment? We should be making less batteries, not more!

lol.

 

[who?]

A lithium ion battery will be dead from old age three years after it was manufactured even if it's never been used. If the engineers change the battery design with the new phone designs and they quit making the old design battery all the replacements will eventually be dead from old age just sitting on the store shelves waiting for you to buy one.

 

[Mai72]

I use Anker for my portable charging needs.

 

[ultimatebob]

I've had phones with no replaceable battery (iPhone 3G, iPhone 6), and phones with a replaceable battery (Droid X, Samsung Galaxy S3).

What's interesting is that the iPhone never needed a replacement battery (it STILL running as an MP3 player after 7 years!), but the original batteries died on both the Droid and the Samsung phones after about 18 months of use.

If I didn't know better, I'd think that the phone manufacturers use lower quality batteries if/when they know they are easily replaceable. It's more likely that I was just lucky with the iPhone.

 

[jlee]

A lithium ion battery will be dead from old age three years after it was manufactured even if it's never been used. If the engineers change the battery design with the new phone designs and they quit making the old design battery all the replacements will eventually be dead from old age just sitting on the store shelves waiting for you to buy one.

My ~2007 Canon SD1000 must not have received that memo. It works fine with the original battery, as does my Nikon D40 (which has since been passed to a family member).

 

[CZroe]

Why the fuck would you want a phone with removable batteries? Don't you know how harmful battery production is to the environment? We should be making less batteries, not more!

There are things I wouldn't do with my phone without having a removable battery. For example, I couldn't use my Xperia PLAY like a PSP because I would be out of touch for the rest of the day after I ran it dead playing games. A spare battery was a necessity to use the phone as intended.

There are future usage scenarios for other phones that will never happen simply because of this industry shift.

Yeah the only reason I could ever see needing a removable battery is if you happen to carry a spare one at all times (that's charged). Then if you were somebody who used power hungry apps, then you'd have a back up in case you ran out of battery life.

Bingo. Games and emulators and streaming apps are power-hungry. Even OnLive would bring my Xperia PLAY down surprisingly fast.

 

[CZroe]

Eug has tons of problems with his Apple devices. He has constantly harped about RAM issues and such that I've never experienced. I have had an iPhone since they official came off AT&T, and had one early on on TMobile (minus the 3G speed). I have yet had a RAM issue with any of them.

My browser has crashed 12 times in the last four hours because I am using AirPlay with Amazon Instant while I browse on a 64-bit iOS device (iPhone 6 Plus while playing a TV show for my mother). It crashed many times earlier today when I wasn't doing AirPlay. 32-bit iOS devices are fine with 1GB, which is why my mother's 5C is snappier than my 6 Plus.

...and it isn't always crashing that causes problems. Apps that reload when you switch between them are a daily frustration. 1GB is not nearly enough for iOS on 64-bit devices and it's further exacerbated on 1080p+ 64-bit devices (6 Plus, iPad, etc).

 

[touchstone]

Why are we talking about ram? I thought this was a thread about removable batteries, which btw are a relic of a bygone era. Back when android had poorer battery life to iOS, removable batteries were important. Now iOS has battery issues, and my S6 battery works alright for what it is.



Could be better, that's for sure. But I prefer the styling and form factor of my S6 to something with a huge battery like the Nexus 6

 

[darkswordsman17]

A lithium ion battery will be dead from old age three years after it was manufactured even if it's never been used. If the engineers change the battery design with the new phone designs and they quit making the old design battery all the replacements will eventually be dead from old age just sitting on the store shelves waiting for you to buy one.

What? Total nonsense. I have devices that are over 5 years old with lithium ion batteries and they still hold hours of charge (cheap MP3 players, I have a Sandisk Sansa that was even a refurb when I bought it like 6-7 years ago, and have had a couple of other Sandisk MP3 players), and this included instances where I didn't use the device at all for years at a time.

 

[CZroe]

What? Total nonsense. I have devices that are over 5 years old with lithium ion batteries and they still hold hours of charge (cheap MP3 players, I have a Sandisk Sansa that was even a refurb when I bought it like 6-7 years ago, and have had a couple of other Sandisk MP3 players), and this included instances where I didn't use the device at all for years at a time.

That's because it never fully drained. A battery in storage for several years will have fully drained and will not take a charge.

 

[sdifox]

It's a security issue....but you can run your company any way you like....

You know you can disable usb connection without disabling charging right

 

[mrjminer]

You can remove the battery out of any phone.

/thread

 

[sdifox]

Why are we talking about ram? I thought this was a thread about removable batteries, which btw are a relic of a bygone era. Back when android had poorer battery life to iOS, removable batteries were important. Now iOS has battery issues, and my S6 battery works alright for what it is.



Could be better, that's for sure. But I prefer the styling and form factor of my S6 to something with a huge battery like the Nexus 6

Context switching is power intensive, not to mention the wear on flash memory.

 

[lxskllr]

That's because it never fully drained. A battery in storage for several years will have fully drained and will not take a charge.

I have a first gen iPod Shuffle I lost for a few years. When I found it, it was deader than dead. I charged it up, and it still had a charge a week later. Dunno how it's doing now. I don't have much use for a 512mb player, but it still has some life in it.

 

[lord_emperor]

Can and did. My HTC one M7 is 2 years old and the battery still lasts two days of typical usage.

Also have a 2nd gen iPod touch kicking around the house that still works. If I bother to charge it it holds a charge in standby for weeks at least.

 

[TwiceOver]

My Nexus4 still works fine. Bought at launch.

 

[Ichinisan]

Apple's internal battery is trivial to replace. I think that's really how it should be for *all* phones.

 

[darkswordsman17]

That's because it never fully drained. A battery in storage for several years will have fully drained and will not take a charge.

His argument was that lithium ion batteries will die within 3 years of when they're made, which is just blatantly wrong.

Also, I can guarantee that it was dead, unless Sandisk leaves a ton of buffer, that battery sat drained for years and still holds a sizeable charge now. Is it close to what it was originally rated for? I'm sure it's not, but that's not what the claim was. I've had quite a few cheap devices (that aren't likely to have good charging circuits or use anything special to try to keep the battery in shape) that have held up for longer than 3 years with lithium ion batteries.

 

[ControlD]

I have seen the expected lifespan of lithium batteries listed as 3-5 years several times when trying to find an answer to this question. Personally, I have had some last longer than five years and some completely refuse to hold any charge whatsoever in less than three years, so I am guessing there are extreme cases either way. I imagine there is a lot of variability due to different stress levels on the battery as well. I'm sure a battery pack subjected to a Qi charger every day will not last as long as a pack that never gets charged wirelessly simply due to heat. Maybe a good rule of thumb is to expect at least three years out of normal usage but don't be bummed if that's all you get.

 

[tortillasoup]

Batteries that are subjected to fewer deep charge/discharge cycles and aren't exposed to a lot of heat will obviously last significantly longer.