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This article is going to express something that has been beginning to annoy not just me, but probably millions of other people throughout the world: The disappearance of replaceable batteries in smartphones.
Where are they? Where are the replaceable batteries in new smartphones? It seems that since around 2015 this thing we took as a fact of life simply almost stopped being one as more and more smartphone models are planned and launched with fixed, none-removable batteries.
How it used to be:
Ever since I remember, before smartphones were smart and were just, well, cellphones, the vast majority, if not all of them were battery replaceable. The batteries themselves usually were not as potent as today's smartphone batteries but then again these old cellphones and smartphones did not require a lot of processing power to begin with, therefore did not consume relatively a lot of power.
However, if situation arose and the battery got drained or was about to be, and there was no charger or an electric outlet in sight – the need to replace the battery on site seemed very logical.
I found myself multiple times replacing my smartphone's battery when I had no choice. It presented the best and fastest way to be able to keep on doing what I had been doing using my smartphone. Whether it was making an urgent call, taking important pictures or just keep using the built in GPS in order to get where I needed to get to (probably the best reason).
Of course, the priority was always to keep the phone charged to its fullest and as a last resort – replace its battery when needed. Over time the industry caught up with the market's obvious demand for this need and chargers of all types, shapes, sizes and capabilities started appearing everywhere and got really cheap too.
Charges Everywhere:
As time progressed and cellphones were slowly clearing their place for “smart” phones, supporting products were bridging the gap when it came to charging these new power hungry devices.
Multiple USB chargers with 2 and sometimes 5 ports were sold, high Amperage chargers for faster charging started becoming more popular. Public charging dispensers started being a hot topic in gyms, offices and other places. solar chargers for outdoor charging began to be popular to a certain extent and finally portable chargers were the final big hit when it came to keep your devices powered.
These mobile chargers were basically an external battery that charged another external device directly. Whether it was a smartphone or an I pad or any other device. Some of these mobile chargers were built inside a smartphone case which I think is a genius idea, though it came at the price of having a heavier device as a result of the extra weight added by the battery inside the case which is a price a lot of smartphone users would be willing to pay instead of being stranded somewhere with a dead smartphone at their disposal.
Wireless charging has also become a big hit in the last few years. Making the replaceable batteries concept even more obsolete, but yet, at least in my opinion – no entirely.
The Logical Reasons For Ending The Concept:
The following are the possible reasons I could think of for companies to end the removable batteries concept. I'm sure there are more reasons though:
Profit:
- This one is pretty obvious, a dead battery means for the most part an unusable device, at least as a mobile one. An average none-techie user would have no need, will, patience, knowledge and the tools to hack open their phone and replace their battery. The easiest option would be to march into the nearest smartphone dealer and just buy a new one, transfer the data and that's it – problem solved.
Water Resistance Phones:
- That reason is one of the more logical and completely understandable one, though it could be easily debated against if you consider that 1980s Casio digital watches were also water resistant and their batteries were indeed replaceable. All it took is a good design, a good manufacturer and a rubber gasket along the back watch cover to seal the deal and prevent water from entering the watch's inner chambers. I can't see any reason why this cannot be done with today's new smartphones.
Unorthodox battery shapes:
- Another good reason for ending the concept though again, as long as the battery is at the same plane level in the same chamber inside the phone – I don't see any reason it could not be a replaceable one. If indeed the battery's shape is so out of line and so interwoven with the phone's inner architecture then I would've understood if that battery was made a none-removable one since replacing it would be a tedious task.
Safety:
- Old batteries tend to swell, leak and release dangerous materials outwards. These materials when come in contact with can sometimes burn and injure human and biological tissue and cause damage to their surroundings. It would've been completely understood if a a manufacture would want to prevent any future lawsuits, bad PR and embarrassing press coverage by simply making the batteries out of reach of the average, none-techie user. Combine the latter with a sealed hard casing, special sensors inside the phone its battery along with a software based consumer alert solution – and you get a safer device.
Slimmer silhouette:
- Usually, smartphones with replaceable batteries are a bit ticker than their none-removable counterparts due to the plastic back cover and the little gap that is created between that and the battery itself. Slimmer is always better when it comes to pocket sizes storage so the appeal could definitely be understood. A none-removable battery would probably be without any external adhesive casing that is usually printed with technical data about the battery and would be glued and pressed well onto the back part of the device, making the entire phone slimmer in size.
All metal single casting casing:
- That reason is related to the water resistance reason. In addition, all metal casing makes a tougher more resistant device to blunt hits, dents and bents.
A Dead Battery Means A Useless Device (For most users):
New smartphone models appear almost every quarter and the companies who develop and manufacture them relay on the future inevitable outcome that at some point the built-in batteries in those devices WILL become less and less effective and usable the more time passes, the more usage is done and the more frequent and intensive that usage is.
That leaves the average consumer with the inevitable outcome of purchasing a new device every X amount of years because of that reason, even though the device itself would still be probably very much usable in terms of processing power, memory and storage capacity and built in technologies and would be still adequate for the uses of that average consumer.
That also means that the average user has to take into account another periodical expense in addition to their many usual ones like car tires, home appliances issues, clothing etc. An expense that the average user can really do well without if you think about it since the most useful and crucial uses of a smartphone today, at least in my opinion could be narrowed primarily into two: Regular phone conversation and terrestrial navigation. These two different uses can be delivered using two different devices, with replaceable batteries – a dedicated GPS device and a “brick” dumb phone.
Case in point, Take the LG-G4 for example. The LG-G4 is a a device that was announced in 2015, almost 4 years ago to the moment of writing this article. If it wasn't for the ability to replace its battery by the average user, it would've been very likely that this device would've been long in the trash bin or maybe used to make a dumb TV a “smart” one. I personally own two of those and they are still in use to this very day. Their processing power and technical features are adequate enough as an average phone for an average use.
Make The None-removable – Removable:
If you are as stubborn as me and many other consumers and not willing to submit your phone to the trash bin and conform to the ways of society then I have good news for you – there are ways to replace none-removable batteries in almost all smartphones models. All it takes is will, technical skills, patience, knowledge, spare parts, tools and a lot of preparation.
The spare battery and the tools required for such an operation usually could be found online in places like E-Bay and the knowledge could be found abudently online in places like YouTube for example
- Doing so would mean cracking the phone open using special tools, almost for sure damaging its outer casing a little bit, enough to make it sting your heart every time you see it after the process is done.
- The next stage would be to gently separate the battery itself from the back part of the phone's electronic board. This part is usually very complicated since the battery is usually glued to that part and over time the heat from the battery caused the glue to get even stronger than when the phone left the assembly line.
- Next, placing the new battery in -place of the old one without gluing it of course.
- Closing the outer casing. This stage usually does involve using glue or other means of an adhesive material, since there is very little surface for the phone casing to hold on to if it was not designed to be regularly opened to manually replace the battery it conceals.
These steps are very general and usually vary from device to device.
Summary - There's a reason soldiers carry a battle knife while still having a gun:
Progress is a good thing and a very welcomed one indeed but Despite all of the quite logical reasons mentioned for eliminating the option of manually replacing your battery in your device, there are still situations where this option is fairly needed, especially during emergencies.
When a soldier is run out of bullets and there are no comrades with any spare ammunition, he\she would turn to the next best thing at their disposal which would probably be their personal knife in many cases. In other words, despite all of the great ways to charge your smartphone fast and comfortably, there would be times when these ways would simply not be available and the only next best thing would be that spare battery you put in bag\purse long ago and kind of completely forgot about.
That spare battery could mean you being able to get to your destination on time if at all, making that important phone call you have been waiting for, calling an ambulance, taking that important picture of the car that rammed into yours to prove it wasn't your fault , keep staying available and connected and in ever increasing online digital world or just save somebody's life by using the phone's features.