Batteries

The Fairphone 4 and Hiking

Yesterday I spent three hours on a train and hiked for a few hours. I also spent two hours in a museum. During this time I was using the fairphone 4 to listen to an audiobook and streamed media. At the end of the day I think I was at about sixty to seventy percent battery life. The battery has only had three or four cycles so far so you would expect it to last.

Replaceable Batteries and Wearable Tech

With a user like me it takes a year or two for a mobile phone to become depleted. After this period of time I am stuck with the weight of an external battery that I have to plug in half way through the day to recharge the device. This is, in part, due to how many apps are installed and running, on my phone, but also due to how I use my phone for audio books, and news reading.

Removable Batteries are coming back

By a large majority the European Union has voted to bring back user replaceable batteries to mobile phones. This is fantastic for one reason, over all others. I keep my phones for years, not seasons. Over that time the battery health degrades. As it degrades the battery life goes from lasting an entire day, to lasting a shorter and shorter amount of time. The issue at the moment is that if we want to replace a battery we need to take it to a phone repair shop, because a battery replacement requires the phone to be unglued, elements to be disconnected, the battery to be swapped, and then for the phone to be put back together.