Image: Campbell SimpsonIf you want to buy a new phone in 2016, then apart from the price and the size of the screen, a phone's battery — how long it lasts, how big it is, and whether you can swap it out — is probably going to be one of your chief concerns. Some phones have removable batteries, and some don't. Here's the difference, why it matters, and whether it's worth putting a replaceable battery at the top of your wishlist.
The Upside: Easy Replacement, Quick Restarts, And Handy Backup Batteries
When you buy a phone with a removable battery, it'll either be accessible through a removable rear cover, or through some other ingenious mechanism like the LG G5's removable lower bezel, which can be swapped out for different modules. That battery will almost certainly be unique to whichever phone model it lives in — so you can't use a Samsung Galaxy S4 battery in a Samsung Galaxy S5, and so on.
I've been using a spare second battery for my LG G5 for a couple of weeks, and having the battery itself handy means that I've changed the way that I use my phone. I don't feel the obligation to plug it in when I get into my car to commute, when I get into the office, and throughout my workday or weekend — because I have another fully charged battery handy that I can just swap to if I need to.
Along the same lines, the G5's spare battery comes in its own charging case, using the same USB Type-C connector, which means you can charge it on your phone's charger whenever you've got the phone itself fully charged and operational. That charging case also lets you use the battery as a USB power bank to charge any other device — including your phone, though I'm not sure why you'd want to.
And finally, one small extra advantage of having a removable battery is that, if and when you need to, it's really easy to power down your phone immediately. If your phone starts playing music at full blast and you can't figure out why because there are no apps running — and it's happened to me more than a few times before, both on the G5 and on other phones as well — you can just pop the battery out and back in to quickly and easily restart the phone completely.
The Downside: Smaller Batteries Overall, No Water Resistance, A Thicker Chassis
Of course, having an easily removable battery inside a phone does come with its own set of downsides. The biggest one for most users — especially since, during everyday use, you're unlikely to actually have to remove and replace the battery in the first place — is that having a removable battery means that the battery itself has to be smaller. The LG G5's 2800mAh battery is relatively small for a 5.5-inch, 7.7mm-thick phone, when you consider the Samsung Galaxy S7 edge's 3600mAh cell is almost 30 per cent larger overall.
Removable batteries — in most cases — also remove the potential for waterproofing whichever phone they're used in. With exceptions like the Samsung Galaxy S5 proving the rule, almost all phones out there with removable batteries are not as precisely built as their sealed competitors, and that means they're more likely to die from water ingress during heavy rain or an accidental drop into a puddle or toilet bowl or pint of beer. Whether waterproofing is an important feature is up to your intended use, but it's worth considering which is more important.
Phones with integrated batteries also have generally slimmer bodies, because they're able to seal everything together with adhesive and maximise every millilitre of internal capacity — including with curved and stepped battery technology. As a general rule, removable batteries are much simpler and more traditionally designed, and that means they don't have the same no-holds-barred approach to battery capacity, trading it off for modularity. A removable battery, then, means your phone will be a little bit thicker — not hugely important when even thicker phones are still extremely thin these days, but if you're chasing the thinnest phone possible then you're going to struggle to find a removable battery inside.
As a general rule, we like a removable battery in a phone when we're travelling a lot. It's much easier to swap to a fully-charged backup battery than it is to wait for even the fastest-charging handset to fill itself back up, and having that second battery be its own USB power bank is incredibly convenient for any other gadget you're carrying. For day-to-day use, it's more often than not that we're travelling between chargers in the first place, so a non-removable battery's advantages — a slimmer design and waterproofing — are more useful in the long run.
Comments
i was super pissed and super sad when Samsung said they were sealing their batteries.
having said that, my note edge was so trashed by 1.5 years old that it wasnt worth investing in the old phone anymore and now i have a note 7 which is amazing. only time will tell how the battery behaves in this phone, i shudder to think how much it will cost to replace if it does die.
Couldn't you just get one of those phone places to chuck a new battery in for you? There are heaps of repair places around, one is bound to offer you a decent deal if you supply the battery.
batteries i have no issues with replacing, but i dropped my note edge after 3 days of having it and didnt get its cracked screen repaired, it just got worse and worse with more cracks. and dents. and coz of its odd shape, i couldnt get any decent slim cases for it. it was still fully functional, but not worth investing in fixing it.
I loved it when HTC did this. When Samsung did it to the Note 5, I purchased it.
The HTC One X is still going today.
I feel the same way about SD slots too.
When the battery starts to go, you're likely to be looking for an upgrade.
I got three years out if my last phone and by that point, the battery was holding half the charge.
Last edited 23/08/16 7:44 amYea, I guess time did tell. Sorry to tell you your phone has been identified as a fire hazard. Do not use your Note 7 anymore. Samsung has issued a recall.
i feel like there is a certain pokemon meme that fits well here...
I'm still using the Note 3. Whenever I get a new phone I grab an extended battery for it - currently have an 8500 mAh MLP battery but I've also had the 10000 mAh Zerolemon battery too. The thickness of the phone doesn't bother me. I prefer to have a phone that goes all day without having to remove the battery or charge it. Function over form.
Suffice to say, I probably won't be investing in Samsung phones in the future, not until the battery tech catches up properly.
You mention using the spare battery as a power bank. You'd be much better off just using a proper power bank. Especially since you can get quite large (capacity not size) ones. Get yourself 2 or 3 recharges not just one.
I'd much rather just plug the phone in than swap the battery. If you're sitting somewhere it's certainly not inconvenient to have the phone plugged in, even if you're talking on it or using it for apps. About the only time it might be inconvenient is if you're moving (walking/jogging) and you can't put both phone and bank in a purse/briefcase/backpack.
You also missed a downside with removable batteries - you have to turn the phone off in the first place. So you have downtime where the phone is off while you fiddle about switching the batteries. Much easier to plug it in and keep it on the whole time.
I do agree about the ability to do an emergency shutdown by pulling the battery though. It's a bit frustrating when a phone goes weird and you can't do anything to stop it. Might be time they added a kill button that's a physical power off rather than the software controlled power off that most phoines seem to rely on (though people would inevitably complain because they hit it and the phone shut down straight away).
Absolutely. I play Ingress and have 2 x 2200mah and a 10000mah power banks. No need to hold the power bank in your hand, just get a 1m charge cable and put it in your pocket or bag. No problems at all.
One way to stop them tracking your phone is to take the battery out (or to put it in a faraday cage) - even with the phone off it is still trackable (unless the battery is dead).
Do sealed units have better heat dispersal? On a similar line; how do phone covers affect battery consumption and overheating?
Just replaced the dying battery on my Note 4 which wasn't quite making it through the day after just under two years. $20 battery saved me a new phone with practically zero down time and now I have a hot swap if I ever need one.
Last edited 22/08/16 3:17 pmits only convenient if your spare battery has a charging case. or else you just end up carrying around a dead battery because you forgot to charge the spare.
this happen to me all the time and actually ended up being more inconvenient because I had to find a time to monitor the charge of one battery, and then switch it out to charge the other.
a spare battery is mostly an emergency thing for me.
A user replaceable battery doesn't just offer convinience but it also helps with prolifiration. You won't find sealed batteries for sale in mainstream phone shops and rarely have 3rd party support (rarely, not never).
My S5 battery is on the way out but the phone is still good so I'm happy I can quickly, cheaply and easily replace this one and be good for another 12 months +
"With exceptions like the Samsung Galaxy S5 proving the rule, almost all phones out there with removable batteries are not as precisely built as their sealed competitors"
I've heard of the expression but I'm afraid the S5 does exactly the opposite of proving the rule (infact, what rule!). Contrary to previous statements made in the article, sealing the battery in does not necessarily mean less thickness and more power. The S5 was thinner, had a bigger battery, had more screen to body ratio and was waterproof unlike the HTC One M8 that was released around the same time. Some will argue that the HTC was bigger because of the front facing speakers but I prefer more bass with traditional speaker orientation.
Let's not forget that the G5 is the first of its kind and it may not be the best way to package a smartphone and it is all due to pressure to have it be made out of "premium" materials. I'd choose (and rate) carbon fibre and kevlar way over glass and aluminium.
I have nothing against different designs but it starts to bother me when it is to the detriment of choice. LG G5 is the ONLY high end phone released this year (and possibly the only phone with UFS) that has a user replaceable battery and it is a shame that there isn't more choice.
For me, the fundamental issue with not having a removable battery is that the lifespan of a phone is now tied to the lifespan of its battery. I've always gone through two or three batteries before actually needing to replace the phone. Can't do that anymore. Now I have to spend $600 or $700 dollars every two years of so just to "replace the battery".
Join the discussion!
Comment Voting
Up Votes
Down Votes
Only logged in users may vote for comments!
Please log in or register to gain access to this feature.
Get Permalink