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I can't say I'm a fan of this ruler aspect ratio phone. If Essential wanted to exist in a crowded market, they didn't need to invent something new. Copy a recently designed phone and just add a removable battery. No one else is doing it. Instant success.

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As someone who thinks the iPhone SE is the ultimate form factor I’m sympathetic to the “build it and they’ll come” argument but I don’t believe it. The reason no one is making a phone with a removable battery is because there isn’t a large enough market for it. These companies do a lot of market research, if there was an opening in the market someone would have capitalised on it.

I'm sure they do conduct a lot of research. However, I bet that research points toward failing batteries after 1-2 years as the major driving force in phone upgrading. If an OEM makes an easily removable battery phone, they are essentially killing their chances of future sales. The Lg g5 is a good argument to this case, but I feel it was mainly DOA because LG at the time was not conducting enough testing on their phones (Bootloop problems).

You can replace a phone battery even when it’s non-removable though. Apple makes a nice little bit of extra money from it in fact.

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