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Comment by moonbug | Hacker News Reader

Battery hipsterism. Oh HN, you keep giving.

It was a valid point. There's a significant performance/weight reason most of the devices with non-removable batteries and built-in charging are using Li-ion instead of NiMH.

Getting a bunch of consumers used to buying spare Li-ion cells and using external chargers might be a non-starter, but it's possible to have both onboard charging and removable cells so the upgrade path is there for those who want it.

I've had a series of Canon powershot cameras that have all used more-or-less the same Li-ion cell design[1] and I've been able to swap batteries with them. They're big enough that third parties have even offered replacement batteries.

There is probably room for standardization of a compact, rectangular, rechargeable battery of roughly those dimensions. Is someone pushing for it?

[1] https://www.apotelyt.com/camera-power/canon-g7-x-mark-iii-ba...

I don't think anyone is pushing for that, though sometimes a company will design a device around another company's battery design. There's quite a bit of small photo/video lighting that uses Sony NP series camera batteries. Those are just a pair of 18650s in series inside a plastic box.

It seems to me the size of the G7X could have been designed around a 14500 cell instead.

Thank goodness I haven't heard a hipster sing the praises of carbon-zinc "heavy duty" batteries from Harbor Freight and dollar stores... yet.

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