• Brkdncr
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    11 year ago

    How is this a win? My non-Android device is at 89% health after 5 years. I’m not going to replace the battery, I’m going to replace the device.

    I’d prefer that we get paid $20 to recycle an old phone so that they actually get recycled.

    • @[email protected]
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      131 year ago

      How is it a loss for you in any way? Just because the battery can be replaced more easily doesn’t mean you have to replace it if you’re at 89% after 5 years. I use my phone a lot and burn through batteries in 18-24 months. This shouldn’t have any effect on people who only have light usage like you but benefit the rest of us tremendously.

      It’d be like only driving 1,000 miles a year and saying there’s no need to make oil changes easier to accomplish. Some of use have to change it orders of magnitude more frequently than you and would appreciate not having to disassemble the whole front of our cars to do it.

      • Brkdncr
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        -21 year ago

        Replaceable battery means extra plastic,extra size, and reduced design parameters because the design has to be around the battery and it’s ability to be replaced using connectors. Look at what blackberry devices looked like. Battery and OS tech got a little better, but they used the same batteries for a long amount of time. I’m not saying that we’ll have blackberry devices again, I’m saying that things like connectors, latches, and the extra size of a battery that’s designed to be held all adds up to extra space being used.

        My usage is probably above average. Probably closer to your average fediverse/redditor. I’m far from a “light user”.

        That being said, your average user doesn’t burn through batteries like you do. Maybe you should be pressuring the market to build your phone instead of forcing everyone that has no need for a replaceable battery to put up with the deficiencies of that form factor?

          • Brkdncr
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            -11 year ago

            I guess what I’m getting at is that there are two valid opinions on this matter. On one side, people want to replace batteries, on the other, people don’t care about the battery.

            The government is stepping in on the issue for some reason. This irks me. If there was a market for it, it would exist.

            This isn’t about a monopoly or even a significant environmental impact like aerosol spray in the 80s, or leaded gas of the 70’s. Right to repair? Yeah I agree. Specific charge port? Hmm, I understand the argument but politicians shouldn’t decide it. Required replaceable batteries? Hold up, aren’t their bigger issues that need to be addressed?

            And yeah your dad remembers when his phone would last two weeks on the dash of his truck that he parked it the sun every day. Those were different times, and he should know those phones still exist if he really wants it, but no one does.

            • @[email protected]
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              11 year ago

              You keep talking about the market as if consumers get a vote in what Apple or Samsung build next year and not the other way around. If replaceable batteries weren’t desirable, they wouldn’t have been standard for the first 33 years of existence of cellphones. It wasn’t until the last few years when the market got stagnant that manufacturers turned to cutting features left and right in order to cut costs and increase profit.

              The only phones manufacturers offer with replaceable batteries are still using the same hardware that was around when replaceable batteries were still the norm. There was never a time were you could get a Note 8 with a replaceable battery or a Note 8 with a sealed case – a true choice that one could then use to make informed statements like “the market decided”. Saying the “market decided” when every major manufacturer removed them within a single generation leaving people with little to no alternative isn’t the market deciding, it’s manufacturers deciding.

    • killall-q
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      111 year ago

      Because not everyone has the same anecdotal experience as you?

      • Brkdncr
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        -71 year ago

        I manage around 200+ mobile devices and battery life isn’t an issue that comes up.

        • @[email protected]
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          61 year ago

          So probably work devices that sit idle for 8+ hours a day before being shut back off and thrown into a backpack overnight/weekend?

          • Brkdncr
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            01 year ago

            I wish. Most are their primary device for work and personal use.

              • Brkdncr
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                11 year ago

                iPhone XR for myself, and most are 11-13. We regularly have to replace older devices as they reach EOL/EOS.

    • @guy
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      111 year ago

      Because you are an outlier when it comes to most people’s experience of battery life in their phones.

      The recycling scheme is a good idea too, we should do both.

      Reducing is just as important as recycling. And reducing the amount of people buying new phones because their battery dies is a win.

      Also there are these well-used battery recycling boxes in plenty shops where I’m from. If people could remove their phone battery, they might still throw away their phone, as there’s not as obvious, easy and visible a recycling system for those yet, but perhaps some might at least take out the battery first and chuck it in the recycling bin next time they go to shop.

    • @[email protected]
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      71 year ago

      Opposite boat. My perfectly good device gets replaced after about 4 years because it struggles to hold a charge. I don’t give a shit about iterative phone specs, and I say that as a tech enthusiast.

      • @berkeleyblue
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        11 year ago

        And wht’s stoping you from paying the 80 bucks for a battery swap? After 5 years, that seams like a very reasonable maintenance cost to me…

    • Nathaniel Wyvern
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      71 year ago

      @Brkdncr @Roman0 Why not both?

      Easily replaceable for those who burn through capacity through heavy use. Which would also make recycling easier funny enough.

      And pushing to make recycling encouraged. These aren’t opposing ideas.

    • @werds
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      01 year ago

      I agree, I think this is a miss. This will just mean more batteries will be manufactured. Most people will replace the device before the battery performance degrades.

      Unless the battery is a universal/interchangable model this will increase waste as the manufacturer will have to make replacements available per model.

      People will also perhaps then buy replacement batteries when handing down/selling devices, where they would have just have managed with degraded performance in the past.

      Sounds good but I don’t know really.

      • TheSaneWriter
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        41 year ago

        Typically, replacement parts are only manufactured during the lifetime of the device. Because of that, I don’t think that the replacement batteries would contribute significantly to waste.

        People will also perhaps then buy replacement batteries when handing down/selling devices, where they would have just have managed with degraded performance in the past.

        What’s the problem with this?

        • @werds
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          11 year ago

          Most of the enviromental impacts are from mining and disposal, or lack of recycling. I looked it up and there is a 90% recovery rate for the minerals in the batteries alone if done properly.

          Maybe asking manufacturers to make more batteries per model isn’t a good answer, it has an additional cost of resources per model/battery and most people do not dispose of batteries correctly anyway and just dump them in the trash. It might be better enviromentally to offer real incentives to manufacturers, retailers and people to return their phones and recycle,reproccess the existing components.

          I worked in enterprise IT support for 10 years and battery degredation/failure in laptops and mobile devices was not that much of an issue. Waste electrical and electronic equipment however, who knows how much is actually recycled properly, even most house hold batteries are thrown in the trash.