This was originally a discussion on the Fairphone subreddit, where users almost unanimously responded with that they were fine with if a future Fairphone did not have a toolless removable battery as long as the battery was still easily replacable with minor disassembly. One of the main reasons being that modern devices generally have plenty of battery life on a single charge.
I remember carrying an extra battery to switch out when the first one died being a somewhat standard part of using feature phones, because their battery lives were terrible and chargers in public places weren’t really a thing yet. It was so common that some feature phones used to come with two batteries in the box and you could buy standalone battery chargers. Damn, I just realized: the golden age of feature phones is now over a decade ago.
What do you think? In terms of the niche of highly repairable devices, how important is a tool-less, instantly replaceable battery to you? Compared to if you had to unscrew the back panel or the screen assembly to access the battery. Would a laptop or a tablet with a toolless battery be more important to you than a phone, since those tend to have shorter battery life and be harder to find public charging spots for?
I guess another issue is barrier to replacement? Technologically inclined people will not find taking out a couple screws or removing a non-glued display assembly very difficult at all, but for the layman, even that could be a daunting task, possibly leading to more devices being thrown out because of dead batteries instead of being repaired? Though, this also seems more a problem with how society views repairing devices than a fault of the design itself.
For me if you do not have to take off the back part of the phone with heat as we have to do almost all the current phones was enough. I don’t see any inconvenience in removing a few bolts.
Personally, as long as there’s no glue, I can figure out how to disassemble almost anything and then put it back together. I imagine most people who would buy a device designed to be user disassembled, like the Fairphone or the Framework Laptop, would also have reasonable self repair skills?
Did you seen this?
It’s a nice idea:
https://10yearphone.com/
I have, but I have my doubts.
Even assuming the best of intentions, most startups don’t last even close to ten years, not to mention they’ll have to compete with companies that have higher profit margins because they don’t care about product longevity and support.(My mistake, it’s not a startup.)It is a petitioning campaign. Not a new product. Please read beyond the headline/URL.
My mistake. However, then I have even bigger doubts that any major phone manufacturer would actually pay any mind to it, and I highly doubt that any government, at least in the West, would pass this kind of legislation.
The petition is towards the EU.
I think they have a marketing failure because it’s not a startup it’s a petition letter.
Yap i’m on bord with that.