Monday, February 24, 2014
Hi there, this is my first post writing for Droid Agency(DA). A short introduction of myself. I am Daniel Quah,currently 17 this year. I love tech and of course I am a tech geek. Although I am new to this tech scene , like everyone else I am still learning about wonderful tech daily. Alright enough about me, time to go back to topic.
DA's recent poll regarding "bigger but not removable battery vs small but removable battery" is quite an eyeopener . This issue has always been bought up together with the removal of SD cards by most Original Eqipment Manufacturers(OEMs). But let us leave that topic with another post shall we?
These days, consumers wants a choice. A choice of removable battery or not.To some it is a deal breaker.
With today's advancement of technology, one can only wonder why doesn't our battery life last us all day when our dumb phones only needed to recharge every few days or so? These days with more and more power hungry apps, processors and the introduction of higher resolution displays, do our OEMs ever care about all day battery life anymore? Have you ever felt the need to carry around a power bank or spare batteries or even a charger? Have you always find yourself checking for wakelocks using Better Battery Stats(BBS) or checking battery stats under battery usage? Fear not, you aren't the only one.
One of the most important facets of the user experience is battery life.
The ability to remove batteries from our phones had dated way back earlier than the indestructible Nokia 3310.
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| Remember this? |
With the flexibility of being able to switch batteries easily, consumers are leaning towards aftermarket batteries. This is due to the fact that aftermarket batteries have either bigger capacity or they act as a backup or a replacement for their aging battery. We also have to take note that our smartphones are meant to be portable. We should not be always be by the side of a wall socket all because our battery died out on us.Sure you may argue that power banks are the solutions but, would you want to carry something big and clunky in your hands or pockets just because you needed to charge your phone?
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| Imagine holding your phone while charging like that.
Sure you may again argue that we can buy a smaller power bank.But what is the point if it can only hold one charge cycle? Remember, we have more and more power hungry apps, processors and higher resolution displays. Sure you may argue that battery capacity has increased over the years therefore holding a charge in the power bank is just enough for you to get back home to feed your ever hungry battery. We do have to remember that road warriors and back packers may not have a luxury of having a wall socket nearby. Sure you may also argue that there is also a limited amount of spare batteries who have on hand, but it brings back us to the initial issue, would you like to hold a big bulky battery pack to charge your phone or would you rather switch out your dead battery and replace it?
But alas, there are reasons why most major OEMs solder the battery to the phone. If anyone recalled, Samsung has a number of cases where the battery. Here is an example. Why did this occur? Has anyone thought of it? Was the reason due to the poor manufacturing process by Samsung or was it due to General User Incompetence(GUI). I strongly believe that the latter is actually the reason. I do have to clarify that I am writing in an objective manner and I am not a Samshill. Let us look at why do we blame it. With the rise of cheaper aftermarket batteries, consumers will eventually buy them in bulk. Do consumers know that what you pay is what you get? Cheap batteries have bad after market support, the manufacturer do not give any hoot about you anymore after you receive your product. Be it a manufacturing defect or bloated battery. Consumer protection law have little power to stop them as consumers bought these batteries off the internet and it takes resources to trace down the seller. When traced, the seller could be of another nationality which the law couldn't bring the seller to jurisdiction. With these cheap batteries of questionable quality, consumers NEVER fail to overcharge the battery resulting in bloated batteries. With a cheap aftermarket bloated battery, the likely hood of batteries exploding is significantly higher. This is the reason why Apple and Google soldered their batteries to the iPhone an Nexus respectively. This is to prevent user from replacing it with a cheap ripoff, thus reducing the likely hood of the battery from exploding. To sum it up, I am supportive of removable batteries. The fact that I am able to control the hardware that I paid for is enough to convince me that removable batteries are the best, that is IF you do source from reputable sources. We should be given a choice but, not all users are actually aware of what type of batteries they are using this days. Putting a poor quality battery on the device that you use everyday is running a huge risk of exploding. |
