Thermal
August Member
I had them. The Rugby series. Absolute brutes, freaking indestructible.
-
Security incident: ISF was recently accessed by intruders. Please change your password, and change it anywhere else you used it. Read more
Replaceable phone batteries
- Thread starter Orphia Nay
- Start date
The standard Galaxy range went waterproof (IIRC) from the S5.
Thermal
August Member
I had an S5, but I think they skipped a few versions till they went waterproof again? My S6 definitely wasn't.
Jack by the hedge
Safely Ignored
- Joined
- Oct 14, 2009
- Messages
- 27,394
Looking at new phones online is extraordinarily offputting. I remember why I always give up rather than commit to a new one now.
So much screen space taken up with animations. So little information. So much lifestyle BS. So coy about price.
This phone is 3% thinner than another phone you don't own, and we require you to scroll an entire page to learn that unhelpful fact, because you have to get past another animated picture of a slab of glass and metal that's scarcely different from all the others. Now here are some pictures of cool young people, listening intensely to their cool music and taking thrilling videos on their racing yacht, or of the milky way over the Atacama desert, like you'll do on all your holidays when you own this phone. And now let us tell you how AI can create your cool lifestyle while you just watch it happen on your new £1300 phone oops I didn't say that forget I mentioned prices.
Ugh.
So much screen space taken up with animations. So little information. So much lifestyle BS. So coy about price.
This phone is 3% thinner than another phone you don't own, and we require you to scroll an entire page to learn that unhelpful fact, because you have to get past another animated picture of a slab of glass and metal that's scarcely different from all the others. Now here are some pictures of cool young people, listening intensely to their cool music and taking thrilling videos on their racing yacht, or of the milky way over the Atacama desert, like you'll do on all your holidays when you own this phone. And now let us tell you how AI can create your cool lifestyle while you just watch it happen on your new £1300 phone oops I didn't say that forget I mentioned prices.
Ugh.
catsmate
No longer the 1
- Joined
- Apr 9, 2007
- Messages
- 36,952
Indeed . Like today's standised notebook USB-C charger directive.
jeremyp
Philosopher
Not really.
I've had phones with non replaceable batteries since the iPhone 4S. I'm on my third replacement phone. Replacement for me has never been driven by poor battery life, but usually by hardware obsolescence.
The USB-C thing was not the flex against Apple everybody thinks. Apple phones have always been charged by USB. The only part that was non standard was one end of the cable. The charger was (is) a USB charger. The other end of the cable has a USB-C or USB-A plug on it. Also, Apple was in the process of phasing out Lightning anyway. They already had on the iPad and the laptops had been USB-C charged for years.
I think this initiative will lead to a lot more batteries ending up in land fill or recycling - separate from the phones maybe but still thrown away and hard to deal with.
I prefer a battery that can be changed easily and miss that feature but I'm not sure the world will be significantly better because of this legislation.
I'm curious how much E-waste this will actually reduce.
jeremyp
Philosopher
The battery would also require extra packaging around it so that it can be handled easily outside the phone. If my phone has to be a bit bigger, I'd rather they filled the extra space with more battery than a plastic battery container.
Ron Obvious
Graduate Poster
Anyone here have experience with Fairphone? (https://www.fairphone.com) They claim to make a phone where all the parts are replaceable and they even have google-free Android alternatives.
I'm very attracted to the idea, but they don't ship to the US and won't give you a warranty if you do ship one to the US through a third party. I'm nevertheless considering going for it, but I've never met anyone who's even heard of them, let alone has experience with them.
I'm very attracted to the idea, but they don't ship to the US and won't give you a warranty if you do ship one to the US through a third party. I'm nevertheless considering going for it, but I've never met anyone who's even heard of them, let alone has experience with them.
Last edited:
theprestige
Penultimate Amazing
For me, a battery that can be charged easily is preferable to a battery that can be changed easily.
P.J. Denyer
Penultimate Amazing
I disagree, I can't see anything in the rules that would require it to be encased in plastic, it has to be user replaceable without special tools or the tools must be provided, not packaged to snap in/snap out. There's no reason that the battery itself needs to be any different.
P.J. Denyer
Penultimate Amazing
Why would the battery be harder to charge?
It would require some kind of case in addition to the phone case unless you want a bunch of parts and battery innards all over you when you change the battery, I have no idea if current phone batteries have a case in addition to the phone case or not though. I suspect they do, in which case, having it replaceable or not makes no difference in that regard.
ETA: Regarding charged vs changed, first that's good word play, second, I don't think prestige was saying its either/or but more that easy charging is a more important feature than easy changing. If so, he's right about that. Still if I don't have to make the choice, I'd like a battery that can be changed and charged easily.
Last edited:
catsmate
No longer the 1
- Joined
- Apr 9, 2007
- Messages
- 36,952
A couple of my colleagues have them.
P.J. Denyer
Penultimate Amazing
It really wouldn't, this isn't a 'swap out the battery when it's flat' edict, it's make it possible for a reasonably competent adult to replace the battery at home with common or supplied tools if it fails. How many loose parts do you think are rattling around in a phone? Existing batteries don't fall to pieces when they're replaced. The only required difference is access to the case.
ETA: Existing phone batteries
Smartex® Black Label Battery compatible with iPhone 8-1821 mAh | 2 Years Guarantee : Amazon.co.uk: Electronics & Photo
Smartex® Black Label Battery compatible with iPhone 8-1821 mAh | 2 Years Guarantee : Amazon.co.uk: Electronics & Photo
www.amazon.co.uk
Last edited:
That's what I figured, I just didn't know it for a fact.
My guess is that fewer whole phones (which contain more precious metals than batteries) will end up in landfill.
I think the EU is fairly savvy when it comes to recycling of e-waste.
theprestige
Penultimate Amazing
You mean, from a technical, electrical engineering perspective? I couldn't tell you.
What I can tell you is that I used to maintain 2-3 phone batteries and an external charger, and diligently keep the spares topped up. Batteries used to be a lot slower to charge, a lot lesser in capacity, and a lot shorter lived. Remember when trying to keep a phone battery fully charged shortened its lifespan?
Yeah, back when a battery lasted four hours, and took another four hours to charge, it made sense to have a spare ready to swap in halfway through the day.
Now, my battery lasts for a couple days, charges in under an hour, and has a service life about as long as the rest of the phone.
When I'm going to be really out of pocket, I pack a portable power brick, in case I need an "emergency" recharge. Forcing smartphone manufacturers to saddle me with a removable battery doesn't solve any problem I currently have, nor expect to have in the future.
P.J. Denyer
Penultimate Amazing
This isn't about swapping batteries out when they're flat, it's about being able to gain access reasonably easily to replace a failing battery should it need it. Your modern phone will still be a modern phone.
novaphile
Quester of Doglets
Hmm...
There are some very interesting issues/questions being raised by this thread.
I have two phones (S5 and Note*) that have recently been retired, because Samsung is not providing software updates, and the Federal Government has mandated that they not be allowed to connect to the network, because they can't pass a specific emergency test*
Now I'm wondering if I should jailbreak them, and put a new operating system on them, which can pass that test.
I wonder though if the network will allow those phones at all, no matter what I do to them.
Clearly I need to do some research on this.
On the topic of ease of charging... My last four phones have all been QI charging compatible, this is definitely the 'easy' option.
(I had to buy a QI cover for some of my older phones, but the more recent phones had that built in.)
Drop the phone onto a pad or stand, and it starts charging.
Some people have even started building QI charging into furniture, so it's invisible from above, but putting your phone down onto the table, causes it to charge.
* The test was something like:
If the primary network goes down (Telstra or Optus) the phone automatically switches to the other network for emergency calls.
The new requirement was, if both Telstra and Optus are down, the phone automatically switches to the Vodaphone network for emergency calls.
Newer versions of Android do this, but the last updated version on the S5 and Note 8 could not, so those phone models were banned from the network.
Jail breaking the old phones and putting an open source version of Android on them could be fun.
There are some very interesting issues/questions being raised by this thread.
I have two phones (S5 and Note*) that have recently been retired, because Samsung is not providing software updates, and the Federal Government has mandated that they not be allowed to connect to the network, because they can't pass a specific emergency test*
Now I'm wondering if I should jailbreak them, and put a new operating system on them, which can pass that test.
I wonder though if the network will allow those phones at all, no matter what I do to them.
Clearly I need to do some research on this.
On the topic of ease of charging... My last four phones have all been QI charging compatible, this is definitely the 'easy' option.
(I had to buy a QI cover for some of my older phones, but the more recent phones had that built in.)
Drop the phone onto a pad or stand, and it starts charging.
Some people have even started building QI charging into furniture, so it's invisible from above, but putting your phone down onto the table, causes it to charge.
* The test was something like:
If the primary network goes down (Telstra or Optus) the phone automatically switches to the other network for emergency calls.
The new requirement was, if both Telstra and Optus are down, the phone automatically switches to the Vodaphone network for emergency calls.
Newer versions of Android do this, but the last updated version on the S5 and Note 8 could not, so those phone models were banned from the network.
Jail breaking the old phones and putting an open source version of Android on them could be fun.