Future of LG and removable batteries

[Aquila]

"Future of LG and removable batteries"

I hope it'll be just the G6, and they leave the V30 alone. You do not need to seal a phone's battery to achieve IP67 or IP68 water resistance. The Samsung Galaxy S5 and Kyocera DuraForce XD are excellent example of phones that had removable batteries and IP67 & 68 certifications respectively.

I'm a zillion percent on board with this. V30 for the niche, seal it up for the mainstream G6.

 

[Infiniti14]

"Future of LG and removable batteries"

I hope it'll be just the G6, and they leave the V30 alone. You do not need to seal a phone's battery to achieve IP67 or IP68 water resistance. The Samsung Galaxy S5 and Kyocera DuraForce XD are excellent example of phones that had removable batteries and IP67 & 68 certifications respectively.

I think we might see one more V series with a removable battery, but everything is moving to sealed...there are too many advantages, and two few people who require a removable battery.

As fast charging gets better removable batteries will be less and less needed.

 

[Mooncatt]

Difference is Samsung is a market leader.

Drop the removable battery and what's keeping longtime LG fans from switching to Samsung or other OEM's?

For me, IR Blaster, screen (subjective, but still a huge reason I went with LG over most anything on the market), continuous SD card support, great sound quality, the secondary display, flat screen, best camera for my purposes.... And I think that's it? I also like going with something that isn't mainstream.

Regarding the hypothetical what if of a Note 7 removable battery, I think that would have been better. I don't think it would have resulted in a lot of extra hold outs, and it could have truly fixed the root cause. They could have made it physically smaller, and/or changed the back cover to accommodate the size properly.

Other than easier waterproofing and a physically thinner phone design (which I personally believe are pushing the limits of being too thin and thus more fragile), I haven't really heard any benefits for sealed batteries. Perhaps there's some from the company perspective, like being cheaper to produce. That may be a fair point, but now those companies risk negatively impacting consumer usability. Quick charging, wireless charging, and other convinces no longer matter if the battery itself becomes the problem and you can't replace it without spending a small fortune and possibly having to send it off (a privacy risk).

 

[CynicalLoner]

I might be in the minority but a removable battery is one of the main reasons I switched from Samsung (my favorite phones for a few years) to LG (been using for over a year now) the other was microsd card support. The lack of a removable battery in the upcoming G6 is the reason I went and got the V20 instead. My brother is the same way with removable batteries, he just recently got the G5. If it's a company that has a decent phone quality and have my main features I want, I'll go with it. That is just me using my freedom of choice. Now on the other hand of course people who prefer sealed batteries can do the same. However I don't see any real benefit to them personally. To each their own.

 

[zoggybottom]

I literally just switched last week from a Samsung Note 4 to an LG V20 because of the replaceable battery.

I like being able to immediately go from 20% to 100% when traveling and not being limited to having to find a place to charge. Plus, as others have said, being able to pull the battery if there are any major problems. Battery pull is usually an effective, quick solution.

 

[zoggybottom]

I agree... when charging is fast enough, battery range anxiety reduces enough to not be meaningful. Right now, we're not yet there.

 

[Vforce7]

I also bought the BCK-5200 (LG Battery Charging cradle) for my spare LG V20 battery. The LG G6 (which hasn't come out yet) may or may not be sealed. I would hope that LG realizes that people like us have no where else to go if they stop selling phones that support swapping batteries. So I have hope they will realize this is their niche. What is weird about the G6 is the rumor that it may also be a 5'7 inch phone like the V20. Which means the G6 will compete with the V30 esp if the G6 comes with 6GB RAM as rumored. I was hoping that the G6 would be 5'3 or 5'5 for people who have small hands or or want smaller phones than the V20. I love my V20 but it can barely fit into my pants pocket and holding it is not easy. My advice to everyone who has a V20 is to buy a third extra battery so that you have some fresh ones to swap in 2 years from now when the real V20 batteries are no longer available anywhere.

Buying it too far in advance might be detrimental to the battery's life.

 

[zoggybottom]

That's theorically true, but it misses the point that they didn't know what the problem was (that it was the battery) and they didn't know that the batteries that they tested and thought were safe for the second round had a totally different problem that had similar results. So they could have attempted that, replaced just the batteries, probably had a higher retention rate of phones in the wild and saved money up front - only to carry a boatload more risk, have disastrous results and have to recall the devices anyways. It also discounts the smaller number of people that would have participated in the recall without it being heavily pushed on them, which also increases the risk. The bottom line is that without having the knowledge we have now and having it 9 months ago, Samsung would not have been able to get away with only recalling the battery and if they did attempt to do so, it's likely they would have seen far worse results. That's not a decision they'd be able to justify (at the moment) in any way because that knowledge wouldn't have been available in a timely fashion.

That's just not right. A user replaceable battery likely would have avoided the first round of problems as they would have engineer in more space and durability. Sealed batteries allow them to push the limit on minimum gaps and phone thin-ness. You can't do that with replaceable batteries... that's a downside for maximum battery capacity and / or thin-ness. But, replaceable batteries have so many more benefits.

 

[Vforce7]

Guys..... You're wasting your time arguing with the sealed battery crowd. There is more than one reason to buy a V20.
If someone were to make a ground breaking product with a sealed battery than I might consider it. Right now phones are at a plateau and I'll take the phone with Quad DAC and removable battery and an arguably decent camera. The second screen is also a great feature. I don't need water resistance, wireless charging or magic wand but to each his own.

 

[Aquila]

Guys..... You're wasting your time arguing with the sealed battery crowd. There is more than one reason to buy a V20.
If someone were to make a ground breaking product with a sealed battery than I might consider it. Right now phones are at a plateau and I'll take the phone with Quad DAC and removable battery and an arguably decent camera. The second screen is also a great feature. I don't need water resistance, wireless charging or magic wand but to each his own.

This is the majority of people that buy v20s. ^^

 

[Aquila]

That's just not right. A user replaceable battery likely would have avoided the first round of problems as they would have engineer in more space and durability. Sealed batteries allow them to push the limit on minimum gaps and phone thin-ness. You can't do that with replaceable batteries... that's a downside for maximum battery capacity and / or thin-ness. But, replaceable batteries have so many more benefits.

If lack of space were the issue, maybe... Buy both rounds of batteries had separate fatal flaws self contained.

 

[Aquila]

The other several most recent people are the .3% we talked about

 

[flyingkytez]

As technology gets better, I could understand the manufacturer's point of view. With the new Snapdragon 835 and Quickcharge 4.0 (5 minutes of charging = 5 hours of battery life), a removable battery might not be needed. Though with the battery getting charge super fast so often, who knows how long that battery will last. Sucks that the G6 won't have either removable battery or QC 4.0.

 

[Vforce7]

This is the majority of people that buy v20s. ^^

I don't know that is fact but I imagine many do. There are a lot of people that buy phones for strange reasons. Look at the majority of Iphone and Samsung customers. My ex wife, my daughter, ex girlfriends all have IPhones.... Two of my brothers buy Samsung....all of the dance moms and kids at my daughter's dance academy mostly have IPhones. None of them can tell you anything about phones except the brand name. Their are two coworkers at my job that have the G4.... They know nothing about phones. The Lan support employees have a mix of Android personal phones because being techies they hate Iphones. Their work phones are Iphone. Only us phone snobs that hang out in forums care about this feature or that feature. Trying explaining Quad DAC s to the average person or high end headphones. They pretend to understand but they could care less.

 

[Ry]

This is the majority of people that buy v20s. ^^

lol

 

[Jeremiah Bonds]

How is this still being talked about? Haha

 

[Almeuit]

How is this still being talked about? Haha

Haha this is nothing.

 

[Nostromo79]

Unless you like going swimming with your phone, there isn't any real benefit to a sealed a battery.

17 years, dozens of devices and I've yet to lose one to drowning.

 

[Vforce7]

17 years, dozens of devices and I've yet to lose one to drowning.

I have a swim app installed

 

[tsarcams]

that's why i asked what the other benefits are...so far, all you've done is tell me why waterproofing is a weak argument for sealed batteries, which i agree with, but you haven't given any other reasons why it's not unnecessary, given the countless other manufacturers that produce phones with them. so please, present your case...

imagine a world in which the note 7 batteries could have simply been taken out and returned in exchange for a non-explosive, smaller capacity battery from Samsung. cheaper too than a global recall I'd imagine...