all 5 comments

[–]jamesK_3rd 3 insightful - 2 fun3 insightful - 1 fun4 insightful - 2 fun -  (4 children)

Yes.

But the issue is should government's mandate what companies have to produce. In the EU and other countries they can and do, because they generally view their constituents as too stupid to be able to make choices for themselves.

If enough people in the U.S. cared more about removable battery and removable storage rather than say being water resistant up to 2 meters for up to 10 minutes or some stylish feature such as curved screen.

I kept a LG V20 an insufferable amount of time because i wanted the user replaceable battery. But looking at what most people choose, they'd rather have other options and use replaceable battery isn't a must have.

If enough ppl wanted a user replaceable battery, more ppl would choose phones with that feature, and companies would produce more phones with that option, but it doesn't happen because that's not what ppl generally care about.

In the EU, the govt will generally place artificial limits on companies and stifle innovation because the user base isn't as intelligent and they're actually physically incapable to understand what they should chose.

What the EU is gonna do is make apple either produce a cheap version with a removable battery for Africa and the EU, or they're going to make a really interesting and expensive iPhone black market.

[–]Handroid7[S] 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

Actually, water resistance and replaceable batteries in combination are possible.

It just needs a thicker rubber isolation and maybe a back cover held tight by screws (good enough for me). Tadaa!

Also, one could design it in a way that the removable back cover doesn't cover the entire back side of the phone, but just the battery and maybe the accessory pins that some older Samsung phones (e.g. S4, Note 3, S5, Note 4) used for wireless charging and S View cover (S4 used hall sensor for that) accessories.

[–]Handroid7[S] 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Side note: The Galaxy S5, S4 Active and the Sony Xperia V are IP67 water resistant with ordinarily removable back covers.

I reckon that non-replaceable batteries allow for tighter water resistance. But that can be compensated with, like I said, thicker/multi-layer rubber isolation.

Maybe it would require the phone to be just a few millimetres thicker. But I couldn't care less. I care about actual functionality and practicality.

[–]zyxzevn 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

In the EU we have consumer organisations to deal with problems. They also help us to push for better legislation.
In that sense the government is a service to the people/voters instead of a sell-out to the companies... some of the time.

[–]jamesK_3rd 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

I believe it becomes a problem when govt or govt entities move from: "this product doesn't operate as intended" or "this isn't safe" to: "we think these designs are better for these X people. You should make this product, now..."

Unfortunately, everyone has a price.