My crazy ideas--why isn't this made?

[PFStella]

OK, so here is what I have been thinking about. I'm curious to just throw this out there to the whole community and hear others' thoughts: do you think this is a good idea? Do you, too, wonder why nobody has made this? Is this crazy? Do you think it's silly and unnecessary? Is it technically very difficult or impossible somehow?

So here is my idea: I love that you can swap out batteries on the samsung phones. It's much better than the iphone, for example, where you can't. But even so, the annoying part is to have to turn your phone off, remove the back case--which i would say is a mildly annoying task--and then take out the battery and put the fresh one in.

So I dream of the following: 1) a back cover which doesn't really cover the battery, but still sort of holds it in place, with like an easy single latch that you just pop up and it releases just the battery out. Anyone remember old StarTacs way back in the day? I think they had this kind of set up. The battery formed part of the line of the back of the phone, and you could just easily release it. Could this be done somehow on the Note 3?

2) My second idea is this: put a second, tiny battery somewhere else inside the phone. This is not meant to be changed. And it is only meant to provide for maybe 5 minutes of operation. But the idea is to have a little tiny extra power source so that you don't need to turn off the phone when you're switching batteries. Like the way a laptop or phone switches from AC power to the battery when you unplug it from the wall, why not have an extra little tiny battery in there so when you take out the main battery for 30 seconds to switch it, the phone just switches over to running on the auxiliary little battery for those few seconds until you get the new battery in? Voila--the process is simpler and no need to turn the phone off and reboot it, which takes a fair bit of time and is annoying.

Curious if anyone has similar ideas or thinks this would be useful.

 

[KOLIO]

The mini non-removable battery is an excellent idea.

I don't mind my phone being temporarily off-line for a battery swap,however,others,by necessity or otherwise,cannot afford to be offline/unreachable, even for a moment.
This is a reasonable request, I'd recommend you suggest it directly to SAMSUNG,repeatedly if necessary, until a satisfactory answer is given to your query/request.

 

[dontpanicbobby]

Pcoket PCs used to have that feature. So its not like it couldn't be done.

 

[chimphappyhour]

Most cameras have a secondary battery inside to help keep settings and the like in memory while switching out batteries. I wouldn't be surprised if you found something like that already installed in phones. In order to have something like that which would allow your phone to still operate though would increase the size of the phone noticeably I suspect.

 

[Simon_Gardner]

Reference iPhone batteries. Apple's MacBook Pros used to have a replaceable battery under its own panel. Then they decided to make it a service replacement only and got rid of that panel.

I'm guessing too much user idiocy error was going on.

 

[The_Chief]

Hi PFStella and welcome to Android Forums!

Are you concerned with killing this battery? I'm having trouble using all that energy in a day, although I am succeeding

The backup battery is a GREAT idea! Probably not done because it adds weight and bulk to the device: however, as battery technology gets better and better, there is no reason not to consider incorporating it into, say, the SGS6 or Note 5. I say that because no doubt the next-gen devices are well into development by now.

Yeah, maybe even a snail mail letter to Samsung R&D would do the trick.

It’s great to have you here

 

[PFStella]

For all the experts on batteries, what kind of power and size are we talking here? To operate the phone for, say, 5 minutes, I would think the battery required would be really small no? Wouldn't you need no more than 20 mAh or something?

Thanks for all the feedback.

 

[jwither]

It's just me, but to put a back up battery in a phone would say "you're going to be switching the main battery out regularly, so we'll do this to keep your phone from dying in the interim."

 

[iwoloschin]

For all the experts on batteries, what kind of power and size are we talking here? To operate the phone for, say, 5 minutes, I would think the battery required would be really small no? Wouldn't you need no more than 20 mAh or something?

Thanks for all the feedback.

Why for 5 minutes? How long does it take to replace your battery? I'd want it to run for 1 minute, in a "half sleep" mode. If I'm replacing the battery I'm *not* looking at the screen or answering a call. I'm replacing the battery, and then dealing with the call/text/etc. I bet you could store enough power in a capacitor for that method, though I'm not sure if you could fit a large enough capacitor into the phone.

 

[PFStella]

iwoloschin I think you're right. 5 minutes would be probably much more than needed.

And yes, I agree it wouldn't be necessary to really have the phone fully functional during that time. It all comes down to how much having 1 minute vs 5 minutes of power takes in terms of size of battery, expense, etc. If it's much easier to get 1 min of power, and if you can do it without a propper battery, that'd be great.

 

[NeoGrandizer]

Pcoket PCs used to have that feature. So its not like it couldn't be done.

Agreed, but there were a few issues.

One of the problems (probably due to the tech then) was the latch could cause issues. There were problems with the battery latch sensor breaking causing the device to think the latch is not in place. Causing the device to constantly go into power save and eventually power off and not turn back on until the sensor is 'fixed'. Latch sensor being used for purpose to ensure battery is secured and no accidental happenings in case the latch is not secured properly.

Also, capacitors or even Lithium watch batteries will die eventually. The issue would be how to yank them out and replace them. Capacitors require a bit more know how as it requires soldering. Lithiums once depleted and completely dead will leak and corrode anything inside the device unless replaced. Not a pretty sight and is just messy.

Backup, although sounding great, is not worth the investment I guess. Since capacitors will eventually die, they need to be serviced to have them replaced. How long will the down time be for that alone? Or how would one go about to ensure their capacitor is still in working order? Much less if it will even be covered under warranty since it would be considered a consumable product and therefore not warranted. Lithium watch batteries might be a better solution, but again need space and be user replaceable. Don't want any proprietary backup battery junk in there so prices become inflated.

Although sounding nice on paper, practical application is something different. Quite frankly, once a capacitor (or whatever backup power is used) is depleted and dies, it defeats the purpose. So, is it really worth the investment into it? But then again, with users replacing phones almost every year, would it really matter? That is unless you are the type that buy used or previous year models. Then what guarantee will you have?

 

[KOLIO]

Agreed, but there were a few issues.

One of the problems (probably due to the tech then) was the latch could cause issues. There were problems with the battery latch sensor breaking causing the device to think the latch is not in place. Causing the device to constantly go into power save and eventually power off and not turn back on until the sensor is 'fixed'. Latch sensor being used for purpose to ensure battery is secured and no accidental happenings in case the latch is not secured properly.

Also, capacitors or even Lithium watch batteries will die eventually. The issue would be how to yank them out and replace them. Capacitors require a bit more know how as it requires soldering. Lithiums once depleted and completely dead will leak and corrode anything inside the device unless replaced. Not a pretty sight and is just messy.

Backup, although sounding great, is not worth the investment I guess. Since capacitors will eventually die, they need to be serviced to have them replaced. How long will the down time be for that alone? Or how would one go about to ensure their capacitor is still in working order? Much less if it will even be covered under warranty since it would be considered a consumable product and therefore not warranted. Lithium watch batteries might be a better solution, but again need space and be user replaceable. Don't want any proprietary backup battery junk in there so prices become inflated.

Although sounding nice on paper, practical application is something different. Quite frankly, once a capacitor (or whatever backup power is used) is depleted and dies, it defeats the purpose. So, is it really worth the investment into it? But then again, with users replacing phones almost every year, would it really matter? That is unless you are the type that buy used or previous year models. Then what guarantee will you have?

I'm guessing the battery would far outlast the typical mfgs warranty & as you stated,the point would be moot,as by that time,the original owner of the phone would more than likely had moved on to something else.

I say they should go for it!

 

[drexappeal]

I don't think your idea is necessarily "crazy," but I don't know how high in demand that would be. One of the biggest pitfalls I can see is, if they were to go to a form factor where the battery is also the back cover of the phone w/ just a simple latch to remove the battery, that leaves themselves open to the clip going bad and potentially a slue of complaints/warranty claims to completely replace the phone due to a clip breaking. Realistically, it's more cost effective for them to replace a clip or a battery and rare that they'd have to replace both. If you combine both the backcover and the battery into 1, that could spell more trouble for Samsung or any other OEM, than it's worth. I like the concept of quick release, but could end up costing them more in the long run.