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Convince me to buy a non-replaceable battery cell phone

KillerBee

KillerBee

Golden Member
I still can't see buying a phone with a non-replaceable battery
and wonder how people live with them? :|

PS I'm still using an old Gingerbread phone (rotate 3 batteries every couple days)
and looking to upgrade
 
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shabby said:
Wireless charging in car/home/work.
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Yeah I can see that - well haven't don't wireless charging though.
(Guess I'm really old skool wired charging 🙂)

But wondering if ever got stuck without any of above overnight/weekend?
 
lol - alright I'm almost convinced not to go with a Samsung Galaxy xxx
they are about the only one left
 
people are convinced replaceable battery makes the phone bigger. yet somehow those people dont mind walking around with the phone AND an external battery pack. wow
 
If you only plan on keeping the phone for a year, it's a non-issue.

If you plan on multi-year usage or handing it down, there's no substitute for a new battery. In 2 years, it'll stink getting 60% of the original battery life and always looking for a charger.

Several times after using a phone for 12-18 months, I've replaced the tempered glass screen protector, gotten an new case, put in a brand new OEM battery, done a factory restore, and the relative/friend has gotten a highly functional and nearly new looking device.
 
luv2liv said:
people are convinced replaceable battery makes the phone bigger. yet somehow those people dont mind walking around with the phone AND an external battery pack. wow
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My favorite one of these twilight zone arguments is: "OMG!!!!! A removable battery is suuuuch a hardship! How do people walk around with spares?!! You must have like 20 of them in your pocket at all times!! I have my external battery pack..."
 
luv2liv said:
people are convinced replaceable battery makes the phone bigger. yet somehow those people dont mind walking around with the phone AND an external battery pack. wow
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I'm more in the "I wouldn't mind a removable battery but it's not a deal breaker" camp. If the phone model that I want doesn't have a removable battery, it's OK because USB battery packs exist.
 
My last two phones have had non-removable batteries, and I've never run into an issue in day to day use.

With my m7, the only time I've ran into issues with battery life was going to the Ren Faire, because I took a lot of pictures and videos. I do own a 10K mah battery pack, but its only for the one off situations.

With a decent phone, you'll likely never run into issues with battery life in normal situations.
 
KillerBee said:
Yeah I can see that - well haven't don't wireless charging though.
(Guess I'm really old skool wired charging 🙂)

But wondering if ever got stuck without any of above overnight/weekend?
Click to expand...
I run trails, often in remote areas, and have yet to be presented with an inability to recharge my cell phone when it reaches a critical low charge level. And most phones on the market today either last all day with normal usage and if not can be tuned to run all day long. I think the time where replaceable batteries were needed has passed.
 
Megatomic said:
I run trails, often in remote areas, and have yet to be presented with an inability to recharge my cell phone when it reaches a critical low charge level. And most phones on the market today either last all day with normal usage and if not can be tuned to run all day long. I think the time where replaceable batteries were needed has passed.
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Sure, you can turn off GPS or put it on airplane mode if you want to, but that basically means you can't use your phone. For traveling/vacations it's nice to have a big battery or something you can swap out.

For example, you're on an international flight or something (gl finding chargers on an airplane), you get to your destination and you need to call people, arrange pickups, check reservations, etc... i've had instances where you're using your phone more or less non-stop for 3-4 hours. Your choice is either don't use your phone for the whole plane ride or charge it with a battery pack.

You get to your hotel (maybe you rent a car and drive there using the phone's GPS, charge it along the way or you ask the cab driver to charge for you) and you leave for dinner... use the GPS some more, check reservations, take a few pictures... your phone is now on for 7-8 hours after you get off the plane and you need to either shove it in a charger or stick an external battery pack on it.

It's no longer a deal breaker but it's definitely a convenience factor. You don't ALWAYS have to use the extended battery, I know I don't unless I'm on a long trip. Plus if your battery dies (for some reason) on a trip you'll need an apple store to fix it for you. If your battery dies and its swappable... you change it out for a new one.
 
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Removable batteries are nice when your battery goes bad, but I personally have only seen one go bad in a iPhone 3g. I've used a RAZR m, RAZR maxx iPhone 5c and a lg g2 and had no issues what so ever.
 
PowerYoga said:
Sure, you can turn off GPS or put it on airplane mode if you want to, but that basically means you can't use your phone. For traveling/vacations it's nice to have a big battery or something you can swap out.

For example, you're on an international flight or something (gl finding chargers on an airplane), you get to your destination and you need to call people, arrange pickups, check reservations, etc... i've had instances where you're using your phone more or less non-stop for 3-4 hours. Your choice is either don't use your phone for the whole plane ride or charge it with a battery pack.

You get to your hotel (maybe you rent a car and drive there using the phone's GPS, charge it along the way or you ask the cab driver to charge for you) and you leave for dinner... use the GPS some more, check reservations, take a few pictures... your phone is now on for 7-8 hours after you get off the plane and you need to either shove it in a charger or stick an external battery pack on it.

It's no longer a deal breaker but it's definitely a convenience factor. You don't ALWAYS have to use the extended battery, I know I don't unless I'm on a long trip. Plus if your battery dies (for some reason) on a trip you'll need an apple store to fix it for you. If your battery dies and its swappable... you change it out for a new one.
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Every example you just mentioned implies that you're carrying spare batteries with you everywhere.

If that's already the case, you can carry a rechargeable pack just as well. Sure it's less convenient than a quick swap, but if you're sitting on a plane, why can't the phone be plugged in and charging?
 
luv2liv said:
people are convinced replaceable battery makes the phone bigger. yet somehow those people dont mind walking around with the phone AND an external battery pack. wow
Click to expand...

Because a removable battery pack doesn't need to be carried everywhere or in your pocket. If this was about making it through 1 long day, yeah I'd find it annoying to go out with my friends all day in teh city and have a battery pack and in that case I would prefer a spare battery.

However, since I carry a backpack to work, I just lump my tech goods (spare charger, battery pack, tablet) all in my backpack. Its not a big deal. In that case, where my phone is just in my pocket, I would prefer a smaller phone in that case.

With that said, to answer the OP, its likely his GB phone even with fresh batteries won't last as long as phones today will. Newer power efficient SoCs and modems and LTE radios help make things a lot better now. If you need to keep your phone over 2 years, then perhaps I can see removable batteries being a good thing, but if you plan on upgrading every 2 years, it shouldn't be a problem. My iPhone 5 is running well still, although now I consider the battery crappy having finally moved out of Nexus battery land and having a true behemoth to stack up against the iPhone.
To me removable vs non-removable isn't an issue if the phone can get me through one day use. And by one day, I don't mean at the office where you have the luxury to plug in. I don't even plug in because to me my phone SHOULD be able to last without a bump charge. The true test to me is a weekend when I'm out and about and NOT able to charge.
 
For me, removable vs. non-removable became a non-issue for me once the razr maxx came out.

For example, i just flew international from detroit to prague on saturday. Used my maxx hd the entire flight (in airplane mode of course) playing games and listening to music. Arrived at 9:00 AM in prague and made it the rest of the day touring around, while taking lots of pictures and using wifi. No problem.

With non-removable batteries in the high-2000 mah or greater, i don't think it really matters any more, unless you are constantly in areas with poor signals or streaming video for hours on end.
 
New Droid getting released by Verizon later this month is supposed to have a festively plump 3000+ mah battery and include the turbo charger that gets you 8 hours of additional battery life in about 15 minutes worth of charging.

Typical users will get by with about an hours worth of charging a week that way. Maybe less if you are in high signal areas. Pretty crazy when you think about it.
 
I was really worried about that too. I was in the same boat as you OP. I was using a Moto Admiral which was gingerbread and was worried about battery life of a new phone, but then I bought an HTC One (M7) and test drove it for a few days. Battery life was not an issue, it has improved dramatically on new phones versus what you see on older devices.

Also if you get insurance on your phone through squaretrade, you get one battery swap if I recall correctly so if you're really worried about it you can get a new battery installed by a professional for free (check terms to be sure).
 
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