I went through my late teens as the initial smart phone boom was happening. I had a Motorola q that could get TV channels and had a keyboard. I had the enV that flipped open. And many androids/blackberries that I loved for their unique form factor and functionality.
I have never balked at spending money on a phone and for a long time i felt locked into generic flagship devices. With the debut of folding screens I feel like my appetite for unique devices rekindled. I think the power of android lies in its diversity of implementation.
So what features and functionalities would you choose over the next flagship release?
I really hate that it is becoming mandatory. I would have preferred the option to either have a reasonably priced service to replace the battery or have it user replaceable. Forcing one solution just seems not very consumer friendly.
I don’t like the compromises they have to make to make them easily replaceable and I never had a battery fail on me.
Well, what we’ve seen this far is not making it mandatory just means that the battery will not be user-replaceable on 99% of devices, because that’s the most profitable way of doing it even if it results in a lot of extra waste
Would that be so bad if there was a cheap way to get it replaced? I mean you are going to do it every few years at worst, just make it so the manufacturer has to offer that option at a decent price or open it up to your local repair shop (or make it replaceable).
Yeah, the cheap way for it too be replaced is for me to buy a new battery, pop off the back, and change it. Even a screw-on back would be fine if people were concerned about the cover popping open etc, and they’ve already done devices with removable batteries that were IP67 rated (not waterproof, but also not going to get wrecked with brief exposure).
There’s no reason this needs to be a difficult thing, and I don’t really see any benefit to not doing so other than planned obselescence
I guess we’ll just have to disagree on that. I just don’t see a huge benefit in it and there are downsides (needed space, thus something else has to give) which I value higher.
Space? There’s really not any reason a removable battery needs to take up more space than otherwise if the phone is designed well.
It doesn’t need to be pop-in/out just replaceable without being glued in place and not underneath a glued chassis.
I’m not an expert, but the batteries in my older phones that were replaceable all had some plastic case and a bulkier connector than just the foil of the glued in types these days. And screws and reusable non glued gaskets also take some space. I guess we’ll see how big the difference actually is, but I can’t see how there won’t be any at all.