this post was submitted on 16 Jun 2023
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Batteries on phones are among the most abused ones. They run hot, charge fast, sit around at 100% for long periods and are constantly shaken around.
Most of them don't make it past their first owner without significant capacity loss.
The people buying phones used are the ones that have to deal with the joy of dealing with backplates that use stronger and more adhesives every year, crappy third party batteries because manufacturers sell no official replacement parts and more and more complex assemblies with more parts to break along the way.
So yes, replaceable batteries should be mandatory on ALL electronics and manufacturers should be forced to sell every single screw for their devices. It makes no sense to build one time use devices that have to be thrown out after a few years by normal people without repair experience or pay as much for a replacement as for a new phone.
None of the issues you listed are real problems. There are much bigger engineering challenges than adding a seal to a battery cover or adding NFC/wireless charging to a back cover.
Oddly enough for me, my laptop battery has aged much faster than my phone one. And they’re almost exactly the same age.
I remember the sealed battery covers. They sucked. They maybe worked for light splashes but modern phones are fully submergable. And I remember the wireless charging things behind the battery cover. Those sucked too. Plus you have all the plastic bulk to encase the batteries.
I have a lot of cheap diving equipment that goes down to 80 meters that is sealed with O-rings and cheap plastic lids. There are 0 advantages for the consumer to gluing over O-rings especially if you never intend to open it anyway and it's greased and sealed by the factory.
You really think the placement of a wireless charging coil should stop devices from being repairable by everyone?
There's nothing preventing manufacturers from selling batteries without plastic bulk. Especially if you sell them as replacement parts instead of accessories.