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Comment by Kirby64 | Hacker News Reader

A Skylake CPU is an 8 year old CPU. Why are you even comparing old desktop-class CPUs to the cost of a battery replacement on a brand new device?

I can buy an ancient server that consumes hundreds of watts for $100 too, it doesn't mean it's a good value.

I can also buy an entire iPhone SE 2020 or something, for $100 as well.

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What does age have to do with the value proposition I put forward?

Has the battery chemistry in a iPhone 15 advanced significantly in the last 8 years? I don't think so.

> I can also buy an entire iPhone SE 2020 or something, for $100 as well.

Exactly, thanks for reinforcing my point.

I honestly don't know what you're even saying. The value proposition of an 8 year old piece of hardware that doesn't even have a battery in it is essentially unrelated to the cost or value of replacing a battery in a brand new phone.

Likewise, the used cost of a device that is functional today (iPhone SE 2020 in my example) is almost unrelated to the cost of the battery replacement. I think you'd find that attempting to repair the NUC you highlighted would soon exceed the $100 if you needed to do anything more than very basic repairs.

I was trying to put your original "100$ isn't unreasonable" into context. I think making a comparison between a roll of graphite dipped in some lithium salt and an entire computer made up of billions of transistors is a reasonable one.

You didn't address my parent question either. Because you either don't know (that's fine), or don't want to address the fact that there's very little that has changed in smartphone battery (or any lithium-ion battery, for that matter) composition or manufacture in a long while.

> I think you'd find that attempting to repair the NUC you highlighted would soon exceed the $100 if you needed to do anything more than very basic repairs.

Well I thought you didn't see the point of this comparison, so I don't know why you want to open that can of worms ;) But okay! A replacement 1TB nvme SSD costs 40 bucks (that's a new, in retail box, btw). A used stick of 16GB RAM costs 30 bucks. A used i5-6500T is 30 bucks.

Since you don't like comparing apple to ora--- er, batteries to computers, how about this? An iPhone 13 Max battery harvested from a broken-screen unit can be had for 30EUR on eBay. Except Apple doesn't want you to have that option. It wants to be the only game in town, and have folks like you justifying its monopolistic and unsustainable behavior.

And what exactly is stopping you from using said harvested battery? It works. You plug it in, and it's fine. Literally the only thing you miss is the battery life indicator (which, seems reasonable, since a harvested device may have had its battery life reset or something) and the pop-up that says this battery may not be an original component if you check the Settings menu. That's it. What's the issue here?

Well see now we've well and truly wandered away from the discussion of your original comment, and veered straight into the territory of what the original article was addressing.

> That's it. What's the issue here?

I guess you didn't read the original article, but it does touch on specifically why this is problematic, and can only lead to even worse outcomes in future.

It also links to this iFixit article, which might make things clearer for you?

https://www.ifixit.com/News/69320/how-parts-pairing-kills-in...

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