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0 pointstyingq5y ago0 comments

"simple reparation tasks like replacing a battery is a nightmare these days"

Had a recent experience with a Motorola phone with this. And there was no obvious technical reason they couldn't have held the battery down with something other than a shite ton of glue.

0 comments

crabmusket5y ago

I'd like to quickly plug Fairphone here. They've made a phone which does everything you'd expect of a smartphone, but is also very easy to disassemble. Replacing the battery is extremely easy, same with the screen itself. The other "modules" tend to have a few different components on them, e.g. USB plug and vibration motor are on the same module AFAIR.

I've been using the Fairphone 2 for a bit over 5 years and while it's not an outstanding phone, it's lasted well enough. The challenge for me in Australia is getting spare parts, as they only ship to Europe sadly.

Psychlist5y ago

I just bought a 3+, shipped to Australia via a friend in Austria. I'm glad to hear that your 2 has lasted, albeit the phone I replaced was also about 5 years old (a Samsung, from the days when those had replaceable batteries and uSD slots. And on battery number three, although I am pretty sure battery number two was a fake because it never worked properly)

I'd love to run a more open software stack, but even just Linux on the top layer would mean not running the apps I need to get through daily life... it's why I had to retire my perfectly working Android 3 phone, so many things stopped working (the Covid tracking app FFS). But under linux are the various radio, camera, wifi etc modules and a lot of those have their own firmware. Pinephone has really struggled with that.

katbyte5y ago

glue is cheap