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Do I really need a replaceable battery?

M

mattdp

Lurker
Current phone is a Samsung G5, owned since it was released so it's seen nearly three years of continual service. The gyroscope is shot - a common fault on this model, I believe - and I'm considering a replacement. I don't really need the power or the storage to be honest: the other driver is that the battery barely holds any charge any more.

So, if I can use a phone for three years and not feel the need for shiny new features, it seems like I don't need frequent upgrades. But if a battery has a working life of roughly three years, it felt like it might make sense to get a phone with a replaceable battery. However the only high end phone with this feature is the LG G5. And while I good phone I'm a little worried by frequent reports that the modular system causes phone failures.

My other option is an S7 (I've no desire to wait for the S8 as I also want a memory card slot, and there's nothing to suggest the price of the S7 is going to drop much further than it is now). So: how long is the working life of an S7 battery? And there's no way it can be replaced? Is it really worth taking a G5 with potential build issues just to get that replaceable battery?
 
Just because the battery isn't designed to pop in and pop out, it doesn't mean its not replaceable. Have a look on somewhere like ifixit.com to see if its possible to replace it, and what is involved.

You could always swap the battery after 2 years and carry on.
 
Battery technology has come a long way in the last few years, making the need to have a spare battery on hand a thing of the past. Fast charge and fast wireless charge keeps batteries juiced up all day. As phone manufacturers lean away from the need for easy battery access, they have the ability to add features to the phone that wouldn't otherwise be possible: thinner, sleeker phones that are waterproof and dustproof. Samsung has figured out that consumers have more trouble getting their phones wet than they have running low on battery... so the new Galaxy phones have IP68 waterproofing. HUGE benefit.

That leaves about the one remaining argument for removable batteries: modders who are concerned about bootloops. But rooting and customizing phones is becoming increasingly difficult, and a lot of key features (like Android Pay) will not work on rooted phones. As the number of people who root and ROM their phones shrinks, they become a tiny minority of users... and manufacturers make phones for the millions of users out there who just want a great phone. Preferably phones that will survive a swim in the toilet...

:)
 
I was sceptical, especially as I used 2 batteries in the 3 years I had my previous phone. But this one, with a fixed battery, is almost 4 years old now, and just reaching the point where the battery is becoming a slight concern (i.e. lifetime is down to about what it's predecessor managed when new, though my usage is higher than then). So even as someone who does mod their phone (I don't care about Android Pay etc) I've not actually found it to be a problem in reality.
 
mattdp said:
My other option is an S7 (I've no desire to wait for the S8 as I also want a memory card slot, and there's nothing to suggest the price of the S7 is going to drop much further than it is now). So: how long is the working life of an S7 battery? And there's no way it can be replaced?
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You can replace the S7 battery with some work, but generally speaking a battery should last 3 years maybe more (not guaranteed for every battery though). My current battery is 3.5 years old and working OK, charge lasts a little over half as long compared to when it was new.

If you want a Galaxy S7 here are two methods to replace the battery:

psionandy said:
Have a look on somewhere like ifixit.com to see if its possible to replace it, and what is involved..
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Overall ifixit says the S7 isn't easy to repair:
https://www.ifixit.com/Teardown/Samsung+Galaxy+S7+Teardown/56686
 
As someone who has had to give up their note 3 with a zerolemon battery for the "joy" of a nonremovable battery in the Moto x pure, y'all can get bent as far as these phones are concerned.

With the note 3 even on hspa data, I could literally stream twitch all day on a charge, and average 11+ hours screen on and about two full days of usage on the exynos phone. I'm lucky if I even see three hours from this Motorola phone. Only reason I settled on this phone was because it had universal bands and retained an SD slot, which manufacturers are also quick to drop, no thanks to google having a war against SD card makers as of Android 4.

"Just put it on the cloud!" They say... What good is the cloud when the phone is bricked? Or how a nexus wipes it's storage when even starting the root process. Yea, how's it supposed to work when you don't have an OS to boot from? Meanwhile, SD card plus custom recovery means I can recover from most such issues (after image backup) in about five minutes.

"Just use an external battery!" They say... Nine cables later, and personally witnessing this same phone drain 75% of the external battery that is rated for 4x it's internal battery capacity? Not to mention lost pocket space. Even as big as it was with it, the note 3 with its zerolemon battery only needed one pocket. My current arrangement required a minimum of three pockets. All in the name of stupid people and fashion.

And since LG has made it abundantly clear, that I will never have warranty with any unlocked phone, even if bought brand new that way retail... Who the hell do I turn to now?
 
I get your point about batteries, but Google long ago lost the fight over SD cards. Apart from Google themselves and oddballs like One+, all of the major manufacturers include SD slots in most or all of their phones.

Sure, at one point or another most of them experimented with removing the slot, but that lasted between 6 months (Sony) and 2 years (HTC), with Samsung winning the prize for stupidity for removing it from the S6/Note 5 after everyone else had already discovered that it didn't work and re-introduced it.
 
Hadron said:
I get your point about batteries, but Google long ago lost the fight over SD cards. Apart from Google themselves and oddballs like One+, all of the major manufacturers include SD slots in most or all of their phones.

Sure, at one point or another most of them experimented with removing the slot, but that lasted between 6 months (Sony) and 2 years (HTC), with Samsung winning the prize for stupidity for removing it from the S6/Note 5 after everyone else had already discovered that it didn't work and re-introduced it.
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Along with having their phones explode and/or burn up, and the factory making their new nonremovable batteries catching on fire not that long ago.

Fashionistas call that unfortunate. I call it karma.
 
I don't know if you just got a bad Moto X Pure, but mine would go all day on a charge. Granted, my Samsung gets better battery life due to OS optimizations, but something's amiss there. Yep, I have the Note 5 and I miss the SD slot... which I'm confident will be back, as it was on the Note 7, with the S8 and Note 8. In fact, I expect that the Note 8 will have a hybrid slot for microSD or UFS cards.

And I don't think battery production shortcuts can be referred to as "karma". Samsung has implemented a exhaustive battery safety protocol going forward: I highly doubt the Note 7 debacle will be repeated any time soon. If it does, Samsung - as a phone manufacturer - is pretty well finished.

:)
 
I would rather have a waterproof phone and carry an external powerpack and lead, than a non waterproof phone and carry a battery (which is also non waterproof)!
 
girolez said:
I would rather have a waterproof phone and carry an external powerpack and lead, than a non waterproof phone and carry a battery (which is also non waterproof)!
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May I ask why? What could you possibly be doing with your phone to warrant trading battery life for an occasional splashing? Considering that there's waterproof cases for even doing underwater camera work.
 
The English language is a funny thing, NEED. The short answer is no, you don't NEED a replaceable battery. A phone can and will function optimally without a replaceable battery. Some find it convenient, but there are a number of other options out there. For example: a pocket power battery.

I have had my N6 for 2+ years and the battery has never really been an issue other then occasional apps messing with it.

You'll be fine without.
 
codezer0 said:
"Just use an external battery!" They say... Nine cables later, and personally witnessing this same phone drain 75% of the external battery that is rated for 4x it's internal battery capacity? Not to mention lost pocket space. Even as big as it was with it, the note 3 with its zerolemon battery only needed one pocket. My current arrangement required a minimum of three pockets. All in the name of stupid people and fashion.
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I'm just trying to imagine things here...
utility belt.jpg
 
codezer0 said:
May I ask why? What could you possibly be doing with your phone to warrant trading battery life for an occasional splashing? Considering that there's waterproof cases for even doing underwater camera work.
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If you want to bury your phone in a waterproof case (which would also have to come off to get to a removable battery), knock yourself out. But I respectfully dispute your assertion that waterproof phones sacrifice battery life. I don't have that experience at all: I have a third-party car mount that has built-in fast wireless charging. Even if I'm navigating on a long trip, when I get to my destination my phone's 100% charged. If I need a boost mid-day, 20 minutes will get me to 50% easily.

But it's a big world out there and there are options for everyone. What works for me might not work for you... so if you prefer waterproofing your phone with a case and lugging extra batteries around, go ahead. I would be curious, though, how many of those extra batteries you actually go through in a day if your phone has fast charge.

:)
 
The_Chief said:
If you want to bury your phone in a waterproof case (which would also have to come off to get to a removable battery), knock yourself out. But I respectfully dispute your assertion that waterproof phones sacrifice battery life. I don't have that experience at all: I have a third-party car mount that has built-in fast wireless charging. Even if I'm navigating on a long trip, when I get to my destination my phone's 100% charged. If I need a boost mid-day, 20 minutes will get me to 50% easily.

But it's a big world out there and there are options for everyone. What works for me might not work for you... so if you prefer waterproofing your phone with a case and lugging extra batteries around, go ahead. I would be curious, though, how many of those extra batteries you actually go through in a day if your phone has fast charge.

:)
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Fast charge doesn't mean crap if it drains that much faster.

With the note 3 and with the s3, I had extended batteries on both of them. I didn't need to carry any cables or chargers, because they had the capacity to last all day, and the next. On average, I had about two days per cycle of typical use with the note 3. Four days with the s3. Thick as they were, they still fit in a single pocket. And for being so thick with their battery and casing, it was easy enough to type accurately to the point I could turn off autocorrect completely. The case that comes with such batteries also afforded considerable protection against the much more common drops that may happen in life and on the clock. Your posting about putting such inordinate importance on water resistance, had me thinking that either you go underwater to take pictures and video with it, or that you habitually dunk it in the toilet on purpose. Quick charging was unnecessary, since it would take longer to begin with, but again, last me for a full day, and more.

With my Moto x pure, the original quick charge AC adapter basically failed within two months, refusing to quick charge. Even now, using a supported quick charger for either the replacement ac adapter, car adapter, or the battery pack I have to buy, as soon as I try to keep working while charging, the phones charging time balloons ridiculously, to more than wanting eight hours - that's assuming it'll even increase in charge percentage at all. If I happen to be gaming on the phone, it'll drain itself completely in a single hour of play. Routinely in a working day, I'm forced to recharge this thing twice a day, if not three times. And despite the external battery having a capacity that is 4.4 times the rated capacity of the phone, this phone WILL happily drain the external completely before letting itself charge fully. Where I once had a phone that lasted me all day (and then some) and only needed a single pocket, I now have to have one pocket for this phone, a second for the only USB cable strong enough to not break while recharging, and the stupid battery pack I now have to carry because this things battery life is such shit.

Everything that's been a problem with this phone has been entirely to do with dealing with the miserable goddamn battery that Motorola saw fit to put in it. And I won't tolerate anyone, user or moderator alike, making fun of me for it. :mad:
 
codezer0 said:
And I won't tolerate anyone, user or moderator alike, making fun of me for it. :mad:
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Please don't misunderstand me: I WASN'T making fun of you or anyone else!

I was simply pointing out that your issue with the Moto X Pure is the exception, not the rule. My Moto X Pure has never had a problem with battery drain like what you're describing. I also said that different people have different priorities - what works for me may not work for you... and that's fine. For those people who want to swap out batteries, that's why companies make and sell extra batteries. I'm just saying that fast charge and wireless fast charge eliminate that trouble for most people... and that most people prefer waterproofing over the ability to replace batteries.

And no, my phone does not discharge faster just because it charges faster ;)
 
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