Battery Life Struggles
Were things easier with removable batteries?
We've become so reliant on technology these days haven't we? If you're like most knowledge workers or just digital citizens in general, you probably always have one eye on something very important. The battery level of your devices.
It's almost like a ticking time bomb starts counting down from the moment we disconnect our phones, laptops, and tablets from their respective charging outlets. We go to great lengths to dim our screens and minimize GPS or Bluetooth signal pings just to get a little more life out of our batteries.
Even when our battery life is good, we just know that the battery will likely be the first component of our devices to fail or at least degrade. My once mighty MacBook Pro with top-of-the-line specs has now gotten to the point where it really can't survive very long away from its precious power brick. When looking at the system details, it recommends that I get the battery serviced or replaced. It's a shame that we haven't figured out a better way to get more out of our batteries.
This had me thinking back to a simpler time. Let's just say it was sometime in the late 2000s or early 2010s. The actual date isn't all that important, but it was a time when I had a different mindset about the battery life on my phone. Yep, I still had a phone that had...removable batteries!
Yes, my original Motorola Droid phone (and most other phones at the time) had a battery that you could simply remove and replace by yourself. No need for special tools or professional assistance. Even when that phone had performance issues or the occasional screen freeze, I could just pull out the battery and give it a hard reset. It was such a satisfying feeling.
I took it a step further. I purchased several spare batteries for my phone. The batteries were thin, light, and easy to transport. I believe I purchased a four-pack of extra batteries that came with a super convenient charging plug. Whenever my battery got low, I could just hot swap in a fresh one and send the depleted battery straight to the charger. It was a pretty efficient system. And the extra batteries were small enough that I could always pop an extra one in my pocket or bag when I knew that I may need one later. I'm not sure how many other people took this approach, but it made total sense to me.
After the Droid phone, I had a Galaxy Nexus and LG G3 (both fantastic phones in the early days of Android development) and each of them also had removable batteries. Granted, battery life had started to improve with each new phone so having extras on hand wasn't as necessary. But I still did have them just in case. If memory serves me, the LG G3 was the last phone I owned that had a self-removable battery.
It's been years since the day when I retired my swappable battery system. Now people have cases that act as extra battery packs. Some people just always have external battery packs to juice up their phones on the go. It seems like this is still an issue for many people. Personally, I've been pretty happy with my battery life on the past few Pixel phones I've owned, but I'd still happily be able to swap out for a fresh one when needed.
Sure, our phones got thinner, lighter, and more dust and water-resistant. But are all those things better than having the ability to quickly go from 0-100% battery in a matter of seconds? No fast charger in the world has been able to achieve that almost instant satisfaction of no power to full power in the blink of an eye.
Our technology has improved so much over the last decade but I'm honestly surprised that batteries haven't taken a more major step forward. Aside from flying cars, I think that instant, wireless, charging of all electronic devices may be the next most fantasized futuristic scenario. How much longer will it take for us to get there?
How are you all feeling about the battery life on your current devices? Am I the only one who looks back fondly on the days of swappable phone batteries?
Thanks for reading, I’ll see you next week!
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