Like the headphone jack, removable batteries are mostly a thing of the past. That’s unfortunate, because it seems like most Android Authority readers love removable batteries according to last week’s Poll of the Week.
Do you care about removable batteries?
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Results
Out of over 1,300 total votes, 45.3% of Android Authority readers said they think removable batteries should be in every single smartphone. 32.1% said they’d like to see removable batteries in every phone, but they don’t care either way. Just 22.6% said they don’t care at all about removable batteries.
I’m pretty surprised at these results — I would’ve thought more people would be all-in on removable batteries, though I understand the benefits of non-removable batteries. It’s harder for companies to waterproof phones if the back can come off, for instance.
Noteworthy comments
Here are some of the best comments from last week’s poll explaining why they voted the way that they did:
- Glued batteries are true bane of human technology race. I’m currently using a phone that, while having non-removable battery, at least possesses easily removable plastic rear cover with half a dozen standard screws on a battery cover under it.
- I very much prefer the bigger batteries the phones come with more as well as the water resistance. I don’t care about removable batteries, even when it was still possible I never bought multiple batteries to swap. So the only advantage of a removable battery for me is the ease of changing it myself. That advantage is not worth loving easily water damageable phone with tiny battery.
- For all the responses about not being needed anymore, I wonder how many carry a charger or battery pack. It’s so nice to swap a battery and go from 0 to 100% in a minute. All the new phones advertise their “fast charging”. We’ve gone backwards in fast charging. I went from Samsung to LG when the S6 came out without a removable battery. Now have a V20 that’s getting a little long in the tooth. I’m not ready to give up.
- Having options are nice. For the price manufactures charge for flagship phones removable batteries should be a standard feature as well as SD card slots, three years of OS upgrades, . . . . etc. As I said having options are nice.
- The trade-offs that go with it just aren’t worth it anymore.
- The part that degrades/fails first on most phones is the battery. Being able to change that easily, can extend the life of your phone – My Xiaomi MI8 has served me very well since June 2018, pretty much the only reason I have for looking at a replacement for it, is that the battery is not performing like new anymore. Also, keeping a spare battery charged to 70%ish in your wallet/purse and being able to just swap it over in seconds is pretty useful and less cumbersome than having to plug it in to a powerbank/wall charger.
- a removable battery is a must have imo if you keep your phone long enough- once the battery eventually degrades just swap in another one; one of the main reasons I still have my LG v20
That’s it for this week. As always, thanks for voting, thanks for the comments, and don’t forget to let us know what you thought of the results below!