Non user replaceable batteries are worst thing to happen to consumer electronics.

[Sqrt]

Inspired by this thread, I think we should have this discussion. Batteries degrade over time, this is a fact. And locking an electronic device to a part with with such an small life effectively makes the device perishable.

Now, when thinking on devices with batteries most of you will think on phones and some of you will argue that everyone upgrades its phone every 2 years anyway. But I will tell you of another type of device, my gps-enabled cycling computer. The device has limited app capabilities so the prospect of higher processing power is not nearly as important. For tracking activity purposes, it is as good as the day I bought it. The new models offer marginal upgrades that I don't need. However, after 5 years of use, the battery no longer holds a charge for a full ride (~5-7 hours). The situation is at a point where I'm right now looking at replacing it.

I have looking at replacing the battery and the company do not offer the service at my country and where it does, it cost nearly as much as much as buying it new. Some Chinese vendors sell a replaceable battery, but the process requires soldering and many people have reported dead components after the procedure. I'm waiting for the battery I ordered from aliexpress but I'm not looking forward of installing it. The situation is such that I will probably buy a newer model this weekend. So, I guess the company is getting what It wants.

Why did I not opt for a model with replaceable battery you ask? If you find such an option please tell me! I would really look at it. And this is another aspect of this situation, companies are effectively taking away the option. From cellphones to now laptops (ugh), devices with user replaceable batteries are becoming rarer every year. Is not that we prefer no user replaceable batteries (why some would?) but they are forcing us to accept the practice, and looks like they are winning.

Whats your take, ERA?

 

[TheUnseenTheUnheard]

Yeah it's some bullshit. I don't buy the integration change improving the battery in some way.

 

[Ultima_5]

its so they can charge you again to replace the battery or device. or its simply easier to design it built in.

either way its crappy and anti consumer. thats why the older xbox elite controller is better than the new one imo. being able to swap out rechargeable batteries is way better than some priority one which will fail in a couple years.

 

[BabyMurloc]

It's peak wastefulness. I refuse to buy any more wireless headphones because of this.

 

[Dalek]

I definitely agree. It's ponderous.
I'd much rather have a replaceable battery than a waterproof phone.

 

[Komo]

I mean if it's a phone you can just replace the batteries. iPhones are almost trival to replace them on.

 

[Deleted member 2802]

I have a lot of old Swatches. Still work great with a new watch battery

Also

 

[KHarvey16]

As an engineer the benefits of not designing around user serviceability are numerous and very enticing. You can do a lot of things with packaging that would be impossible.

 

[Evolution of Metal]

I mean if it's a phone you can just replace the batteries. iPhones are almost trival to replace them on.

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Try to disassemble a modern phone and come back.

 

[Sqrt]

I definitely agree. It's ponderous.
I'd much rather have a replaceable battery than a waterproof phone.

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I do not buy the water proof argument. All my cycling sensors are water proof. They can even survive a cycle inside a washing machine. But since they use clock batteries, I can open them with a common screw driver whenever I need to change it.

 

[mrmoose]

It also sucks for a lot of other things, like Playstation controllers, Sonicare toothbrushes, and eventually the Switch.

I'm not sure it's the worst thing, though. I do think it's part of the whole planned obsolescence model and another problem, cost cutting so much that products don't last as long. Which doesn't matter, right, because they're cheap enough to just buy a replacement! But all that waste...

 

[Wraith]

Hoping Microsoft sticks to user-replaceable batteries next gen.

 

[Border]

For most people the usefulness of the device runs out before the battery does.

Unless you own a DualShock4, which becomes rubbish after just a few years.

 

[ChrisR]

Hoping Microsoft sticks to user-replaceable batteries next gen.

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Yep, this.

Or they could bring back wired controllers 🙏

 

[AmFreak]

Should be illegal or at least taxed higher.

 

[Replicant]

I mean if it's a phone you can just replace the batteries. iPhones are almost trival to replace them on.

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On the new ones? The fuck it is. You have to break all waterproofing on them to get access. Plus you can't get Apple batteries.

 

[SweetVermouth]

Or they could bring back wired controllers 🙏

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You can use them wired with a usb cable and no batteries

 

[Ernest]

Planned obsolescence!
Gotta make you buy new shit and keep the shareholders happy!

 

[Leynos]

Proprietary batteries are the work of the devil, I tells ya!

I will always go for batteries that I can easily replace when they eventually fail, because they ALL WILL EVENTUALLY FAIL!

Please show me where I can, right now, buy a quality battery for a PSP, and not some questionable knock-off that might arrive dead, or explode upon charging.

I will wait....

 

[Cels]

i'm on my third battery on my iphone 6. if i couldn't have replaced the battery then yeah i would have bought a new phone by now.

also probably why i'll never drop $100+ on wireless earphones. not paying that much for airpods or something like that where if it stops holding a charge the solution is to just toss it

 

[Komo]

On the new ones? The fuck it is. You have to break all waterproofing on them to get access. Plus you can't get Apple batteries.

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You can also put that adhesive right back onto the screen and the batteries literally don't matter, but if you ask you shall recieve.

https://www.ifixit.com/Search?doctype=product&query=iphone batteries

There's the kits for every single iPhone out there with the battery, and screwdriver for it too, and the adhesive to put it right back securely. The screen adhesive is also on their site.

Try to disassemble a modern phone and come back.

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I do literally daily. iPhones are held up with glue and two screws on the bottom, androids usually can have their backplate popped off.

Modern phones are easy as fuck to disassemble.

 

[Wilf Netherton]

Conflicting asks from consumers. Many may want very small, aesthetically pleasing devices but also want replaceable batteries. Satisfying both demands simultaneously is not trivial and may not even be feasible for certain design projects.

 

[Zvonimir Boban]

Don't know about the worst (I'd go with everything turning into a way to harvest your personal data) but yeah internal batteries are fucking shit.

 

[ChrisR]

You can use them wired with a usb cable and no batteries

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It's not the same thing as a proper wired controller. Not having to worry about a USB cable coming loose (probably won't be as big of an issue with the move to USB-C, but it's a concern with the shit micro connector) is great, and the reduced bulk of the controller that can be achieved by not having the battery storage is terrific.

I used my wired Xbox 360 controller on my PC up until last year when my brother needed a controller and only then regretfully upgraded to the Xbone controller.

 

[chezzymann]

That's why expensive Bluetooth headphones with non replaceable batteries are insane. Paying $100 plus for something that won't hold a charge in 4 years. Madness.

 

[ruggiex]

I avoid them as much as I can and/or replace battery myself when I can. This planned obsolescence is terrible for the environment.

 

[Cyanity]

As an engineer the benefits of not designing around user serviceability are numerous and very enticing. You can do a lot of things with packaging that would be impossible.

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Fuck the environment though, amirite?

 

[chezzymann]

As an engineer the benefits of not designing around user serviceability are numerous and very enticing. You can do a lot of things with packaging that would be impossible.

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But I want my device to last longer than 4 years so no thanks

 

[captive]

on the one hand i get how totally wasteful it seems. For stuff that lasts longer than phones which people replace every two or three years, its especially annoying though.

on the other hand of the phones i had that had replaceable batteries the only time i ever "replaced" one of the batteries was to hard reset the device, by taking it out and putting it back in.

As an engineer the benefits of not designing around user serviceability are numerous and very enticing. You can do a lot of things with packaging that would be impossible.

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i thought you were a lawyer?

 

[Sqrt]

For most people the usefulness of the device runs out before the battery does.

Unless you own a DualShock4, which becomes rubbish after just a few years.

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I wonder if the DS4 is going to be compatible with the PS5.

 

[KHarvey16]

But I want my device to last longer than 4 years so no thanks

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I imagine there will always be options for people who feel that way but the large majority of the market seems to like the tradeoff.

i thought you were a lawyer?

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Nope. Lots of interest but not a lawyer.

 

[FPX]

Terrible for consumers and the environment. Anyone making excuses otherwise is a fool.

Majority of people aren't gonna replace batteries themselves, especially nowadays, when a heatgun and pry tool is needed, and iphones now scare users to prevent them from doing it on their own (even with an official apple battery). And for others, paying exorbitant fees to replace them in a more official capacity pushes some into just needlessly buying a new one.

Before my current phone, I had an LG v20, which is one of the last flagship phones with a removable back and battery - hell, I carried around a spare battery on me instead of a big clunky portable battery charger, so I can go 0-100% in 30 seconds. I really miss that aspect of the phone, and would 100% have gotten another removable back flagship phone if they still made them...

 

[RoninRay]

i'm on my third battery on my iphone 6. if i couldn't have replaced the battery then yeah i would have bought a new phone by now.

also probably why i'll never drop $100+ on wireless earphones. not paying that much for airpods or something like that where if it stops holding a charge the solution is to just toss it

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That's why I bought the lypertek tevi wireless earbuds for $90. Amazing sound quality insane battery at a great price. They lack some features that I wouldn't pay extra money for anyway. They're probably the best pound-for-pound dollar-for-dollar wireless earbuds out there.

 

[Faenix1]

I like integrated batteries, but theres no reason not to make it a removable battery pack.

 

[retroman]

Didn't some arcade games have a suicide battery, rendering them completely unplayable when the (irreplaceable or proprietary) battery was drained?

Completely ridiculous.

 

[ReAxion]

i think IoT is probably the worst thing to happen to consumer electronics. allowing a bunch of shit with superfluous wifi to fall into vulnerable-to-becoming-zombie-botnet territory that threatens the infrastructure of the connected world, yeah i think that's worse.

 

[samoscratch]

Even with your phone turned off it can still communicate its location among other things I suspect this is the main idea behind it alongside charging for battery replacements

 

[nitewulf]

Absolutely, I had a Pioneer XDP 300r (digital audio player), which was like $450....it was plugged in via USB to my PC. The battery literally expanded, and knocked out all the internal boards and the display screen came off. There was no way I could reach it and put things back into place as the screws are minuscule, and not meant to be user serviceable at all. I had to junk the whole thing.

 

[t26]

Conflicting asks from consumers. Many may want very small, aesthetically pleasing devices but also want replaceable batteries. Satisfying both demands simultaneously is not trivial and may not even be feasible for certain design projects.

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You can make a case for cellphone, but why would toothbrush and electric razor need to have non replaceable batteries ?

 

[Pomerlaw]

One the reasons why I always buy used. Electronic production is doing a lot of pollution.

Interesting and related news, a company in Quebec started to recycle electric car batteries. They say they can re-use 95% of the materials.

https://montreal.ctvnews.ca/most-of...recycled-quebec-consortium-promises-1.4446391

 

[New002]

Took my wife and I an hour to change the battery on my Nexus 6p this past weekend. It was a pain to get in to and we didn't want to destroy it. That being said now that we've down it once I could do it faster in the future, but it's still a pain.

 

[Sandcrawler]

Non-replaceable batteries, software updates that nerf performance, and just generally devices that aren't designed to be repaired is terrible from both a consumer perspective and from an environmental perspective. I guess it's okay if some gigantic tech companies get to make even more cash though, they definitely need it.

As a whole, the erosion of the ability for the user to service devices/have them serviced, like you used to be able to do for TV's or other appliances is anti-consumer and anti-environment. My parent have had to replace refrigerators and washing machines because the circuit boards inside fail and no one stocks the boards for 5 year old models. There's no good reason for it aside from making the companies money. If companies want to tout how green they are or how they care about the environment, then sell me something I can fix and use forever. Too bad the shareholders will never let that happen.

 

[ParanormalFupa]

Yep anti-repair bullshit is the worst.

 

[Wilf Netherton]

TVs were never intended to be user-serviceable. People got killed trying that.

 

[LakeEarth]

Yeah my Google Pixel 1 needs a new battery pretty desperately (100% goes to 10% in like an hour with constant use, often dies with >20% battery life left), but all phone repair places I go to want $80 or more to replace it.

I found a "do-it-yourself" guide online and the first thing it said was to be careful cause you can easily break your screen doing certain steps wrong. Fuck that.

 

[Zombegoast]

It's to force people to buy their latest phones and tablets. The same with laptops as they now have a thin design to imitate Macbooks.

But people will keep buying these and they have nobody but themselves to blame.

You can use them wired with a usb cable and no batteries

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And have them pop off while playing.

 

[Acorn]

I hate it. I remember when you could replace batteries in your phone without paying 100+.

I actually need to replace my battery soon :/.

 

[Deleted member 3010]

True, especially for phones.

Any other devices, like the Switch, a controller or something like that, you can at least remove the screws to access the battery, but fucking phones need you to blow heat to remove the screen and shit like that to remove the battery.

Last phone I manage to make last with batteries was the Nexus 4 and then it became too much of a clusterfuck to get involved. It's shame as those are the most expensive products out there, one SHOULD be able to replace the battery in those. :(

I now roll a Galaxy S6 for which the battery is starting to reach the tail end of it's life and I'm not opening this shit up, it's way too complicated.

 

[Sunster]

I hate it. I remember when you could replace batteries in your phone without paying 100+.

I actually need to replace my battery soon :/.

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I bought a new battery for my iphone for $8 on Ebay. came with the necessary tools so install took just 20 minutes. voids your warranty tho...

 

[Pargon]

Absolutely, I had a Pioneer XDP 300r (digital audio player), which was like $450....it was plugged in via USB to my PC. The battery literally expanded, and knocked out all the internal boards and the display screen came off. There was no way I could reach it and put things back into place as the screws are minuscule, and not meant to be user serviceable at all. I had to junk the whole thing.

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This is how my last phone died. The battery, which was on its last legs as nowhere had replacements, expanded while charging and destroyed the device.
I would still have kept it around as a secondary phone if I could have swapped out the battery.

I do literally daily. iPhones are held up with glue and two screws on the bottom, androids usually can have their backplate popped off.
Modern phones are easy as fuck to disassemble.

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It is an easy job for someone that services phones daily.
It's not something that most people will do. They'll either pay a big mark-up for someone else to do the job, or use it as an excuse to replace an aging phone.

If they could just pop the back off and swap out the battery for $15, people would be keeping their phones far longer.
Apple have lowered their prices recently, but $70 is enough that most people will think twice about whether they want to spend that much on an older device.

You can use them wired with a usb cable and no batteries

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The USB port on DualShock 4 controllers is extremely fragile. None of my controllers will even charge via USB any more, and I had to buy the official dock which charges them via the connector on the bottom of the controller instead.