this post was submitted on 16 Feb 2024
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[–] [email protected] 103 points 9 months ago (6 children)

If only batteries where still that easy to replace. I'd never buy a new phone again.

[–] [email protected] 35 points 9 months ago (4 children)

I swirched to fairphone almost exclusively because their phone has an easily swappable battery (it's very modular and easily repairable on top of that)

But if I'm not mistaken then there are new EU regulations coming that demand all batteries be replaceable, so hopefully this won't be an issue for much longer

[–] [email protected] 16 points 9 months ago (2 children)

The first thing I did with my Fairphone was to root it, and tweak the internal BMS/charge controller settings via a terminal. My ~4 year old device battery pretty much still runs like new, still get 2 days of standby.

From what I read on the FP forums though, users running stock tend to swap out their batteries every 1-2 years, like I had to on my old Galaxy S5. Most manufacturers' default battery charge profiles target the longest runtime, causing batteries to really degrade quickly.

For consumers that upgrade every 1-2y they won't notice this issue, but for those of us who want their phone to last longer than that, we notice this really quickly... in these cases having a swappable battery is a must

On the topic of modularity, I had my FP's vibration motor die on me, that was a very easy fix of literally opening up the device, swapping the module, and done. Absolutely love it!

[–] [email protected] 6 points 9 months ago (2 children)

You were able to limit the charge/discharge to stay within 20/80% or something like that? That's awesome, i should look into doing that myself

[–] [email protected] 7 points 9 months ago (2 children)

I have the Fairphone 5. Limiting the charge to 80% is actually a feature without rooting!

[–] [email protected] 8 points 9 months ago

Damn, i thought i had the fairphone 5 as well, but it was "fairphone 4 5G" πŸ˜…

Time to throw away my ~1 year old phone to buy the newer model! /s

[–] [email protected] 4 points 9 months ago

You can also disable fast charging in the same menu to prolong battery life.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 9 months ago

Yep, I stay within 30%-91% where possible, and also limit the charge current to 500mA since the device defaults to 2.7A which I think is a bit high...

As @[email protected] mentioned it's probably in the settings menu for your device if you've got a newer phone.

On the FP3, the phone's hardware supports it, but it's not implemented anywhere in the settings sadly - only way to access it is by rooting

[–] [email protected] 2 points 9 months ago (1 children)

What kind of settings do you need to use, to optimise for battery service life?

[–] [email protected] 3 points 9 months ago

On my device the charge is set to cut off at 91%, with the maximum charge current set to 500mA. If I'm in a hurry though I typically boost the max current to 1.1A, or the manufacturer's 2.7A if absolutely necessary (although I think that's a bit high personally).

To be honest a 1A max charge current would be a good balance between charge time and battery longevity IMO - the main purpose of the lower charge current is to reduce internal battery heat during charging, change the growth characteristics of lithium dendrite clumping within the battery, and reduce the chance of the battery swelling.

I also try to not discharge below 30%.

I'm not an expert on any of this at all though, I just mainly follow Battery University and some takeaways from a handful of research papers analyzing Lithium-based batteries

[–] [email protected] 13 points 9 months ago
[–] [email protected] 5 points 9 months ago

Yesss Fairphone is pretty awesome and still powerful :)

[–] [email protected] 1 points 9 months ago (1 children)

I wonder what this is gonna look like on AirPods. I think (?) this applies to them too.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Just make the stem a bit thicker so they can fit an AAA battery each

[–] [email protected] 3 points 9 months ago

Haha well the battery life would sure go up

[–] [email protected] 21 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (2 children)

IME the battery isn't the issue, especially if you get a phone with a big battery to begin with.

It's the lack of updates that's the issue which means you can no longer use certain critical apps (banking, government, etc.) on your phone.

The phone becomes obsolete before the battery ever dies.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 9 months ago (1 children)

You can always switch to some custom rom after you stop getting updates

[–] [email protected] 2 points 9 months ago (4 children)

Know any banking apps that work with a custom rom?

What about your national governments designing an identification or tax related app that works on a custom rom?

Good luck with that.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 9 months ago

Some banks have decent mobile sites. But it does suck to have to resort to that.

It won't turn out well having only a few companies acting as gatekeepers.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 9 months ago (1 children)

They don't have to. Nobody designs their apps to work with specific ROMs, they design it to work with Android. Custom ROMs are still android ROMs, they're just managed by open source communities instead of phone OEMs.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 9 months ago (2 children)

But if you have the 'wrong' version of android, the app will simply refuse to work. These kinds of apps are understandably picky because of security. And you can't expect banks/governments to make exceptions for a small minority who uses a custom version of android.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 9 months ago (1 children)

That does not depend on the version, but on google's safetynet. Apps can check with it if your phone runs an approved installation, which means not just being limited to the original ROM, but one that still contains all the garbage data mining apps that will also drain your battery and your mobile data plan, besides taking away your privacy.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

Who do you think that custom ROMs don't use the latest version of Android?

And what do you think "custom version of Android" means? Every single android phone OEM needs to make their own ROMs. Are they all running custom android? Even Google pixels?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 9 months ago

Magisk denylist has worked for me. There was one app that refused to cooperate but I got it working using Shelter

[–] [email protected] -1 points 9 months ago

Your banking apps starts to only work on latest Apple iPhone 16 Pro Max+ and only on Verizon 5G network.

OH, I'll guess I have to switch, there is no other option for me.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 9 months ago

Who cares, if I can't use those apps even if it isn't outdated but I just want to remove the ton of built-in data mining crap.

[–] Blisterexe 6 points 9 months ago (1 children)

The EU has mandated that every phone should have an easily replaceable battery by 2027

[–] [email protected] 5 points 9 months ago (1 children)
[–] Blisterexe 6 points 9 months ago

Like with the usb-c law, this will likely be worldwide

[–] [email protected] 2 points 9 months ago

It's why I haven't bought one since 2016.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 9 months ago

With many phones its still somewhat easy, but you need to take the risk of e.g. breaking the back-cover (specially when its made of acryl or glass).