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Comment by domador | Hacker News Reader

This sounds in part like a classic case of wealthy, indifferent elected politicians being out of touch with the "riff-raff" they purportedly represent and act in the best interests off. (This "riff-raff" would include people who want to repair phones due to cost-effectiveness, responsibility with natural resources, and/or a desire to tinker. Also, because they have less throwaway money than these entitled, bought-by-corporate-lobbyists politicians.)

On a related note... come on, phone manufacturers! That's enough with sealed phones and a lack of microSD card slots for added storage.

Also, come on, app programmers! Let users store data in a microSD card, instead of in limited, expensive built-in storage! If you can't find the data when the card is removed, just deal with it! (I'm looking at you WhatsApp, given your insistence on storing photos and videos on internal memory.)

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> That's enough with sealed phones...

People want IP ratings. What same people don't understand is that most phone makers tell you it is not permanent. And same people also don't understand that IP ratings are not ratings of waterproof-ness (which, by definition, would not need a rating).

With wireless charging we are nearing the possibility of a waterproof, sealed phone. Not sure how you'd turn it on. Glass front and back bonded together could get there. Touch screen. Camera inside the glass?

> Not sure how you'd turn it on

I'm not sure that it needs to fully turn off, many of our electronics don't have that ability. As long as it has power it could run in a super-low-energy mode that just keeps a capacitive sensor going.

I'm reminded of the episode of Max Headroom, where the boss was poking around in someone's apartment and noticed something on the TV: "An off switch? She could get 20 years for that!"

I don't see why being water resistant needs to be mutually exclusive with replaceable batteries and sd cards. My S5 has survived being dropped in water, and it has both a replaceable battery and sd card. Maybe other phones can go deeper and longer, but I'm not scuba diving with the damn thing. When I drop it in water, I fish it out right away...

My S7 was fantastic at resisting water until the glass earned some cracks.

> I don't see why being water resistant needs to be mutually exclusive with replaceable batteries and sd cards.

They aren't mutually exclusive at all. You can even have a real headphone jack and maintain a high degree of waterproofing.

I think eliminating the ability for people to replace batteries and use SD cards has more to do with saving manufacturing costs and encouraging people to replace their phones more frequently.

To add to the absurdity of this justification: What income bracket do you need to be in where a $400 device is disposable and you're OK with that?

Over $200,000 a year and single.

MicroSD needs to improve as a format with write durability and speed before it can be the main store of a device. Hopefully SDUC with better durability will be that format.

This is overblown. A completely sealed device has its advantages.

If you want to tinker, buy a second phone and cut it up.

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