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Comment by sweden | Hacker News Reader

Apple could have just implemented replaceable batteries and all this situation could have been avoided.

Edit: When I mean replaceable, I mean replaceable batteries without the user having to go an Apple store. Like in the old days, taking the cover off and putting the new battery back in.

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Apple batteries are replaceable. $79 and an hour at the Apple store will do the job. If you want to save money you can get it done at a third-party shop for less than $50.

Where Apple made a mistake was in not communicating to its users that this is something they need to do on an annual basis, so people could budget it in to their cost.

The hour at the Apple Store is the deal breaker. My time is too valuable for that.

Then you can afford iPhone upgrade annually.

You don't have to spend the hour at the Apple Store.

You drop the phone off, leave, and come back at literally any time more than 1 hour later. Go to your important meeting. Do some shopping. Have that doctor's appointment you've been putting off. Have a nice long lunch. Whatever. You don't actually lose that hour.

I mean, obviously.

I love Apple products. Every major computing device I use is made by them. I am lucky to be closer than the vast majority of people to an Apple store and even for me this is a huge pain in the ass. I think it is incredibly unreasonable to just hand wave this away like its no big deal. It absolutely is and to pretend otherwise is naive at best.

A swappable battery requires physical containment on both the battery and the socket that adds weight and eats up volume that could otherwise be used for more battery.

I am sure the Apple geniuses could have invented a clip-on battery that takes almost no extra space at all. I bet they wanted to make these phones obsolete after 2 years to force us to buy more.

If you're so sure this is possible, design a better phone and get rich.

Then it must be better for Apple to cripple old phones. /s

They are replaceable... for $79. Which is probably close to what they would have charged for additional batteries if they had gone with a hot swap design.

Actually, I bet they’d sell a $79 normal and $129 extended ‘pro’ version.

Average Joe wouldn't know it was a battery issue making their phone shutdown. Oh, and batteries ARE replaceable.

Easily replaceable. Like it was before smartphones. Your device has either a shit design or or are deliberately trying to rip people off if you need to go to a specialist to replace a damn battery.

Also my laptop from 6 years ago can show the battery health in percent, such technology is not magic.

There have been plenty of smartphones with replaceable batteries. It's just in the last couple of years that everyone has given up on them. I'm still using a Galaxy Note 4 with a replaceable battery. I haven't replaced it yet, but just a few weeks ago I had to pull the battery to get the phone out of a reboot loop. (That was the first time I had seen that with this phone.) If I hadn't been able to remove the battery, I would have have had to wait for the phone to drain it completely and shut off.

I prefer built-in (integrated) batteries.

If they sold a version that had replacable battery and the current one I'm not even sure I'd get the replacable one if it was worse sealed. I replace for $39 after warranty is expired which is pretty much nothing.

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