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No idea what that is but with the Galaxy, you snap off the back cover, pull the battery, and snap the cover back on. Took 15-20 seconds if I took my time.... And no, the back cover worked just fine after doing that dozens and dozens of times (no cracks, broken hooks or tabs, etc).
Mine looked something like this, with half of the bottom chassis being a battery pack.

2_2_30.png
 
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I don't demand anything from a manufacturer
I find a product that meets my needs and buy it instead of buying something that doesn't and complaining about it after the purchase

Do you think customers shouldn’t ask for product improvements?
 
If the OP had just pulled out his thesaurus and come up with a gentler synonym for DEMAND I think this may have been a very different discussion. Words are powerful things and can mean different things to different people. Many great points were brought up in this thread but some people, myself included, just couldn't get over that word DEMAND. Too bad.
 
Wonder if Apple realises there are many users outside of the US who are affected. The battery replacement price is still £79 here!
 
I don't want replaceable batteries. It is fine as is - replaceable (which wouldn't be a return to) would cause other issues like water proofing, damage caused by incorrect battery replacement - etc.
NO NO NO
 
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I do not want a replaceable battery and the iPhone does not need one. The OP and all of the other battery-obsessed whiners really need to get a hobby...
 
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Because I like water resistance and a reasonable life-span on a piece of tech that is bound to eventually be replaced by something better.....more than an old phone that never dies with easy battery replacement.
 
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I own a Lumia 950. It has a user replaceable 3AH battery and the phone is no thicker or larger than any other Android or Apple phone with embedded battery. Zero noticeable trade offs.... the only thing it "isn't" is waterproof. If MS hadn't bungled the Windows platform and if it was a tad smaller, I would still be using it. Nice hardware and a great camera.

I dispute the statement that "Consumers decided long ago that they don't want replaceable batteries". More likely consumers simply didn't object when replaceable batteries vanished. Possibly because they were bedazzled by new features and at the time, carriers were subsidizing phones and no one realized what they were actually paying to get a new phone every two years so they didn't mind losing the ability to replace a failing battery.

I don't WANT a waterproof phone if it means I can't replace the battery. I have owned a cell phone since 1998 and in all those years I have NEVER needed it to be waterproof even once. But never mind.... I'm obviously the minority here. The rest of you go ahead and continue to replace your expensive phone when your inexpensive battery gets to the point where it impacts performance.

Paul

Look, the point is, companies provide products to their specifications and YOU decide if you can deal with the lack/compromise of features. You have options. Macrumors is a minuscule population compared to society at large.

The rest of us can decide if we want to send it in or bring it in to Apple when the battery starts to die, or upgrade. I personally don’t care about being able to replace a battery myself.
 
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While I loved having replaceable batteries you have to consider a couple reasons against them: 1) size due to required additional packaging/protection which either creates more bulk or reduces battery capacity, 2) shape, manufacturers have more flexibility with component layout in ever shrinking phones, and 3) now you have water resistance as a feature.

The first two points essentially are one - the size of the battery. The counter point is that while the replaceable battery might be smaller, given cheap and fast replacement over, say, two-three year period of owning the phone you might end up having on average more capable battery than the glued one.
 
Device cannot be water resistant if you have a removable back. Also the size of the device will get bigger. No thanks.
 
Phones that have user replaceable batteries imo look tacky. Just reminds me of the floppy plastic back covers you used to see on Samsung devices.

It doesn’t scream premium.

You obviously never used any of the Nokia E-series devices back in the day!
 
While I agree with your concerns, I must confess $29 for a battery, installed, isn’t that bad. I wonder if that includes preserving “waterproofeness”, though.

I think you mean water resistance, but if Apple makes the repair, they will follow their own guidelines and procedures to make sure the phone retains its water resistant rating. If a third-party manufacture were to replace a battery, Apple cannot guarantee the water resistance rating if something were to go wrong, because they did not make the repair.
 
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With all the talk about battery life, phone throttling, battery ageing, battery replacement cost....... why isn't there a massive tidal wave of us customers demanding that phone manufacturers return to producing phones with user-replaceable batteries?

Especially in usage scenarios involving a full charge every day (ie., 350 charge cycles per year), battery wear out is a given.... and long before the phone is obsolete.

Apple's offer of a $29 battery replacement is a good move (and comparable to the cost of a user-replaceable battery), but that low cost is only temporary for one year.

And finally.... if you think manufacturers made money on your phone, you would be shocked to see what they are making on a $79 battery replacement that consists of a $2 lithium cell, a small cable and connector and some shrink wrap.

Paul
I recall many third party chargers causing fires or hardware malfunction. Opening up to third party battery replacements would be a nightmare of issues. Better to lock it down and even a replaceable battery is not going to be much cheaper if at all cheaper than $29
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Do you think customers shouldn’t ask for product improvements?
I think you’re assuming a user replaceable battery is an improvement. Apple does not agree with you otherwise they would offer it.
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You obviously never used any of the Nokia E-series devices back in the day!
How did that work out for Nokia? Haven’t seen one in years.
 
Device cannot be water resistant if you have a removable back. Also the size of the device will get bigger. No thanks.

The lack of imagination in this thread is staggering. SURELY there are creative solutions to this problem. The Galaxy S5 for example (top of my head) had ip67 waterproofing (same as iPhone), a removable battery AND wireless charging. Surely if 2014 Samsung could figure it out, there MUST be some solution.

I for one would be 100% on board with a solution that perhaps made the phone a bit thicker and gave it a removeable battery. Everyone and their mother slaps enormous ugly cases on their phones... yet every phone company seems to think we all want “thinner” at all costs.
 
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If user replaceable batteries were such a desirable feature and large percentage of consumers desired it, the market would not be moving almost in unison toward sealed batter design.

One can only assume that (1) streamlined design is more important and other features play a larger role, (2) battery performance and lifespan is sufficient for vast majority ot consumers or (3) other solutions exist to alleviate aging battery concerns more economically or more easily.

I think we see a combination of all those factors playing a role.
 
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If user replaceable batteries were such a desirable feature and large percentage of consumers desired it, the market would not be moving almost in unison toward sealed batter design.
To hear the loud DEMANDING of customers, you'd think it would be a lock for any manufacturer to corner next year's smartphone market by simply offering a flagship model with a replaceable battery. Do these manufacturers not like piles of money from their phones flying off the shelves, or do they know something the DEMANDERS don't?
 
Everyone and their mother slaps enormous ugly cases on their phones... yet every phone company seems to think we all want “thinner” at all costs.

If the phone gets thicker, then the cases will be enormous-er and uglier.

Start thinner, stay thinner.
 
I don't know the answer OP. Perhaps most people don't want to have to replace the battery. MR members are a small percentage of users. We may not mine doing it. I have never had to replace a battery on an iPhone. Nor have my family members. We did on our Samsungs though. The reactions here are, unfortunately, the mindset of many MR members at the moment. Some very unhappy with Apple. And, some tired of all the battey threads. Although, yours is a different take.

Of my family's experience with iPhones, some of which are hand me downs when I bought the new phone, few batteries have been a problem.

3G (never replaced battery. Phone became obsolete too fast for it to be an issue).
4 (never replaced battery. Used for nearly 6 years).
5 (never replaced. at about 5 years the battery bulged, phone replaced by new SE).
6 (replaced battery just short of 2 years. Going dead at 14%)
5C (used 4 years. Phone started having other issues, and was out of OS support. Replaced by SE).
7+ (no problems. Still have phone as backup to my X. I decided that the phone was too big).
 
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