this post was submitted on 04 Oct 2025
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And if only if it was just 1 mm thicker, or maybe 2, the battery could have been user replaceable.
I miss replaceable batteries. I replace mine myself but current phones all glue in and do waterproofing so it's a real pain and it's never quite the same. Don't let people blame the form factor or waterproofing, though, a replaceable battery is always technically possible-- there's just no incentive for companies to do it.
Replaceable battery is always going to have a tradeoff. It’s usually a combination of reduced waterproofing, reduced battery capacity, and reduced durability of the case. Until we invent Star Trek transporters or replicators that can replace the battery without opening the phone, this is always going to be the case.
They can absolutely waterproof all of the working bits separately from the battery. The battery does not need to be in the same enclosure. It could even be attached with the same kind of waterproofing glue to protect the connection but would be easier to remove and replace than taking the entire phone apart.
The reason they don't do it is because it requires slightly more thickness and makes it feasible for people to replace the battery.
The person I was replying to said “don’t blame the form factor or waterproofing” and my comment assumed identical thickness between replaceable and non-replaceable battery phones.
Once you make the thickness variable then all of the other tradeoffs go out of whack. After all, you could make a phone the size of a brick and have a battery that lasts for months but would anyone but a few niche users actually buy that?
The problem is acting like everything has to be extremes instead of acknowledging that a small change allows for a lot more options. Like why bring up a brick sized phone as a response to 'slightly thicker' except to be a contrarian?
Because you can always make the argument “it should be slightly thicker for another x% battery life” on to infinity. But actually drawing a line and saying “it should be exactly this thick because this is the correct amount of battery life” is actually really difficult.
From what I’ve seen, people want replaceable batteries because they go through their battery a lot faster than the average person. That’s always going to be a difficult sell because now you’re talking about less than half of the market.
Mobile phones are such a tiny market, no room for appealing to different needs.
Loads of companies sell loads of different styles of phones, yet replaceable batteries are quite rare nowadays. You’d think if this was such an important market niche they’d be right on it! I guess not…