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iPhone Battery Replacement An Unwelcome Surprise
epidemic99 writes "Apple has released what it will cost to replace the battery in the iPhone, and consumers might be a bit put off. Replacement is a tricky ordeal, as the battery is apparently soldered into the device. The service will cost $79, plus $6.95 for shipping, plus an optional $29 'loaner iPhone' rental. A consumer advocacy group sent a letter to Apple complaining that this information was not made public before iPhone's release since the cost of the battery replacement is so high. Even reviewer Harvey Rosenfield, who is usually very kind to Apple, was quoted as saying 'some of them might be waking up now, wondering who they got in bed with.'" Update: 07/06 21:06 GMT by Z : Fixed incorrect attribution of quote to Mossberg.
"Some of them might be waking up now," Rosenfield said, "wondering who they got in bed with." I guess this is a new spelling of the name Mossberg that I was previously unfamiliar with.
I can throw as many stones as I wish; my house is made of transparent aluminum.
"Some of them might be waking up now," Rosenfield said, "wondering who they got in bed with."
So no, Mossberg did not actually say that. Are even the submitters not reading the articles these days?
I've known that it had a "non-replaceable" battery for months now. It was mentioned in just about every analysis article on the iPhone since it was announced. This program is pretty similar to replacing an iPod battery. So, how is this Apple pulling one over on the consumers.
This reminds me of the Hummer owners who get all pissy about the low gas mileage.
Angleyne: You can't bend that girder - it's unbendable! Bender: Well I don't know anything about lifting, so that ju
The more general iPhone FAQ.
Thank you! I'll be karma whoring here all week!
Crow T. Trollbot
They did not make it easy to change the SIM card or the battery in this device.
Funny, I see the SIM card slot right on top of the iPhone, with a little hole that, presumably, I can push something pointy into and get the card to pop out. Looking at the dissection link you posted, I can see how that's not obvious, but seeing an iPhone in person it's pretty clear what the deal is.If you're going to criticize flaws, it helps your point of view if you stick to actual ones. I'm not stressing the battery life, I can tolerate sending it in to Apple or whomever for a day or three to get a new one in a few years, if I've not moved on to a newer phone by then.
Kinda like making an analogy about a sports car, and then spelling the car's name wrong? P-o-r-S-c-h-e.
People still think of it as a phone. People are shocked at $40 phone battery prices. Why are you shocked that people are shocked? People think of batteries as easily replaced like the rest of their batteries. Would you be shocked if you bought a TV remote and the battery was $40?
The fact that it's soldered into the device and that it's so expensive isn't surprising to you or me because we visit Slashdot and other sites that reported the iPod battery fiasco. We knew this was coming. Millions of phone buyers did not see this coming.
Maybe, just maybe they should have made it replaceable like on any other fucking mobile phone.
I'm glad the EU outlawed non-replaceable batteries in devices to reduce e-waste.
This is just another way for apple to make a few bucks, nothing more.
Dont tell me apple did this for some technical reason, because frankly there is none, all the other phones can do it.
Of course, you could have an HTC Wizard (T-Mobile MDA) that has all of the functions the iPhone does plus soon-to-come (sometime this summer) free calls over WIFI hotspots (and a free WIFI router for your home for signing up) for the same $500, and the replacement batteries aren't soldered in and are only $50.
SJW: a person who perceives an injustice, and while correcting it, commits a greater injustice.
I hate when people misuse the word "hermetically". To the point where I'm willing to take the karma hit from an offtopic moderation:
Hermetically \Her*met"ic*al*ly\, adv.
1. In an hermetical manner; chemically. --Boyle.
[1913 Webster]
2. By fusion, so as to form an air-tight closure.
[1913 Webster]
Note: A vessel or tube is hermetically sealed when it is
closed completely against the passage of air or other
fluid by fusing the extremity; -- sometimes less
properly applied to any air-tight closure.
[1913 Webster]
Yup, it's all usage cycles. I think education goes a long way.
Case in point: I have a cell phone from spring of 2001. (Yeah, I haven't upgraded yet, yadda yadda.) I use it as my primary phone - which means it's on pretty much every day, except when I'm camping or something (which isn't that often).
I'm still on the original battery. Yes, that's right - both the phone and the battery have lasted over 6 years now.
So, I don't know if I just got lucky or what, but it seems to me that my usage cycle is such that Batteries Like It.
So, if you have a battery management system that is able to emulate my usage cycle, my guess is a single battery could easily last the ninety-fifth percentile lifespan of phones (I'd say with a 6 year old cellphone, I'm probably in the 98th or higher).
"There are a dozen opinions on a matter until you know the truth. Then there is only one." - CS Lewis (paraprhase)
I got my truck a few years back, and after driving it around off road and such, its time to replace the shocks. Every car owner knows that the shocks will have to be replaced eventually, and that some people like to replace theirs before going off roading and again when done, and that driving off road over bigger bumps and hauling heavy stuff wears them out faster, but the brand I bought decided to use special nuts that hold the shocks on tighter, so now Im going to have to go to a service center authorized by the manufacturer to get them replaced at a cost of about 10% the original price of the truck! Why didnt they tell me that the shocks used special nuts before I bought it??!?!? How can they charge me so F'n much to keep using my truck that I already bought?!!? Why cant they just use normal nuts and bolts like everyone else?
BLAH!
1. Do you expect a manufacturer to sit down with you and list line by line everything they did thats "Different" from other manufacturers? Every part they soldered in instead of clipped? How the case is heat-welded instead of screwed together? How the antenna is integrated and cant be replaced and has no way to attach an external one to it without serious modifications? How the software it runs has certain lockouts in place that allow and prevent certain features as they see fit? I bet if you ask about certain qualities, like "how hard is it to change the battery" they will gladly tell you before you buy it. Its not like they are holding a gun to your head forcing you to buy their product. If you dont like the design, dont buy it! If you are concerned about battery life, ASK, and if you dont like the answer, DONT BUY IT!
2. Phone batteries, like shocks on vehicles, tend to last quite a long time these days, as technology has increased their performance to that point. I have actually had my truck for 5 years now without needing to change its shocks, and have had my current cell phone for even longer and am still on the original battery, which can still go a few days without a recharge (not quite the week and a half it did when I first got it, but still). 3. Actually, I would much rather they just soldered my phone's battery in place and have a solid case around the whole phone rather than deal with its tendency to fall off, since the release lever is in a place that your finger tends to hit when pulling the phone out of your pocket, its quite annoying and led me to actually glue over the release. The iPhone was designed with that in mind, instead of having access panels that can fall off, create seams and lines and stuff in the case, they made it sleek and seamless, and knowing the battery will last years before needing replacement, they soldered it in place. I would rather have it soldered than risk a connector coming separated inside there with no easy access to just re-connect it. To de-solder and re-solder the two tabs would take less than a minute if you have any soldering experience.
4. Shocks, like batteries, are not cheap to begin with. This goes even more so for higher-end parts, like the Li-Ion batteries in the iphone, or special heavy-duty off-road shocks on trucks. 10% of the original cost is about right for higher-end OEM shocks (hell, the shock on my mountain bike is well over 30% of the total cost of the bike, and its not the most expensive one out there), including labor and everything, and 15% sounds reasonable to me for the cost of the battery replacement on the iphone, considering they could have just said "F you all, we wont replace any batteries, so when it dies, its dead!".
5. The iPhone is a little different from everything else in the industry, and is the main reason so many people are buying it. Comparing it to a plain old cell-phone just doesnt work.
Tm
Support TBI Research: http://www.raisinhope.org
Why they didn't use edge contacts like everyone else in the industry I can't even fathom.
The reason is simple really, there isn't enough space inside that 'ultra slim' case to accommodate edge contacts that will stay in contact with the phone through all of the bumps, drops, and assorted user abuses. The only way to ensure that the battery contacts never lose contact, causing the power to cycle at seemingly random times, is to solder the battery directly to those contacts. Apple was apparently not willing to sacrifice even a couple of millimeters of extra thickness in order to accommodate a battery connector with wires. They did the same thing with their iPod nano. There appears to be an 'utlra-slim' fetish in the marketplace, but how many people would be willing to sacrifice a few millimeters of slimness for a more user-friendly battery replacement option? Probably more than just a few.
Get one of those USB battery things and charge the phone off of that. Not exactly difficult, is it? Besides, you'll have to constantly keep swapping batteries to keep that spare from dying.
But hey, I like a phone I can throw around, so I use those $10 prepaid phones and not worry about damaging it.
You are correct - see here, it's a battery and the charge controller is on the board. I use similar but smaller Panasonic cells in my hardware, so I definitely know that it's my duty to charge them properly (+3.200V over certain resistor and a diode, etc. etc.)