Yeah, but you can do the whole repair without it, if you’re confident that you won’t set the existing battery on fire removing it, and don’t mind some small risk of the new one exploding in your pocket after you sit down, and waterproofing isn’t important to you…
I don't think you properly understood my comment. I am specifically saying: even if replacing the battery makes the phone no longer waterproof, you can just not replace the battery. Nobody comes into your house at night and forces you to install a new battery because your old one isn't good anymore.
Pay extra for labor on top of parts, and theres a good chance theyll screw something up like the waterproofing seal or leave a loose connection that you won't notice until weeks later. Then you have to take it back and convince them its their fault and wait even longer while they hopefully don't screw the phone up even worse.
Yeah that definitely sounds more convenient than a removable battery.
Or just ship the screwdriver with the phones? Unfortunately users performing their own battery swaps will tend to lead to compromised waterproofing, which doesn’t seem great.
Yes, that is why I'm arguing that even if changing the battery must necessarily break the waterseal, the battery should still be changable. In this hypothetical scenario it would be worth it to leave it open to the individual.
I understood your comment. The article implies that the battery has to be _easily_ replaceable, i.e. that you could just take a battery and maybe a screwdriver out of your pocket and replace it.
I don't think it's easy to design a phone that would at the same time a) have easily replaceable battery, and b) be waterproof until the first battery replacement.
I’m pro-repair (and a regular purchaser of 18-36 month old iPhones and 2-4 year old [often just off-lease] computers).
Even given that, I don’t see how “end users must be able to change batteries in a practical way” would not negatively impact the quality of the iPhone I’m holding in my hand right now.
From a water-resistance standpoint alone, I think my phone would suffer in at least one dimension that matters to me. (It’s an Xs Max and yes, I bought used, confident that the water resistance was intact. If I sold it now, the next buyer has that same assurance.) Phones get wet at some low (but not insignificant) rate; it’s hard to avoid that across the entire population.
Some phone makers are even kind enough to put removal tabs on the adhesive holding the battery in, so you can just heat it a tiny bit and pull on the tab to put a new battery in (still voids your warranty though).
These "advantages" to sealing the battery are incredibly weak/false.
The weight difference from sealing the battery is negligible. If it saved several hundred of grams, it would one thing, but a replaceable battery adds at most tens of grams.
Even if the sticker price of device is cheaper, I would still have to pay more to replace the entire device once the battery is worn. This is the primary reason for most companies sealing the battery, to force buying an entire phone. Having a replaceable battery would save me money.
Sealing the battery was not responsible for waterproof phones. There were already waterproof phones with replaceable batteries.
It's true that most end-users cannot replace the batteries in their phones unaided. However, it should be a trivial task for any electronics repair shop.
Cars need new oil every year or so. Drivers don't generally throw out the entire car.
On the other hand phones are now thing and waterproof. Not saying that replaceable batteries are bad but it’s not like this was an entirely arbitrary decision.
I think that making battery replaceable by user will affect the phone design. I had a ton of first-wave Android devices back in the day. I don’t remember carrying an extra battery with me. Maybe someone did, but how many of total users?
Another point is that making a phone water-resistant is likely not trivial when you can take the whole back panel away.
My point is: are these dramatic changes worth it when the battery degrades only couple years after purchase?
I don't think that's worth it vs a slightly more rigid and more waterproof phone. Changing the battery is done 0 or 1 times in the lifespan of a phone, so making it a 10 minute affair is hardly too inconvenient.
It’s not like a battery is soldered there, you can still replace it and it’ll cost you much less than getting a new phone. AFAIK I can still get a new battery on my iPhone 7 which is 4.5 years old.
I'm sure it's highly feasible, but not on the important-feature list for them.
ps: also, yeah, water sealed electronics is very valueable. And when you do need to replace a battery, a tech could swap it with a few tools. Not user replaceable but still replaceable at low cost.
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